Love to own a piece of history? An oddity? A discussion starter? Amateur historian? A bit of fun? A collector? Or simply like to explore and discover things that are unique?
Support the Countess Country Museum’s Royal Line Sale (the Royal Line, was the name of the interconnected Hamlets in the area by rail, that Countess was historically a part of). Pics from last week and previous garage sales, plus these newly opened up from the vault before.
C’mon by the museum, or text Wayne for purchase: 403-701-0775
Royal Line Garage sale continues Sunday Sept. 1 and Monday Sept. 2, 10 to 5 p.m. daily
Hear ye hear ye come on down the Royal Line to Countess Country Museum we are 8.5 km on 550 from Trans Canada. Looking forward to seeing everyone out to discover new treasures and history
Royal Line Garage sale continues Sunday Sept. 1 and Monday Sept. 2, 10 t 4 p.m. daily
Hear ye hear ye come on down the Royal Line to Countess Country Museum we are 8.5 km on 550 from Trans Canada. Looking forward to seeing everyone out to discover new treasures and history
It is great what neighbours and friends of Countess share with us. This intriguing piece of history is literally out of the Royal Line (the train line that connected Bassano to Empress, and went through Countess, Duchess, Rosemary, Gem and Patricia).
Keep the stories and pictures coming via our submission button!
The 152nd Canada Day (formerly Dominion Day) was a blast. The Chronicle family was on the road of the Royal Line down to the Village of Rosemary for the annual festivities. This year saw the fun of the bubble people on water, pickle ball, air brush tattoos, food trucks, the 30th Rosemary School Reunion, Gem MB Youth fundraising, bungee seat, Beach Volley Ball Tournament, Mobile Escape Room (sorry need to catch our breath)…. oh and it kicked off with a pancake breakfast, a Parade (10 a.m.)-where you will note first responders from Patricia, Duchess and Rosemary— with many vintage and fancy cars in the Show & Shine along main street that followed, oh and a pop-up market of vendors.
Whew! Poppa and Grandma met us from Countess for a picnic in the midst of the fun. This evening there will be fireworks at dusk if you are in the area!
As the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words…so I leave you with a photo montage of a great day!
Today is the first Sunday of Lent. A time of journeying in the wilderness, diving deeper to discover who you truly are in community. In Countess, AB we have always had a strong sense of community, helping out our neighbour, and learning as we go.
This October 2019 to March 2020 will mark the 80th Anniversary of the Countess Bible School. Bible School’s were designed to equip church members, itinerant pastors/teachers/preachers on their faith and spiritual development. It is unique that such a thing existed, and we intend to honour this idea with a 21st Century upgrade.
Soul Ripples
Is the journey inward of discovery on the way to healing. It is a story that spans generations of a family in exploring how mental health, and personal choices to heal have shaped each generation. It is about how one experiences the world, in that experience learns to understand that which we call soul. It is not a journey of being understood for the writer, rather, it is a journey to understand himself and his family and what it all means. It is a winding road through Canada, Alberta, involves Super Heroes, the CIA, outreach, church ministry, and answering the question, who is my neighbour? And how do I love them, as I love myself. Can I love myself.
More to come on release date, for this special learning opportunity of memoir for all those seeking to understand, and perhaps, love themselves just a little bit better and more.
CP Rail had pre-fabricated ready to build homes for those who settled the royal line. Our little blue house tells the tale on the longevity of these builds. But it is not the only way you can be a part of community history and creation!
We welcome you to Hamlet Homes 2.0 thanks to Cabin Sales eh! At Countess, Alberta you can purchase your own log cabin kit starting from $10,500.
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C’mon down and wander around taking a look at our Hamlet Homes 2.0 that are already stacked (and ready for a retail opportunity).
What’s that? You want to continue the authentic look once your cabin is stacked, or just have a kitchen throwback to a time of great music? We got you covered on that too:
Money can get your name on lots of things. Looking around villages, towns and cities in the late 20th and early 21st century one can notice how many companies have sponsored things. Just look to the local hockey rink and chances are there is a company sponsorship deal. Townships of CP Rail were no different on the Royal Line.
Bassano was named after one of their biggest shareholders from Italy, the Marquis de Bassano whose name was used for the town of Bassano, and his wife, the Countess had the small hamlet of Countess named after her.
Loading the Bassano station July 2012
The thoughts of where the names come from emerges as we contemplate the history of railways in the area. In the early 2000’s Bassano moved for a time from the “Best in the west by a Dam site” to the Train engine logo. Which was puzzling when it was unable to refurbish their old CP Rail station, Countess was not selected to become its new home, that was Beiseker, AB in 2012. The 104 year old station had already received 1/2 million dollars in renovations on its way to become a tourist destination and museum.
Heading from Bassano to Beiseker
Unfortunately in 2015 fire would reduce the historic building to ash. For an example of historic CP Rail Station a trip to Empress, AB will be beneficial.
Countess still holds to celebrating our railroad heritage as part of the Royal Line with our on-site CP Rail Caboose. It was an amazing thing to go through the rail yards and explore the old engines and cars in the early 2000’s with Wayne Ragan to find this attraction:
The historic Royal Line: Bassano, Duchess, Countess, Rosemary, Patricia, Gem, and Empress:
Many folks know about the rich history of farming, ranching and oil & gas in our province. One of the resources that can be forgotten is coal. It was a major economic drive in Southern Alberta until oil & gas took off. What some may not realize is that the Royal Line had their own tie to the coal industry.
From 1920-22 Duchess, AB had a coal mine. The Duchess Coal Company worked a shallow mine for coal for the two years.
Knowing that CP Rail targeted work contracts and immigration from Wales, due to their knowledge of mining and working through rock to build the rail line. It is a preponderance how many would settle and work for the early coal companies. A family aside for this writer, my Great-Granddad came to Montreal, QC for a short stint to work with CP Rail just for this reason.
Coal train from the Mac’s Store in Blairmore, AB proudly displayed in Countess, AB
Our community museum and gathering space also believes in sharing our history and artifacts with our neighbours. Bassano, the town named after the wealthy investor from Italy in CP Rail is just 5 minutes away (Countess was named after his wife, the Countess de Bassano). When they had a museum, we loaned out some great artifacts that we hope inspired present and future generations to keep searching out their stories.
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We also work with schools to bring in artifacts to aid their students in problem solving, hypothesis, and critical thinking in discovery of what it could be.
Doing newspaper archive research is fun for it creates a slice of life of the past that the only equivalent to understand today would be mining social media. Discovering day in the life of, sports, religion, history and the such. One of the most reported on stories in the Bassano Recorder during the 1930’s was the Red Cross drives. Why in the 1930’s? For those who do not know, it was the Great Depression. The stock market crashed in 1929, and then the droughts and grasshoppers hit the prairies like an Old Testament Cecil B. Demille movie. It is stories of neighbours helping neighbours.
This is inspirational when we look at the recent history of Countess that saw two back to back summers where we reached out to help our neighbour. The first is an all to familiar place for many families in Southern Alberta, Calgary’s Alberta’s Children’s Hospital.
We spent the summer with playhouse floats raising money, and taking names for a raffle draw at the end wind up. It involved our historic 1923 Hahn Pumper Truck, and our stage coach. In the end we raised $10, 686.89, and celebrated with a fun western themed BBQ extravaganza.
Countess Chronicle 