It's All Fun and Games Until Someone Knocks a Car Over

 

 

Hey KassDays Fam!

Crossfield’s Elks derby is one of those Alberta afternoons that still looks like the town put it on itself. Rodeo grounds, dirt in the air, painted beaters lined up, and a crowd that came to watch cars get used up for a good cause.

This year’s video is trackside through the mess. Big hits. Radiators cooking off steam. Then the moment the title promised — somebody actually knocks a car over. After the main heats you get the rest of a Crossfield card: lawnmower racing, and a human mud race that sends people home looking like they lost a fight with the infield.

No scripted drama. Just local drivers, metal folding, and the kind of chaos you only get when the event is also a community fundraiser.

Full episode is on the KassDays YouTube channel:
https://youtu.be/PX5NcGl9LlY

If you like the real small-town motorsport days — the ones with mud on the lens and a car on its roof — this one’s worth the watch.

 

Draft Horses Pulling Timber at Pioneer Acres, Irricana

 

 

At Pioneer Acres during Alberta’s Pioneer Steam Power Festival, the steam engines get most of the noise. The horses still do some of the oldest work on the grounds.

A team of black draft horses, harnessed with red-trimmed collars and traces, leaned into a heavy timber and walked it across the dry yard. One handler walked behind with the lines. No engine, no whistle—just weight, footing, and the sound of hooves on packed grass. This is the other half of the show: before traction engines broke sod and ran threshers, this is how timber, stone, and implements moved.

The log is the point. It is not a pretty wagon. It is a dead weight on a chain, the kind of pull that used to happen every day on a farm or in a woodlot. The horses stay in step. The driver stays quiet. The crowd watches because you can see the work in their shoulders.

Pioneer Acres puts steam and horsepower on the same weekend on purpose. One did not instantly replace the other. For a long time both were on the same farms. Watching a team walk a timber past a metal-clad shed and a horse trailer is a clean reminder of that overlap.

If you are there for the Case engines and the Parade of Power, stay for this. The horses do not need a boiler. They still move the load.

Walking the Debris: A Hike Through Canada’s Deadliest Rockslide

 

 

On April 29, 1903, Turtle Mountain—long known by Indigenous people as “The Mountain That Moves”—unleashed one of the most catastrophic natural disasters in Canadian history. In roughly 100 seconds, approximately 82 million tonnes of limestone tore free and roared down into the Crowsnest Pass, permanently reshaping the landscape and burying part of the town of Frank, Alberta.

More than a century later, that vast boulder field remains. The Frank Slide Interpretive Centre sits at the edge of it, and just outside the doors begins a 1.5-kilometre self-guided interpretive trail that winds directly through the debris.

In our latest video we follow that trail with the official brochure in hand. We pause at the historical markers, look closely at the geology that made Turtle Mountain so unstable, and notice how nature is slowly, steadily reclaiming the rugged terrain. House-sized blocks of limestone still dominate the scene, yet patches of grass, wildflowers, and determined trees are pushing through the cracks.

A secondary camera mounted on a backpack offers a different perspective—one that shows just how small a person feels while picking a path between those massive rocks. It is equal parts humbling and fascinating.

This is the second video in our exploration of the Frank Slide. Where the first focused on the broader story of the disaster, this one puts boots on the ground and lets the landscape speak for itself.

If you enjoy authentic regional history, dramatic Canadian scenery, and the chance to walk through a place where geology and human history collided with devastating force, the trail is well worth the visit—and the video is a solid preview of what awaits.

Watch “Walking the Debris: Hiking Through Canada’s Deadliest Landslide” on the KassDays YouTube channel.

Antique Open Trucks at Pioneer Acres: A Glimpse of Prairie Pioneer Power

Pioneer Acres Trucks 

Hey KassDays Fam!

A couple of weeks back I headed out to Irricana for the annual Pioneer Acres Show (this year’s big Steam Power Festival edition, August 7–9). If you’ve never been, it’s pure Alberta heritage heaven—steam engines hissing, antique tractors pulling, horse teams working the fields, and a whole lot of early motor vehicles that look like they just rolled out of a 1910s farmyard.

One of the stands-outs for me was this beautifully restored early 20th-century open truck sitting in the display barn. Bright green body with red accents, tall vertical radiator, black bench seats, wooden cargo box piled with period sacks, and those classic red spoke wheels wearing diamond-tread tires. The overall brass-era proportions and the badge on the radiator scream Peerless (or a very close period commercial cousin).

