BP T-shirts

While I was away in Nordegg a shipment of a small batch of T-shirts was delivered to the house.  These are for the Beer Parlour Project.  The team members will wear them when we are on our outings.  The surplus ones will be offered for sale at the taverns that we visit.

Hanging around Nordegg

Margarit headed back to the city on Tuesday August 20th in the afternoon.  Chris and Connie hung around long enough to do the tour of the Nordegg Mine Site.  After that we went for a beer and a bite to eat at the Fireside Lounge in the Nordegg Motel.  Then they also hit the road for home.  That left me out at Nordegg all by myself... just the way I like it...!

I played golf three times, and on the last round I shot my best ever score on the 9-hole Historic Nordegg Course... a 39.  First time I broke 40 on the par 32 course.  I also shoveled a couple of yards of gravel that my contractor Scott left piled up for me.  This got spread around our firepit, and also on the trail between the main cottage, and the guest cottage.

Then I built a platform for the landing in front of the entry to the guest cottage.  I need to pick up more materials in order to finish this, next time I go out.  Then I assembled and painted the two upper cupboards that I previously started for the guest cottage.  They are complete except for the sliding doors of the main compartments.  I'll finish that up next time as well, and then hang them up.

I ended up staying out at Nordegg for 13 days this time.  Initially with a crowd of friends and family around, and then by myself at the end.  I'm back in the city now, catching up on some chores at home, but looking forward to getting back out to the mountains.

Private Tour - Nordegg Mine National Historic Site

I booked a private tour of the Nordegg Historic site on Tuesday August 20th.  Many thanks to Whitney from Clearwater County.  She looks after the site on behalf of the County and was very accommodating.  I paid the fee for a private tour and our group had a guide with us for the entire day.

Initially it was hoped that we would be a group of about six.  But Arturo and Sharon were unable to make it, and Margarit had to go back to the city.  So it was just Chris and Connie and me.

We got there shortly after the visitor center opened, and were escorted into the site.  We spent the entire day exploring, and three different guides spelled each other off as I photographed with the big view camera.  They quickly came to understand why it was not an option for us to take part in one of their regular tours.  Most people just don't understand the glacial pace at which large format photography progresses, until they witness it first hand.

I knew a fair bit of the history of the mine, but learned a couple of things that I was previously unaware of.  Many of the mine buildings burnt in 1951 and were replaced with the metal buildings that currently remain on site.  These buildings were only in operation for about four years, until the mine closed in 1955.

The building that I previously thought of as the Maintenance Shop, is actually the Warehouse.  They didn't do any actual repair work in this building.  Rather it was an inventory of tools and parts for the mine.  I understand that the miners had to supply all of the own tools and equipment, and were even responsible for maintenance of their mine carts.  All supplies had to be purchased through the company store.  The warehouse is the oldest remaining building on the site and dates to 1914.

This is reminiscent of the old Tennessee Ernie Ford song "16 Tons".  Ford had a hit with the song in 1955, but it was written by Merle Travis and originally recorded in 1946.

    You load 16 tons, what do you get?

    Another day older and deeper in debt.

    St. Peter don't you call me, 'cause I can't go.

    I owe my soul to the company store.

It was nice to have permission to be there, and have free run of the place, with interpretive guides to answer any questions. We didn't have to feel rushed as we were there for the entire day.  Well worth the fee that we paid for the privilege...!

Beer Parlour Project - BP 17.0 Billy Zee's

On Monday August 19th the Beer Parlour team headed over to the town of Eckville, for a visit to Billy Zee's Tavern in the Eckville Hotel.  Chris and I had stopped in and introduced ourselves a few days prior.  The owner and staff had lined up a bunch of locals to come out and tell us their stories, and get their pictures taken.

The hotel has been owned for the past several years by Billy Zaleski... hence the name.  He was very friendly and cooperative, and we enjoyed meeting him.  For this outing only three team members were in attendance.  Arturo and Sharon had gone back home to Edmonton after the visit to the Grand Hotel. Natalia headed back home to Washington and Shawn and Lisa returned to the city.  Margarit took the night off and stayed behind at the cottage.  So it was just Chris and Connie and me this time.

We had a great time and met a whole bunch of locals.  There was Helen, the former mayor of the town, that spent a lot of time in the tavern in her younger days.  The waitress Lynne was really helpful and outgoing.  Billy provided Chris with a good interview and lots of information.  We also met Harry, one of the elderly locals, and Malcolm, the self-proclaimed town sheriff.  I got film portraits of most of them.

