Category: Exploring History

The bridge is old, narrow and spans the mighty Columbia River. There’s lights at each end for one-way alternating traffic and for decades, long ago, it was the only way get to the other side. Autos or foot traffic. A long crossing of many hundred metres, it was an ambitious...

St Francis in the Woods is found out in BC’s Kootenay region and dates back well over a hundred years. Secreted away down a seldom used back road, this quaint little church seems far removed from the modern world and while no longer used in a spiritual capacity, it still...

The Marblehead Underground Quarry is an expansive, graffiti covered chamber, that up until the late 1930s produced dimensional building stones. These blocks were shipped out by rail and used in the construction of commercial and institutional structures in the region and all across the west. We’ll list a couple of...

The historic Pilot Bay Lighthouse, in the West Kootenay region of British Columbia, dates back to the early 1900s and remained in use for almost ninety years. Post retirement it’s been preserved in place on a point overlooking gorgeous Kootenay Lake and easily reached via a short hiking trail. Spectacular...

Let’s stop and pay a visit to the little community of Willingdon Alberta to see what’s going on. Such diversions are a road trip ritual and we simply pick some town along what ever route we’re on, ditch the car and get acquainted for a bit. We’ll wander the streets,...

The mission assigned us this day is to explore Trochu Alberta and we’ve got no other goal than to get to know this little prairie community. That’s all and nothing more. Our little soirée just happened to take place on what must be the coldest day of the year, so...

Welcome to this post, titled “Historic Hotels Cranbrook BC” and it’s going to be a fun one. Here’s today’s line up: The King Edward (King Eddy), Byng, Cosmopolitan (Cos, Kos or mockingly, da’Kos), The York, Sam Steele (aka The Steele or Sammy), The Cranbrook and rounding it out, The Mount...

Our subject, the Blue Bridge to Nowhere, is about a century old, but as you’ll note it’s not seen use for some time now. Many decades ago the road along here got bypassed, yet interestingly the span didn’t get removed at the time. Old records suggest it still had a...

Team BIGDoer lives to explore and this fine day we’re with friends roaming the backroads northeast of Edmonton. It’s an area known for many “onion dome” churches and these connect back to early settlers who were of varying Eastern-Orthodox faiths. On the road ahead our subject comes into view, Saint...

Today we’re in the Calgary community of Victoria Park and right beside the Stampede Grounds. Stampede? It’s a low-key, intimate event that’s been around for a few years, so maybe you haven’t heard of it. The first of our subjects is a replica of Westbourne Church that once stood a...

Bowness Shopping Centre on Bowness Road and in the neighbourhood of (guess where) Bowness, was established before the community even became part of Calgary. The city annexed the land here part way into the ’60s, but before that time it was a town on its own. The shopping centre is...

We could only manage a quick stop at the Coronation Roadmaster’s House Museum on this extended road trip, but you can count on us paying it a revisit next time we’re in the area. We’re out in the east-central reaches of Alberta and it’s a section of flat prairie extending...

Come take a look at a hair raising section of road blasted out of the rock years ago, out in the West Kootenay region of British Columbia and near the community of Slocan City. It’s a narrow winding shelf, barely wide enough for two cars to pass and right there...

Few Words: The Cutest Little Farm House (ever). It’s charming, cozy and so tiny you might think it’s a doll house. On the main floor there’s a bit of room to move, barely, but upstairs anyone over average height will have to stoop. Claustrophobic types will feel the walls closing...

There were once thousands of wood grain elevators across the Canadian plains, but the numbers have thinned considerably over the years. Almost every town in the grain belt had one, or more, and long before you arrived, you’d see them off in the distance. In this post we’ll take a...

We’re taking you back to when coal was king and use of the fuel wide spread. It heated homes and powered industry, among others. The rather insignificant building seen here is hidden away in a coulee and functioned as a mine substation. Right here and on this very spot was...

The Trout Lake BC Cemetery is well hidden by the forest and all but a few burials date back to the early days. It’s a lost corner in this former mining boom town and the most frequent visitors the local bear population. Peace and tranquility reign supreme, deep in this...

We’re spending a quiet evening with Tuxedo Park School (North Calgary) simply wandering about and snapping a few photos. The faculty was built in two stages, 1920 and then expanded upon greatly in the 1956-7 before closing some years back. With the property currently in limbo, there’s uncertainty at every...

Today we’re visiting Nativity of the Virgin Mary Romanian Orthodox Church (or simply St Mary’s), built in the 1910s and last used many years ago. The Parish kept it intact even after the last services were held, but since our visit a couple years back, we’re told its been emptied...

It’s the last one in Willingdon Alberta and one of the very last wood grain elevators built in the entire province. While adapted for the era, it’s not all that different in form and construction from prairie sentinels dating back to the early 1900s. It’s old school tech and came...

Two Churches Trochu Alberta: a look at historic St Anne of the Prairies Catholic and St John’s Lutheran, the latter doubling as a home, in this charming little community. We are no strangers to challenging conditions and this outing was on one most frigid days in all of early 2022....

This shuttered business in Castor Alberta has had many names over the years – Jessie’s Cafe – Royal Cafe – Golden Crown – but later tenants never bothered to change the old sign. It goes back something close to seventy five years (give or take) and maybe kept out of...

The building seen here was constructed in 1913-1914, as the most expensive and elaborate sandstone school in the city. Calgary at the time and today remains home to many of these iconic structures. In addition, Balmoral School ended up being the final example built and with this a chapter dating...

In today’s posting we’ll be looking at Sacred Heart Catholic Church and Cemetery out in central Alberta. Both date back to the 1890s, although the church building itself is not original to this property and moved here from elsewhere about fifty years ago. The cemetery still sees use, although most...

We’re in Calgary’s Ogden community and looking at the Hong Lee Laundry building. Dating back to the 1910s, it’s under threat from construction of the Green Line Light Rail Transit extension and unless things change, might have little time left. The Ogden Block, as it’s also known, functioned as rental...

Today we’re visiting an abandoned coal mine in the Alberta Badlands of the Red Deer River Valley. It’s a region once home to over hundred such operations and mostly what’s left today are hidden remains like you’ll see here. Many of these mines were substantial in size, this one included,...

Today we look at some remains next to an abandoned railway line and a grain elevator that once stood near this same spot, but long ago moved to a farm down the road. Up next, it’s Prairie Sentinels, Bulwark Alberta edition and let’s see what tidbits of info we can...