Category: Exploring History

There’s something magic about wandering a small town come evening and on road trips we do it every chance we get. Late in the day, the community’s charm and character is at its best and it’s a peaceful way to wind down. We lead such busy lives – go-go-go –...

Until recently we didn’t pay much attention to old water towers. Sure, there’s lots out there and we’ve even casually photographed a few, but always preoccupied with other things seemed to look right past the majority. Then it happened, a click moment (thanks Johnnie) and now they’re another obsession here...

The inner-city community of (East) Victoria Park in Calgary, just north of the Stampede Grounds, has literally been wiped off the map. Once a working-class neighbourhood, and within sight of downtown, now there’s empty parking lots with nothing going on. Well, that’s unless there’s an event at the Dome or...

It’s only taken us about two years to post this. Say it with me…dear Lord, they’re slow! Sometimes there’s so much on the go at BIGDoer.com that a huge backlog builds and so this glacial pace is not all that odd. A week or two before shooting this piece, way...

School is most definitely out! Here’s a look at Viscount Bennett High (later Viscount Bennett Centre) in Calgary’s Southwest and it’s been closed for many years now. There, right beside a quiet little lane called Crowchild Trail (maybe you’ve heard of it?) and last an adult learning centre, it’s currently...

Presenting a little out of the way strip mall dating back over sixty years and a place of your author’s youth. Some friends lived nearby, classmates from Scott and/or Manning schools and what’s seen here once frequented by our teen slacker collective. Here’s a place little changed over time and...

Fortune seekers have been searching out the legendary Lost Lemon Mine for ages. Driven on by dreams of untold riches and fame, it’s said a curse will befall those who make the discovery. Many have tried, none have succeeded (that we know of*) and a few were never heard from...

Back when these buildings were new, the Crowsnest Pass of Alberta was a bustling place and business was brisk. Coal was king and the area home to numerous mines, with much of the working population employed in the industry. Today, it’s all a memory and now tourism helps pay the...

Look for the sign on Highway #9 in Hanna, take a turn north on Pioneer Trail and in few moments arrive. Off to your right, it’s a group of historic buildings marking the Hanna Pioneer Village & Museum, a great place to spend a few hours. Ahead in this post,...

An invite arrives to be part of a documentary film being shot by Radio Canada (French language arm of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) and it’s on the subject of ghost towns*. With zero hesitation the answer yes comes quickly and enthusiastically. Shot by videojournalist Vincent Bonnay, we’ll be joining with...

It’s every bit the mid-century service station archetype, even if it’s been a while since it functioned in that capacity. Sure, a few elements are missing now, the gas station sign and the fuel island, but the building itself little changed. We’ve seen old photos and it’s as built. There’s...

Small town museums are a treasure, each unique in character and a great resource if you want to learn of local history. Come connect with the people who came before and the things they left behind. At every turn take a look into the past and for the budget minded,...

We’re visiting the Rocky Mountain House Historic Site, an amazing place with a storied past and below it’s a little tour for your enjoyment. But before the photos allow us to share a little backstory and babble on about what you’ll see and when done, and only when done, come...

A series of ponds mark the site of the Birnwell Mine in Bow City Alberta. These scars from long ago are reminders of a time when men and machine toiled away in search of coal. There’s no buildings left behind, no old equipment either and it’s just these curious water...

It’s one of the oldest buildings we’ve explored in these parts and dates back to well before Alberta was even a province. Yessiree, stuff from that time, like what’s seen here, is ancient by local standards. Long ago, it straddled the Canada/US border and is presently found at a museum...

On longer road trips we’ll often take a mid-day break and have a picnic in some small town (and we’ll purchase eats local if we can). We’ll search out a park or green space, plop ourselves down for a half hour and just relax. A great recharge from the road,...

Little Dorothy Alberta has flirted with ghost town status for a while, but seems reluctant to concede, with few hardy folks still calling it home. Of interest to the history minded there’s a couple cute little churches to take in and barely hanging on, the old grain elevator down by...

This curious structure is unlike any other in Calgary. Looking more the part of a military installation, it’s a school built in style trendy at the time in certain parts of the world but never widely adopted here. They call it Brutalism and it’s one of a handful of buildings...

Alberta Prairie Railway Excursions’ tour trains make a regular stop in Big Valley, a charming little community rich in history. Front and centre, it’s the railway station, over a century old, that welcomes those visiting no matter how they arrive. Come by car, or more awesomely by rail, the building...

We’re enamoured with small towns. They’re always full of charm and character, always nicely wrapped up in a tiny little package, so every chance afforded us we’ll get to know one. We’ll simply stroll about, taking in what they have to offer while always being respectful of anyone who lives...

A hole in the wall eatery serving “Chinese & Western Cuisine” (as the old signs often advertised) is a small town staple. Usually housed in some heritage building they offer unpretentious fare, nothing remotely gourmet, but yummy all the same. Think kitschy decor, budget prices and generous portions. Think bottomless...

The Parkdale neighbourhood of west-central Calgary was founded in the 1910s. Most growth, however, happened in the 1950s and in support of this a modest-sized business district sprang up in the vicinity of Parkdale Crescent NW along 3rd Avenue. Today, a few commercial buildings from the old days can be...

Here’s a retail complex that is no more and since we photographed it last spring has been demolished to make way for new development. We’re exploring Stadium Shopping Centre, in the community of University Heights in Calgary, weeks before it was to be leveled. Dating from the early 1960s, everything...

The Ogilvie Flour Mills firm once had a good sized network of rural grain elevators scattered across the Canadian Prairies. At the peak, latter half of the 1920s, there was a couple hundred such places (and change) in three provinces, with roughly a quarter of the total in Alberta. Had...

More than a summer ago, in world so much different from today, the Team was out exploring in the Wolseley Saskatchewan area. There it’s wide open spaces, charming little towns, much history and a pace more relaxed. It’s big skies above, limitless fields of grain and then there’s us, a...

It’s that giant silver lollipop thing west of the QEII you see when driving through Airdrie. You can’t miss it. And up there in big proud letters on that shiny metal sphere, for all to see…spell it out with me…A.I.R.D.R.I.E! Dating back many years this water tower hasn’t seen use...

There by the trees at a bend in the creek, in a scenic valley very un-prairie like, there’s remains of a charming old farm house. It’s been a while since it was called a home but within surely a few memories remain. Picture fresh bread in the oven, washing on...