The old grain elevator stands alone in a field, battered and beaten after having been abandoned for many decades. We’ve seen a lot of structures like this in our travels and few are as sorry looking as the one seen here. Still, it has a rather odd dignity and elegance,...
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 As you might guess, we searched out these spots, many years back in fact, and used them for a number of now outdated Then & Now posts.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...
Presenting another random pick from our huge library of photos and once again we’ve cheated the devil. There’s nothing embarrassing, damning or incriminating here. There’s a surprising number of photos in our collection that fall into one or more of those categories, so it’s bound to happen. Just not today....
Today we’re hiking at Glenbow Ranch Park and it’s just a short distance from the big city. West of Calgary’s, just off the 1A and towards the Bow River. There’s a good number of hiking trails here where one can get away from it all and without having to go...
Today we’ll visit the historic Ainsworth Cemetery in a shady and peaceful setting overlooking Kootenay Lake. There among the trees, a bit up the hill above former mining camp, it’s a perfectly serene location to spend all eternity. We’re in BC’s East Kootenay region, itching to explore and connect with...
It’s no secret we’re vintage RV obsessed. Original or restored, something pulled or driven and no matter the make, we’re interested. Of course, its Bolers and their little fibreglass trailer brethren that seem to occupy our thoughts the most, but anything of the type will do. Here’s a nice GMC...
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 scene presented in this post was captured on the road home and the timing attributed to dumb luck. Burning down the highway – hard left into town, hard right along the tracks, and something magic unfolds. There’s the Pioneer grain elevator, there’s a passing train and the sun, a...
Bow River Loop SE Calgary: it’s an in-city hike but doesn’t always feel it. The route described here passes through parks, green spaces and natural areas, so it insulates one from all the urban nonsense. The city is all around, but here it’s a place of cottonwoods and grasslands, instead...
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...
Seen under the Blush Spa sign in Cranbrook, BC. It’s the summer of 2022 (July I think), we’re coming back to our home base in town after some backroad adventures, and there it is. Today, it’s a drive-by capture, done while still in motion. Good thing we keep a camera...
Over the years we’ve explored hundreds of forgotten farm houses, in cooperation with landowners, and never tire of it. Here’s one in a building material we’ve not encountered before in such an application, and we think you’ll agree it’s something special. Something a bit odd and out of the ordinary,...
Just inside Saskatchewan and we’re talking no more than a hair’s-width from the Alberta border, there’s a curious structure. You can’t miss it, standing sentinel just outside the little community of Alsask along the highway between Calgary and Saskatoon. Just a little to the north and it’s that big giant...
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...
Welcome to the lonely Laing House, constructed over a century ago and empty for about half that time. In a state of advanced decay, it stands alone and on the edge of a little coulee far from any road or access point. It’s a wonderfully picturesque setting – a delightful...
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...
There’s not much going on in downtown Edberg Alberta these days, but it wasn’t always the case. If one were stand where we did, but many, many decades removed, what a different scene it’d be. Let’s go back to when the town was founded over a century ago, or during...
This in-town walk along the Canmore Pathways system offers lots of variety and enjoyment. Along the way, there’s parks, green spaces, mountain views, riverside fun, a boardwalk to play on and lots of nature. For those big into history, parts of an old railway line, now incorporated into the trail,...
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...
Their compact size means a Boler or any similar type trailer is generally easy to store. Any old spot that can fit a car will do in a pinch. For those with houses, driveways are the obvious choice, but often back alleys are where you find them. Just sock them...
The town of Morrissey British Columbia only existed for a short time in the early 1900s, had a brief but sad reprieve of sorts less than a decade later, and then was gone. It’s now relegated to history. Nature has taken back the townsite and there’s scant evidence to be...
This hike takes place in the West Bragg Creek trail network, convenient to Calgary and accessible all year round. They’re an easy choice for the short days of winter and we put the trails here to use to keep in shape awaiting spring and more ambitious adventurers further afield. This...
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...
It’s a random backroad find, unexpected but hardly unwelcome. It’s a former one room school in Mayook BC (a bit south of Cranbrook) and it’s gorgeous. The building came here from somewhere else in the late 1910s although the exact original location make no mention. “…Mayook School was moved from...
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...
A few factories in Canada were involved in Boler production at various times and making sense of who built what and when is sometimes a tall order. Depending on the year and/or model, they could come from plants in Ontario, Manitoba, Alberta or BC. There might have been others too....
Welcome to the Camrest Motel, Camrose Alberta and please enjoy your stay. It’s a budget friendly kind of place, down by the tracks, in the old part of town and a little run down. You know, it’s the digs you might find us staying at when on the road and...
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...
The location is British Columbia’s scenic Fraser Canyon and our subject, the historic Alexandra Bridge. It spans the turbulent river at a point where it narrows and when standing there it’s a long drop down to the water below. The deck is of grated metal and when crossing it almost...
When money’s tight necessity spawns creative solutions. No one was more dirt poor than the lowly coal miner of old and when something was needed, they upcycled, recycled or salvaged something and made due. Or you did without and those are the only options. Here’s a simple and straight to...
Kenopsia: "the eerie atmosphere of a place that's usually bustling with people but now vacant or abandoned."
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