Category: Exploring History

Certainly the most interesting element found in this abandoned Alberta farm yard is a building that was once a wind powered grist mill. Unique in form, with an almost European flavour, for much of its history it was actually a blacksmith and metal shop. Come with us as we explore...

Here’s a look at Spaca Moskalyk Ukrainian Catholic Church, impressive, photogenic, that when explored by the Team a few years ago had an uncertain future. Much like its fate, bleak was the day. Located along a lonely back road on the vast northern Alberta plains, the majestic building is not...

The elevator seen here really stands out as unique and was in the 1980s a highly innovative design, the future of the Alberta grain industry. The Buffalo 2000, the dawn of a bold new era, modern and efficient, a new way to do it. It was not just a means...

Rocky Mountain Raceway Park, we never really knew you. In operation for only a few short years, it was one of the last racetracks in the Calgary area. Now there are none. Built from passion by two dedicated enthusiasts, it was shuttered not really due to a lack of business,...

When one thinks of structures associated with Canadian railways, things like stations or perhaps roundhouses probably come to mind first. They both pretty iconic. There are lots of other types of buildings connected to then however. One that was once very common, yet little known or understood, was the lowly...

Pretty much all that’s left in Sharples Alberta is an old grain elevator. The location here is a wide shallow valley, scenic, sort of unprairie-like and home to a meandering creek – a nice nice setting! The building is abandoned and while rough-looking and weather worn it has a certain...

Three old grain elevators, very photogenic ones at that, can be found in small town Mossleigh Alberta. They’re located along a railway branch line that has been out of service for well over a decade, but as of spring 2015 (so just after our visit) hosts tourist trains coming in...

Today’s subject we briefly touch on a little known chapter in the province’s history, the life of Anastasia Holoboff (or Holuboff, sometimes Holobova, less common Golubova), aka Anastasia Lords. She was the one time spiritual leader of an little known Alberta based Doukhobor group and is interred near the former...

Join us for a tour of the long decommissioned Canadian Forces Station base in Alsask Saskatchewan, in operation during the dark days of the Cold War. We’ll be given extra special permission and all the time we need to explore most of the of the buildings left standing in the extensive complex, inside and out, some of them still used for various functions, others closed up and literal time capsules.

There is an old wood-cribbed grain elevator in Plenty Saskatchewan, which we’ll be looking at here. These once common buildings, which could be seen all over the prairies, are pretty few and far between today, most of them having been torn down in the last couple decades. This one is even more unique as it’s still being used.

This old “prairie sentinel” was once located along the railway line in Menaik Alberta, but for the last few decades has stood at farm not terribly far away, where for many years it was used for grain storage. Rendered obsolete by the passage of time and changes in agricultural techniques and technology, it’s no longer needed.

Located beneath a nondescript building in a small Central Alberta town are the remains of a forgotten military bunker, constructed during the paranoia charged days of the Cold War. Today, the silent halls are sealed up and known only to a select few, in stark contrast to the floors above, busy with the comings and goings of people, most unaware of what lies deep underfoot.

The subject of this article is a fine old grain elevator found on farm north of Fort MacLeod Alberta. Formerly located in the small community of Woodhouse, not terribly far away, this tall and imposing structure was moved to this current location in the 1970s. We’ve been invited by the...

This report we’ll be looking at another of Saskatchewan’s iconic bowstring arch bridges. In the 1920s and 30s around eighty of these graceful structures were built, and fair number remain today. Some are still being used for road traffic, some are pedestrian use only, and others have been abandoned like...

Here’s a rather rare sight these days, a wooden grain elevator, still in use, sitting along a prairie branch line that still sees trains. Twenty years ago this would be nothing unusual, but today, in times of grain company consolidations, mergers and closings and the wholesale abandonment of lightly used...