page_title: Big Valley, Alberta
section_title: Historical places
hierarchical_section_title: Big Valley, Alberta / History / Historical places
caption_attribution_description: Jimmie Jock Boardwalk in Big Valley, Alberta
context_page_description: Big Valley is a village in central Alberta south east of Red Deer. It is located 32 km south of Stettler and 64 km north of Drumheller on Highway 56 in the County of Stettler No. 6.
context_section_description: St. Edmund's Church
  
  St. Edmund's Anglican Church on the hill (the Blue Church) was built in 1916.  It was started by a financial gift from Mrs. Caroline Leffler (in England) who raised the $500.00 down payment by making, and selling, children's clothing.  She sent the money to the Anglican Diocese in Calgary, asking that it be used to help start an Anglican church anywhere in western Canada that they saw fit.  At that time Big Valley, with its booming mining, ranching, and railroading industries in full swing, made it a logical spot for a new church. Walter Dennis, a local craftsman, built St. Frances Museum.
  The building contains the original pews (with a few additions), pump organ, and other furnishings.  The last regular church service was held in the 1960s and the building soon became very weather-worn.  A nearly broke Homecoming 1974 group obtained some unclaimed blue paint from a local lumber yard and the once cream-coloured church became blue.
  Jimmie Jock Boardwalk
  The Jimmy Jock Boardwalk is named after a Chinese restaurateur, named Jimmy Jock, who ran a restaurant on that site, for many years, until he died.  The building was torn down and the space remained empty for many years, until 1992 when a couple of local entrepreneurs came up with the Boardwalk concept.  Today it houses many unique little shops and displays for locals and tourists to enjoy.
caption: Jimmie Jock Boardwalk
exif: {"Image Make": "Hewlett-Packard", "Image Model": "hp 635 Digital Camera", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "HP Firmware Ver 1.57.38", "Image DateTime": "2006:06:02 23:07:19", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image Copyright": "Copyright, HP Corp, 2003", "Image ExifOffset": "306", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "928", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "14074", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/1394", "EXIF FNumber": "29/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "50", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2006:06:02 23:07:19", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2006:06:02 23:07:19", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "2089/200", "EXIF ApertureValue": "28/5", "EXIF BrightnessValue": "58/5", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "29/10", "EXIF SubjectDistance": "29/5", "EXIF MeteringMode": "CenterWeightedAverage", "EXIF LightSource": "Daylight", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, auto mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "26/5", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1600", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1200", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "804", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "0/0", "EXIF Saturation": "Hard", "EXIF Sharpness": "Hard", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "3"}