Elevator Row Nanton Alberta: two photos captured down by the tracks (or former tracks, present day) and separated by close to fifty years. The railway line through town is history, that little shack is long gone, but some of the grain elevators seen in the then photo have been preserved....
Here’s a nice walk through the bedroom community of Chestermere Alberta using pathways and sidewalks. It takes in residential neighbourhoods, there’s a stretch down by the lake and it’s all quite pleasant. While a longer one, it’s flat and overall pretty easy going. This is the Chestermere Town Loop, an...
Exploring History / Old Things
by Chris Doering · Published November 9, 2022 · Last modified November 24, 2022
The Cranbrook History Centre, Cranbrook British Columbia, is home to a huge collection of railway stuff and in this post we’ll be showing you just a little bit of it. Founded in the 1970s, as the Canadian Museum of Rail Travel, the organization has grown over the years and today...
Bamboo Gardens Mayland Heights Calgary is a literal hole in the wall restaurant down some back street and secreted away on the upper floor of a nondescript building. Reviews suggest the food is pretty good over all (mmmm, ginger beef) but looking at the exterior may belie the fact. Its...
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...
We’re in bustling “downtown” Trout Lake British Columbia armed with a photo from about seventy five years ago to shoot a BIGDoer.com Then & Now. The fun’s about to begin, so give us a big WOOHOO! Our goal is twofold, and out of the gate we want to get as...
Welcome to Mother’s Day Hill in the East Kootenay region of BC and out near Cranbrook. It’s an easy trek up the top of this little hump and while the summit is treed, there’s a superb viewpoint later on. You can gaze down at the St Mary River below and...
“Harvest” is a curious roadside attraction in the remote West Kootenay community of Meadow Creek British Columbia and placed there a couple years ago. It’s just one of many “Koots” sculptures in the region and they’re hidden away in forests or like here, more out in the open. No matter,...
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,...
An old saying warns us any time is train time, but in our world the same holds true for little fibreglass trailers and they always see to appear randomly out of nowhere. Of course, we’re subconsciously always on the prowl, but still it’s amazing how many we come across. So...
For your enjoyment it’s two photos of the waterfront in Silverton British Columbia separated by at least a century and similarly composed. The angles line up and it’s a good match! The mountains and lake present a timeless scene, but the SS Slocan, and the railway’s presence in the valley...
Alberta Prairie Railway Excursions #41 is a century old steamer just recently returned to service after a lengthy absence and seen here in 2019 awaiting repairs. Based out of Stettler Alberta it powered tour trains full of happy folks down the scenic line to Big Valley and now it’s back....
Backalley Boler: the lanes behind homes are a favourite haunt of little fibreglass trailers and in towns big or small, they account for a good number of our discoveries. We’re always looking down them and this action is often rewarded. Parking spots such as this are a convenient place to...
TV Wasteland: this old CRT television was found well away from any roads, farms or towns in the Alberta Badlands and one has to wonder how it ever got here. We were in search of a little mining history (with permission of the landowner) and hoofing-it cross country through a...
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...
The Rampart – Isadore Loop is a pleasant and easy going walk in the woods out near Cranbrook British Columbia. It’s part single track (Rampart Connector on each end), part rail-trail (Chief Isadore in the middle) through forest and open grassland. Relatively flat in nature, you’ll be in the shadow...
We know of them, but never thought we’d spot one of these rare beasts out in the wild. This brand of motorhome was made so long ago and never sold in huge numbers (and further we suspect most or all were to US customers), so the odds were against it....
The Wilson’s Arch Building in Northeast Calgary is a curious structure and straight out of the quirky ’60s. Architecturally there was lots of innovative stuff going on at the time and this one example of the creative ideas being offered. With a curved roof supported by revolutionary (for the time)...
From 2014: While conducting research we stumbled across something interesting at a local archive unrelated to the subject at hand. It was an old postcard in among miscellaneous files and seemingly placed there by mistake. It caught our eye, however, and got the gears to grinding. We saw a project...
Here’s some really cool roadside rust and this wheeled monster is an old log loader found in the remote mountain community of Beaton British Columbia. It’s a small settlement, so far off the map and hidden away that it might as well be on the moon. Not that it’s a...
There were once hundreds of these octagonal shaped buildings across the Canadian Pacific Railway network. Used to feed boilers of the firm’s vast fleet of steam locomotives, they could be found at regular intervals up and down the line. In addition to fuel (coal or oil, depending) locomotives of the...
If you see one of these little fibreglass trailers, you have a duty to shout it loud and shout it proud. It’s what we did with this example, discovered by chance on a Calgary Street and in the fall of 2020. We always end up looking stupid, but whatever, and...
Massage – Lics – Lubetown: a photo pulled completely at random from the archives, be it good or bad, and presented here in all its glory. No, our subject is not something dirty this time, even though it sounds like we’re headed that way, but the names of three businesses...
Presenting another epic BIGDoer.com Then & Now and in this instalment we’re looking at the old Highway #3/93 bridge over the Kootenay River at Wardner BC. The original photo dates back to the late ’60s and in the fifty some years that have passed, the scene is remarkably the same....
There’s a huge number of trails in the Kimberley BC area and for the outdoor adventurers it means unlimited possibilities. There’s big variety and the interconnected networks are curated by various clubs/organizations. If you’re a hiker, biker, XC skier or snowshoer (have we missed anyone?), or some combo therein, you’ll...
Coaling mining today is nothing like it used to be. Now they just dig a giant pit and get at it, but compare that to how things were not all that long ago. Back then men toiled underground and put their backs into making Swiss Cheese of the earth. These...
Waiting on the Queen: flashback to the summer of ’73 and her Royal Highness is paying Calgary a visit. On a goodwill tour of Canada, her stop in this city was one of many on what was a whirlwind trip. She was always a busy person during her decades long...
Ahead, it’s random things seen while exploring this prairie community, over two frigid mornings around sunrise. Thank you Mother Nature for this wonderful opportunity and there’s nothing more fun than freezing one’s appendages off. I can’t feel my fingers! This is Three Hills at dawn, in February, and in hindsight...
Remember Car2Go Calgary, the vehicle sharing service that was set to revolutionize urban transportation here in the city in 2012? No? Even though they haven’t been gone for long (since 2019), it appears they’ve become a footnote in the collective minds of people in and around Cowtown. Does anyone remember?...
The hike to Devil’s Hole in the East Kootenay region of British Columbia is short, sweet and leads to a spectacular viewpoint overlooking a deep precipitous gorge. From this spot, look down to that little blue/green pond far below in a rocky trench or take in surrounding mountains. It’s a...
Kenopsia: "the eerie atmosphere of a place that's usually bustling with people but now vacant or abandoned."
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