I got a kick out of the vending machine in the corner.  It was one of those claw machines that you could attempt to pick up a stuffed animal with.  Mixed in with all the stuffies were two porno DVD's...!

This one goes down as a great success and officially becomes BP 17.0.

Pumphouse

After visiting the Traunton bridge, and Alexo, and exploring the railway rockcuts, Chris and I stopped off at a couple of locations closer to home.  This would be the tail end of our lengthy ATV ride before heading back to the cottage.

We stopped at the old pumphouse, on an un-named tributary to Shunda Creek.  In recent years the beavers have dammed up the creek and flooded the trees, and the pumphouse.  I've always been curious about what this pumphouse was for...?  It was electrically energized.  It is a long distance away from the mine.  And although it is near the rail line, the Nordegg station was just a mile or two away, so the steam locomotives wouldn't have needed water here...?

Like a dog on a bone, I put Chris on the mystery.  He is the research King and always seems to find the answers to perplexing historical questions such as this.  Hopefully he doesn't let me down.

After the pumphouse we stopped off at the nearby small waterfall on Shunda Creek.  It was a great day, and a fascinating ATV ride, exploring a ton of cool stuff.  I know Chris enjoyed it as much as I did.

Once we got back to the cottage we met up with everyone and put together another big spread of food with BBQ's meat, baked potatoes, and all the fixings.  Life is good...!

Canadian Northern Western Railroad

On our way back from Alexo and Traunton, Chris and I went exploring along a section of the Canadian Northern Western Railway line near Nordegg.  There is a section that extends from near Beaverdam Lake, west to the Nordegg townsite, where the line passes through a number of rockcuts.  A couple of them are relatively minor, but two are a little more substantial.

In the first that we came across, the more easterly one, we discovered the remains of an old bridge.  It seems this is the spot where the old alignment of Highway 11 crossed the rail line.  Parts of the current ATV trail follow the old highway alignment, as does the road to Beaverdam Recreation Area.  I seem to recall that when I was a teen, and my family visited the Nordegg area, that there was once a trestle where the rail line crossed the current alignment of the David Thompson Highway.  Perhaps this recollection is incorrect...?  this will merit further research and exploration.

Further west, and closer to the current gravel quarry we came upon a larger rockcut.  Here we discovered a rusty old bucket.  On the bottom there was an impression that said "Black Blasting Powder" and mentioned "Canadian Explosives".  Chris did a little research on the company and it seems they operated from 1910 to 1927.  The rail line was run around 1914, so perhaps this old bucket dates back to the time that this rockcut was created.  Of course this is only speculation on our part and perhaps the bucket dates to maintenance done at some later date, or was simply dumped here at some point.  All the same it is most interesting when one considers the possibilities.

Traunton/Fortner Bridge

Further east of Alexo is the Traunton/Fortner Bridge.  It is probably only a couple of miles, and this was the eastern extent of our ATV ride.  Several years ago we had hiked in to the east end of the bridge.  At that point in time it was just an open steel structure, largely abandoned and forgotten.

Historic papers suggest that this steel bridge was put into service in 1931.  It replaced a large wood trestle that once stood right beside it.  There was a date of 1924 cast into the concrete pier at the east end that suggests work was started sometime prior to the date it was put into service.

The little creek that the bridge spans it not much more than a trickle for most of the year.  Even down below it is at most three or four feet wide and easily crossed.  Up near the David Thompson Highway there is not much evidence of a ravine, and just a small little gully that the creek follows.

But in between the highway and the North Saskatchewan River the little creek has eroded away a very deep and wide ravine.

Government spent around $2 million dollars [so I have heard] and refurbished the bridge.  Precast concrete decking was placed onto the steel structure. and large heavily reinforced railings have been installed.  There are pull out points and picnic tables out on the bridge and it now makes up part of the rail trail between Rocky Mountain House and Nordegg.  That trail remains under construction but the section from the bridge west to Nordegg has been complete for a couple of years.

I'm not sure of the height of the bridge at the highest point of the span.  But when you stand out near the center and look down, the tops of the mature trees are at least 40 to 50 feet below.  My guess is that the bridge probably stands 75 to 100 feet high.

I pulled this aerial view of the bridge, taken before restorations, from the Government of Alberta website.  It speaks of the provincial government investing $6 million in the trail project, with a small contribution from Clearwater County.  Further work on the trail is scheduled for 2025 and 2026.