Peerless, out of Cleveland, Ohio, is better remembered today for its luxury cars—one of the famous “Three Ps” alongside Packard and Pierce-Arrow. But from about 1911 to 1918 they also built solid commercial trucks in the 3- to 6-ton range. Survivors are scarce, especially on the Canadian prairies, so seeing one this well-restored and complete felt special. The chain-drive-era chassis, wooden bed, and open cab are exactly the kind of workhorse that would have been hauling grain, supplies, or harvest crews around Alberta a century ago.

Parked nearby were a couple of other period open trucks/commercials—one with a wooden cab in brown tones and another partial chassis with yellow wheels—making a nice little cluster of early motorized freight history. These machines sit right at the transition point between horse-drawn wagons and the modern truck, and Pioneer Acres does a fantastic job of showing them in context with the steam traction engines and threshing demos that were the weekend’s big feature.

If you’re into cars, trucks, steam, or just prairie history, mark your calendar for next year’s Pioneer Acres Annual Show. It’s an easy drive from Calgary, the grounds are packed with living history, and you never know what rare iron you’ll find sitting quietly in a corner.

Did you make it out to Irricana this year? Spot any other cool antique trucks or steamers? Drop your stories (or photos) in the comments—I’d love to hear them!

Safe travels and keep exploring Alberta’s hidden corners,
Kass
#PioneerAcres #Irricana #AntiqueTrucks #Peerless #SteamShow #AlbertaHeritage #KassDays

 

Walking the Frank Slide with KassDays

 

 

Kass is back on the move — this time across the boulder-strewn landscape of the Frank Slide, Canada’s deadliest rockslide.

At 4:10 a.m. on April 29, 1903, roughly 110 million tonnes of limestone tore free from Turtle Mountain in Alberta’s Crowsnest Pass. In about 90–100 seconds the rock raced across the valley, burying the eastern edge of the town of Frank, two kilometres of railway, and the coal mine works. Between 70 and more than 90 people lost their lives; most still lie beneath the debris.

The mountain’s unstable folded geology was the main culprit, with coal mining and freeze-thaw weather adding the final push. Local Indigenous peoples had long called it “the mountain that moves.”

Today the massive scar and the chaotic field of grey rocks remain a powerful sight. In the new video Kass walks right through it, sharing the story while standing among the same boulders that fell more than a century ago.

The full episode is on the KassDays YouTube channel. Come walk the rocks with us.

 

Street Legal SuperCars at the Okotoks Show and Shine

New video coming this Wednesday at 11:30 a.m. on the KassDays YouTube channel.

I spent a sunny day walking the 2025 Okotoks Show & Shine in Olde Towne and it delivered far more than the usual classics. Alongside rows of beautifully restored trucks and vintage cars — including a sharp 1950s Chevy Task Force pickup — sat a genuine street-legal Lamborghini Countach with its scissor doors raised high. That bright red Lambo drew a constant crowd and completely changed the feel of the show.

What started as a local car gathering turned into a mix of classic American iron, custom builds, and pure supercar presence. The streets were packed, the details were sharp, and the energy was high from start to finish.

Watch the full walkthrough when it goes live Wednesday:

https://youtu.be/cZVspHz8p_8

See you there.

 

Yes, This Town Is Actually Called Chicken!

 

 

Tucked along the Taylor Highway in Interior Alaska sits one of the quirkiest stops on the road: the tiny community of Chicken. Legend has it that early gold miners wanted to name the place Ptarmigan after the plentiful local birds (Alaska’s state bird, which looks a bit like a chicken). When no one could agree on how to spell “ptarmigan,” they settled on the simpler, safer choice—Chicken.

Today the town still leans fully into the name. A tall wooden chicken statue greets visitors on the porch, holding a pan of eggs, while a café, saloon, gift shops, and gold-panning opportunities keep the old mining spirit alive. It’s a genuine little tourist stop where you can stretch your legs, grab a souvenir, and experience a unique slice of Alaska that few places can match.

Check out the short video from our visit and see this cheerful chicken for yourself:
https://youtube.com/shorts/zj8L-LOnvz8

Sometimes the best road-trip memories come from the places with the strangest names.