Beer Parlor Project 2.0

On Friday September 23rd I headed down to southern Alberta for the second chapter of the Beer Parlor Project.  Chris and Connie and I had initiated the first chapter back in July at the Egremont Hotel.  That went really well, but it was time to push the project forward.  This time I managed to talk Margarit into joining me.  She was reluctant, because it was Hailey's 20th birthday on the 24th.  But Hailey encouraged us to go, and finally Margarit relented and joined me.

We left Edmonton on Friday morning, passed through Calgary, and made a stop in Nanton.  We hit the Candy Store, and a bunch of the Antique Shops, and then had lunch in a little Cafe.  There was an old hotel there, the Auditorium, that would have been perfect for the Beer Parlor Project... but it was closed.  By early afternoon we continued on our way.  We arrived in Crowsnest Pass in the late afternoon and checked into our hotel in Coleman, before meeting up with Chris and Connie.

Margarit had passed through the Pass before, but never stopped and spent any time.  I've come to know the place a little over the years, having spent time here in the past on numerous projects.  The Dinosaur Trackway Project, numerous shooting expeditions for the Coal Project, and while attending gallery shows in Pincher Creek and Crowsnest Pass.

Margarit quickly fell in love with the place and soon realized why I kept talking about it the way that I did.  In many ways it is similar to the Drumheller Valley... with little coal mining towns spread up and down the valley.  But the landscape is very different, as here we are right in the Rocky Mountains.

We met up with Chris and Connie at the Greenhill Hotel in Blairmore.  This was to be the location for the Beer Parlor Project 2.0.  It was a bit of a bust....!  The century old hotel did not disappoint, and we got some great shots of the exterior.  The clientele left something to be desired... mostly by their absence.  Despite the fact that it was Friday night, there was almost no one in the place.  Perhaps this was because the establishment was up for sale, did not accept credit cards, and had no food on the menu.  There were only a handful of people in the place when we arrived in the late afternoon, after taking photographs of the exterior of the building.  Most of them left around 7:00, and the ones that remained were mindlessly playing the VLT's.  There was no one to be engaged in our project, and nothing photogenic to shoot inside.  We wrapped things up early, after ordering takeout food from the Chinese place across the street.  The rest of the weekend proved to be a lot better.  It seems the only photos I took of the Greenhill were with my big camera, so no images to share until I process the film.  But I did get this phone snapshot of the Auditorium Hotel in Nanton.  Stay tuned for more...!