Last month I visited my parent's new home in Claresholm Alberta and they showed me around the town and surrounding rural areas. Claresholm is about an hour and half south of Calgary with a population of 3500. I grew up in Cochrane Alberta, which is northwest of Calgary, and when we moved there circa 1979/80, the population was a little bit more than that. Now I believe that population is nearing 18,000. Claresholm has a pace similar to that of Cochrane 30 years ago and that was part of the reason for their move. But I had fun exploring the town and getting back to my small town Alberta roots.
Enjoy!
There's a lot of these things out this way. Heck, even my parents just bought one!
Yup, this is cheap gas. By comparison, Vancouver's gas is currently at 1.35 cent/litre...
Claresholm has many churches of many denominations for a town of 3500:
This apparently is a Harvard war plane and is situated in this park to serve as a war memorial:
Hay!
Hay! closer:
Barn:
Barn closer:
These horses are just behind my parent's house, which is pretty much the edge of town:
Dolly and Pretty Girl are the horses, Dazey is my parent's curious dog:
Some sort of abandoned structure:
Old technology:
There is no residential door to door mail delivery in Claresholm, this is where you check your mail:
Former train station, now restored and part of the Claresholm museum:
Claresholm's first school, moved to this site, next to the museum:
1920s cabin, also moved to this site:
I was surprised to find veggie burgers on the menu at a Claresholm restaurant:
I went here with my parents and learned a lot on this day. This site is an UNESCO world heritage site.
Rather than bore you with the deets on here, go here to learn more:
http://history.alberta.ca/headsmashedin/default.aspx
These rocks are actually here because of glaciers:
The actual buffalo jump:
The remaining pics are taken on my drive from Claresholm back to the Calgary airport:
Calgary skyline from the far reaches of the south:
New hospital under construction:
Surviving small church is in deep south Calgary:
Bye Calgary/Alberta, it was a slice!