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...
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...
Today, we’re looking at an abandoned section of the CPR’s Southern Mainline and this post should be fascinating to anyone into railway archaeology. So us and a couple other folks! Our subject is a stretch of line out in Southeastern BC, bypassed due to the building of the Libby Dam...
The location is Vancouver Island in British Columbia and specifically MacMillan Provincial Park. It’s a little east of Port Alberni and this spot home to an amazing stand of massive trees many centuries old. These are the giants of Cathedral Grove and we’re happy to show you around. Today’s subject...
Let’s face it, winter in this city isn’t always pretty and with each chinook things turn brown and dust covered. A new dump of snow freshens up the scene, but soon after those warm winds melt it all away, and it’s depressing and gloomy again. That’s how it plays out...
Alberta’s Crowsnest Pass has a storied history of coal mining and well into the 1950s, it drove the economy here. Back then everyone and everything had a connection to the industry. Period and end of story. People came from all over the world to work underground in the valley and...
The impressive structure shown here is found in a pretty-as-a-postcard mountain community out in British Columbia. The place is Revelstoke, our subject dates back to 1913 and built in the the Neoclassical style popular of the era, around the world, but not something you’d expect to find out this way....
It happened on a gloomy day, overcast and blustery, but challenging conditions be damned. Adventure calls and even biting, wind driven sleet unable to put a damper on the fun. Appearances suggest there’s little to see out this way, but sometimes things are hidden and need searching out. Our subject,...
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....
Something curious can be seen from the Kootenay Lake (BC) Ferry, there on the east shore and a bit south from the of line of travel. Down at lake level. It appears something industrial once occupied the site, but clearly long ago. There’s not much left but it looks real...
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...
It happened last summer and memories of this amazing adventure filled journey remain fresh. Imagine a week of epic fun, times a million, spent camping out and playing in the Shadow of Mount Begbie in Revelstoke British Columbia. We hiked, we explored, we searched out history, abandoned things too, we...
Two Buildings in Inglewood: one photographed solely because of its a gaudy pink colour (doing Barbie proud) and the second recalled from childhood memories. These were captured while walking about one of Calgary’s older areas and the former’s a church and the other a home, but in the past also...
Calgary’s Nose Hill Park is a vast urban green space, one of the biggest in the country as it turns out, and this hike sort of a best of tour. There’s natural grasslands, aspen groves, sweeping views and many hidden things to discover. The old wrecked car, a glacial erratic,...
Today we’re looking at remains of a silver, lead, zinc and gold mine on a rocky shelf almost at water level. While worked for decades, overall production in terms of volume were quite modest, but the ore nice and rich. This is Molly Hughes by the lake and we’re happy...
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...
We can’t begin to tell you how chilly it was this blustery and bleak Sunday morning. Biting, icy, frigid, finger numbing, snotsicle forming, Winnipeg cold. Yes, that bad. But there’s a Boler to photograph and we’re obsessed so brave the low temperatures for a snap or two. Can’t feel any...
Trash receptacles like this were once a common sight along British Columbia’s provincial highways, at rest stops and parks. This army of cartoonish monsters were part of a campaign aimed at children to keep the province beautiful and litter free. That was long ago and they’re gone now, but this...
The random pick subject today is…Magnesium Chloride. What the? Where do we start? First, these photos were never really meant to be shared, but taken just for us, then by chance were picked for this silly series. We literally close our eyes, select an image (or three) from our collection...
This sectionman’s home stood in the literal middle of nowhere and depending on your take that might be either a downside or perk of the job. If you were to ask us, we’d lean more towards the latter. It’s really out there in the sense that the nearest anything, civilization...
The route described here, the Baldy Pass to Lusk Pass Loop, is an enjoyable outing in the forest and offers up some nice views. This area has been harvested of trees over the years and as such there’s many open places where one can look out to beautiful wooded hills...
Kenopsia: "the eerie atmosphere of a place that's usually bustling with people but now vacant or abandoned."
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Franco Media:
Moose Jaw SK Train Station (~90 Yrs Apart)
Anonymous:
Kart World or Kart Gardens? (2014)
Ross Hamilton:
Prairie Sentinels: Cadillac Sask
Anonymous:
Dominion Bridge Calgary (Ramsay) ca1960-2014
John Kinnear:
World of F.E.A.R Figure-8 (Abandoned)
Dale:
Forgotten Coal Town Cemetery
Rob Pohl & Arturo Pianzola:
Royston Wrecks (Vancouver Island BC)
Dale:
Shandro Historic Village (Closed)
Margaret Nemeth:
Bridge Hunting: Highway 13 Scotsguard
Anonymous:
Grain Elevators of Consort Alberta
John Kinnear:
Commander Mine 1935-1956
Cindy Miller Reade:
Prairie Sentinels: Coderre Saskatchewan
Margaret Nemeth:
Eastern (Deutsch-Canadier) Block (2014)
Jason Sailer:
Fairbanks Morse H16-66 (CPR #7009)
Margaret Nemeth:
Robsart Saskatchewan 61 Years Apart
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