Category: Then And Now

Let’s focus attention on the little community of Carbon Alberta and more specifically, the town’s grain elevator row. Down there by the tracks, or in the present context where they and those structures used to be. Those prairie sentinels, the train station, the railway itself and the section house far...

The tiny-dot-on-the-map community of Robsart Saskatchewan goes back just over one hundred and ten years, had an early but brief foray with success, and today is a shadow of its former self. It’s home to many more ghosts than people and this made quite evident by simply wandering its empty...

The two photos that make up this Then & Now were shot from the same position, but at least fifty years apart. It’s repeated here all too often, but it’s a great thrill to stand where an old photo was captured, and take one that’s similar. Call it weird. In...

Flashback to 2014! It’s a glorious Alberta day and our goal is to find and photograph a special location from the 1994 film Legends of the Fall. Target: the Ludlow Family Cemetery. There’s no roads to guide the way and only faint cart tracks or cow paths through the grass...

Numerous scenes in the 1976 movie Silver Streak were filmed in and around Southern Alberta. Interestingly, they all play US locations. As you might guess, we searched out these spots, many years back in fact, and used them for a number of now outdated Then & Now posts. Those ones...

The Greenhill Hotel has been a prominent landmark in Blairmore Alberta for just over a century now. This structure, distinctive with its columns and barn-like gambrel roof, is quite a standout. It’s located between the road and railway tracks and noticeable not only by its design but by location. You...

The quest: search out locations in Alberta used in making the blockbuster movie Superman 1978 for a series of Then & Now posts. Or rather a do-over of Then & Now posts. The Team did a good number on this very subject far in the past but it’s time for...

You are here: standing at the Corral 4 Drive-in Theatre in Calgary and looking down the entryway. Screens one, two, three or four? You pick’em. Imagine this same view but many decades ago and on a summer Saturday night. The cars, the chaos, the anticipation, the noise, the smell of...

We like a good round number and this Then & Now spans one full century. Not ninety one, not ninety seven, but one hundred years exactly separates the two images seen. The original was shot in spring and ours on the morning of the very last day of 2023, but...

In this post we’re in the shadow of downtown Calgary and at a location appearing in an old photo sent to the Team many years ago. We’re alongside the Canadian Pacific Railway’s east/west mainline and back in 2014 duplicated that shot from 1977. It’s presented below and what a difference...

Close to seventy years separates the images used in this BIGDoer.com Then & Now. The theme, one of our favourites and by the numbers equally a hit with our readers, is Calgary Transit or public transit in general. The location is the historic century plus old MacDonald Bridge (or MacDonald...

A hundred and twenty years, approximately, separates the two images used in this Then & Now. In the original we’re looking at the Canadian Pacific Railway’s Illecillewaet Bridge in Revelstoke British Columbia and in the second the Mark Kingsbury Memorial Bridge occupies that same spot today. The latter is for...

Presenting two photos of the same building, but captured many, many years apart. The location is Calgary’s historic Inglewood community and our attention is focused on the the Victory Block (former Haskins Block) built in 1908-1910. While there’s been change from era to era, it’s minimal and the building appears...

This time we’re in the Crowsnest Pass of Alberta and our subject for this comparison, albeit off in the distance, is the former Coleman Miners’ Hospital. It and the hill in back are the only things visible in both images to tie the two eras together. A hundred years sperate...

While only thirty seven years separate the photos in this Then & Now, the change has been dramatic. Our subjects today are the grain elevators of Turin Alberta and if this comparison demonstrates anything, is that nothing is forever. That’s even out in rural parts where time seemingly stands still....

We’re a bit unsure about this comparison. Presenting a Schrodinger’s Then & Now, if you will, that may or may not show the same location roughly a century apart. The old photo is of the Silver Creek Coal Mine in Skunk Hollow Alberta, that much is known, but there’s contradictory...

Dunshalt Alberta might appear on maps but there’s really nothing there. None the less it’s the focus of this piece. At one time two competing railways crossed paths here but that’s history now. We’re not that far from the big city of Calgary, but it feels like the middle of...

Presenting JB Fletcher’s, Ainsworth British Columbia, and it’s seen roughly forty five years apart. This former general store was photographed by Beautiful British Columbia Magazine back in 1978 and a comparison shot captured by us a year or so ago. It’s a timeless scene! The store had only been closed...

We’re in Bellevue Alberta, southern part of the province and right in the front ranges of the Rockies. Here’s the business district and in the background the incredible scar on Turtle Mountain. Welcome to the Crowsnest Pass region (our home away from home) and it’s most noteworthy feature, the Frank...

Here’s a Then & Now with a BIGDoer family connection and it was only twenty seven years in the making. Presenting our kid and his kid (our grandkid) both at ten years old in the cab of the same excursion steam locomotive. The original was captured in Donalda and the...

Welcome to another (hopefully) fun and informative BIGDoer.com Then & Now! In this instalment we’re looking at downtown Fort Macleod Alberta and comparing two shots taken roughly seventy five years apart. This community is timeless and incredibly appears little changed over time. Take a look for yourself! The Then photo...

The subject in today’s Then & Now is the quaint-looking Chinook Motel, Sentinel Alberta, in the scenic and historic Crowsnest Pass. With Crowsnest Mountain a backdrop, we’ll first look at it in the 1960s, thanks to an old postcard image sent in by a reader, and then again some fifty...

The Fort Motel in Fort MacLeod Alberta does it old school and offers road weary travellers vintage motor court style accommodations. You might view it as dated or tired, but to to us it’s a charming throwback and wonderfully kitschy. What ever your opinion, it’s a style of motel that’s...

Let’s explore the grain elevator row in Arrowwood Alberta across time. First we’ll look at it many decades back, and with all but one of these iconic buildings now gone, we’ll present a more recent view. The change has been dramatic and a touch sad too. Once they’re history a...

The Crowsnest Pass of Southwestern Alberta draws us in like a magnet and we’re regular visitors. If you’ve followed our exploits for a bit, however, then you already knew we had a romance going on. Today our subject is the CPR Crowsnest Railyard at Summit Lake, at the west end...

Pointless: “Devoid of meaning (or) senseless” Merriam-Webster. Yup, that’s this post nicely summarized and while it might seem silly, we love stuff like this. If it’s got an obscure angle, like here, we’re on it even more and although a serious time waster, we can’t help ourselves. Presenting the Pointless...

The the first image takes us back to 1974 and shows a Calgary Transit trolleybus heading south down Elbow Drive. There’s downtown in back. Forty years later we’ve returned to this location to see what’s changed and you’ll notice it’s been dramatic. The city skyline today, if not for a...

We’re down by the tracks in Coronation Alberta or rather on our visit, standing where the tracks used to be. From this angle and observed today there’s nothing left of the railway. Not a thing. Presenting two views captured from the same location but separated by many, many decades. It’s...

Shaunavon Saskatchewan is located in the southwest corner of province, it’s been around for just over a century and home to perhaps eighteen hundred people. Give or take, that is. There’s a quaint downtown with lots of nice old buildings and a few of them will be seen in this...