We find them even watching TV and in fact it’s happened quite a few times now. Here’s a channel surfing Boler seen while searching aimlessly for something to watch and not having much luck at it. Here’s it on some rural channel (don’t recall) and the show on the subject...
The building seen here was constructed in 1913-1914, as the most expensive and elaborate sandstone school in the city. Calgary at the time and today remains home to many of these iconic structures. In addition, Balmoral School ended up being the final example built and with this a chapter dating...
Here’s a couple interconnected loops in the Cochrane Pathways system and they make for a nice in-town hike. There’s lots of variety and this includes a couple pleasant stretches along the Bow River. The terrain is easy going, with the trail mostly passing through green spaces and parks, plus a...
Industrial Park Life: here’s an odd little home in a Calgary neighbourhood full of warehouses and factories. A train track runs right out front of the property and the road past is gravel (or muck when wet). This dwelling seems so out of place, but in the past, there was...
Here’s a Then & Now look at the former Tri-Way Motel, now Kootenay Country Inn, out in Cranbrook British Columbia. Presenting two photos separated by about half a century and we’re going to chat a little about what’s seen. The business, and the whole scene for that matter, is timeless....
In today’s posting we’ll be looking at Sacred Heart Catholic Church and Cemetery out in central Alberta. Both date back to the 1890s, although the church building itself is not original to this property and moved here from elsewhere about fifty years ago. The cemetery still sees use, although most...
Here’s an interesting discovery preserved in concrete for all time and it’s paw prints from 1913 found on a Calgary sidewalk. The date stamp confirms it. The pooch walked over the cement soon after the pour, before it set and left their mark. The flaw was not worth repairing I...
Triple E Manufacturing of Manitoba produced a Boler-like trailer starting sometime in the mid-1970s and early into the following decade. Some reports say 1980, others 1981, so make of it what you will. It’s called the Surfside (or Surf Side – two words – or sometimes stylized as SurfºSide), more...
We’re deep inside Banff National Park armed with a vintage photo showing a train and our first goal will be to find the location seen. The person that supplied the image only had a hunch, but with a little detective work we felt confident it could be found. Using good...
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...
Kenopsia: "the eerie atmosphere of a place that's usually bustling with people but now vacant or abandoned."
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