End Of An Era For The Stettler Motel

The demolition of the Stettler Motel has begun...

The Stettler Motel suffered incredible damage when a fire broke out and blazed through some of the rooms on Friday, November 18th, 2016, just after 9 am.

No one was hurt in the fire and the occupants of the apartment where the fire originated were not home at the time.

At the time of the incident the Fire Marshall drew attention to Christmas decorations and lights being something to be mindful of during the holiday season.

Later inspection would indicate that the building itself was unable to be salvaged and plans began that would lead to this eventual demolition.

More recently crews worked diligently to remove the interior contents and asbestos prior to demolition to minimize the risks.

At 7:30 am on December, 10th, 2019, Wally's Backhoe Services, Ltd.'s demolition crew moved in equipment and fencing in preparation of the event.

The Stettler Motel definitely took longer to build than to demolish. The whole process will only take a couple of days to complete.

At the end of the first day, heavy equipment sits outside what is left of the Stettler Motel. At the halfway point now it won't take long to wrap things up tomorrow.

Originally built in 1953, the area surrounding the Stettler Motel sure didn't look much like it does today.

It featured state of the art modern amenities for the era and underwent little as far as changes over the years, looking almost the same up till today as when it was originally constructed.

Work was underway once again at 8:30 am on December 11th, 2019.

Heavy equipment makes light work of months worth of building construction as The Stettler Motel is crumbled under the weight of the hoe's arm and bucket.

Front end loader quickly picking up the resulting debris and transporting it to the awaiting truck.

It's already starting to look a lot different on location as the second half of the demolition gets underway.

Hoe operator Levi Baker looks out from the cab of his Hitachi ZX210 as he waits for the loader to clear away some of the debris.

Then it's back to work tearing away at the structure to keep the ball rolling, each person on location playing their part to get the job done as part of the team.

It doesn't take long for the pile to build up again as the hoe and loader quickly work together in tandem.

The loader operator piles debris into a heap to make it make easily transferred into the waiting dump trucks.

The view from Highway 12 is starting to look a lot different. Local residents will likely notice it being gone once the project is finished.

With more snow in the forecast the crew works tirelessly to get the project wrapped up as snowflakes continue to fall.

Another view of the scene shows a chimney standing as if in defiance. Unfortunately it's no match for the large machines.

Dump trucks begin to line up as the hoe operator starts filling them up one by one.

A dust cloud erupts as a load of debris is dumped into the first truck in the lineup.

It doesn't take long before each truck is filled and off to dump their load and then it's right back into the lineup to await their next load.

No time is wasted as the trucks are quickly filled leaving only one left in line. As the trucks head to the landfill it's back to work with the demolition for the equipment operators.

It won't be long before the building that is home to KFC will be visible from this vantage point.

The sun helps to warm things up a bit, although with the current temperature on location sitting at roughly -12 °C, nobody wants to stand around long.

The view looking east will eventually reveal the Dairy Queen in the background once the entire motel structure has been removed.

Before too long the rest of the structure begins to give way as the process continues, by noon the last of The Stettler Motel began to crumble.

The hoe continues to smash through the remaining walls as the last of the structure succumbs to the violent force of the heavy equipment.

The final suites can be seen under the bucket as the ceiling is dismantled.

Before too long the hoe is able to climb on top what remains as the loader begins to assist in piling the debris while awaiting the dump trucks.

Not much left of the building, now all that's left is to load the trucks.

Everything went smoothly allowing Wally's Backhoe Services Ltd. to complete the demolition process quickly and without incident.

The trucks begin to once again line up and the hoe and loader continue to work together to get the rest of the structure into them.

The Dairy Queen sign is visible after being exposed by the now demolished building.

As the mid day sun hangs in the sky a large void begins to appear where The Stettler Motel once stood.

Just a few more loads left before all traces of The Stettler Motel completely disappear forever and with it the memories of all those who ever stayed there. There were likely a lot!

By 4 pm only the equipment and some safety fencing remains of the site where The Stettler Motel once stood.

It's a pretty drastic change to the view Stettlerites are accustomed to after over 60 years.

Yet still very different than what it looked like before it was built all those many years ago.

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