David’s and my tour of small towns in central Alberta continued with a visit to Caroline, nestled in the foothills of the Rockies.
Caroline came into being as a stop on the Canadian Northern Railway in 1910. I found two different versions for the origin of the community’s name. One was that it was named after the daughter of the village’s first post master. The other version is that it was named after the wife of the railway’s general manager. Whatever the origin of the name, the village is perhaps best know as the hometown of world figure skating champion Kurt Browning.
With rain once again threatening us, we arrived at the Rocky Mountain House National Historic Site, just west of Rocky Mountain House, Alberta.
Rocky Mountain House has a long history dating back to the fur trade days. Both the Hudsons Bay Company and the North West Company built forts here in 1799. The National Historic Site is an archaeological site on the banks of the North Saskatchewan River that contains remains of forts built between 1799 and 1875. Perhaps a brief explanation of the importance of the site can be lifted from the David Thompson Country website:
“In the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, four forts once stood prominently on the land at the confluence of the North Saskatchewan and the Clearwater Rivers. The First Nations, the Métis, and European traders used those rivers like highways, transporting their goods to and from the forts. For 76 years Rocky Mountain House was a centre of commerce for the west. The great mapmaker David Thompson used the site to launch expeditions seeking passage to the west coast.” … www.davidthompson.ca
With ominous dark clouds rapidly approaching from the northwest, we hoped that we would be able to visit a good part of the site before the rain hit. Such was not our luck. Before we had gone too far it became abundantly clear that we were going to get rained on and we headed back to the car. I did get a few photos, some of which are below.
Making our way home, we stopped for a late lunch in Warburg. On the way into town we saw an old meat packing plant, so, after lunch, we stopped on the way back out of town to photograph it.
Without question, it was a fun three day photo excursion around central Alberta. Equally without question, we missed a lot of things. But what we did see was interesting and I learned a lot more about my home province.
If you enjoy my photos, please visit my gallery site at neilmillerphotography.com – just click the “Photo Gallery” tab at the top of this page and you will be taken there. While there, sign up for my quarterly newsletter to get updated when new photos are added to my gallery.
You can also view David Buzzeo’s incredible photography at buzzeophotography.com
I will soon be embarking on a month-long trip to Scotland. Stay tune for more photos and stories.
Wind At Your Back 
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