I enjoy looking at old historical photographs, especially ones of the Crowsnest Pass. I am also interested in repeat photography, where photographs of the same subject are taken from the same location, at different times. Sometimes these photos can be taken decades apart. This type of “then and now” photography is often used by environmental scientists and researchers to track and study landscape change over time.
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This summer I visited Emerald Lake on several occasions to try and duplicate a photo taken in the 1930s by Thomas Gushul, a well-known Crowsnest Pass photographer. Emerald Lake is located along Highway 3, west of Coleman, near the Alberta-British Columbia border. The picturesque lake is connected to Crowsnest Lake via a shallow channel, 50 metres in length. Most travelers are unaware the two lakes are connected, as the highway bridge passes directly above the interconnecting channel, blocking it from view. When Thomas Gushul took his photo, these bodies of water were considered an extension of each other and regarded as one lake – Crowsnest Lake.
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The picture above is of Lundbreck Falls, located on the Crowsnest River in southwest Alberta. It’s a vintage, hand-tinted photograph produced by the Gowen Sutton Company of Vancouver. The photograph was taken circa 1903 by the photography team of Marks and Buchanan, who operated a photo studio in the town of Frank, some 18 kilometers (12 miles) away. The title of the print is “Lundbreck Falls, Alberta – The Niagara of the Foothills.”
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Here’s an interesting photograph that appeared on a postcard, published by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) in 1939. The CBC was still in its infancy then and had only been around three years. The postcard promoted a radio program called Canadian Snapshots. The show aired weekly for two years (1939 – 1940) on the national network. Its announcers were CBC personalities Lorne Greene and J. Frank Willis. Each half-hour episode “turned the lens of the radio camera to the wonders and oddities of Canada.” According to the CBC digital archive website, the program was … “chock full of skits and short dramatic pieces, and augmented with actualities (the relatively new phenomena of onsite reporting). Canadian Snapshots brought the vast panorama of the country to the airwaves to tempt the tourist’s taste.” Crowsnest Pass, and more specifically, the Frank Slide, was highlighted as a Special Events feature on the program. The episode aired 77 years ago today, on November 29, 1939. Continue reading
