Westworld Alberta
Issue link: http://westworldmagazine.ama.ab.ca/i/53603
PROMOTIONAL FEATURE DEH CHO SURPRISES ARL BROWN'S MISCHIEVOUS GRIN POKES OUT FROM HIS LONG WHITE BEARD as he cheerfully greets visitors to the Fort Nelson Heritage Museum's crammed car shed. The septuagenarian proudly displays vintage vehicles he has lovingly restored, including a 1908 McLaughlin Buick, as he shares stories of some of the places they have taken him. It's British Columbia's largest collection of still-operating classic cars. M He turns out to be one of many surprises on a journey along the Deh Cho Travel Connection, a route that travels through more than 20 communities in northeastern British Columbia, the southern Northwest Territories and northern Alberta. This 1,800-kilometre loop links the Alaska, Liard and Mackenzie Highways as it travels through rolling hills, mountain valleys and boreal forest. British Columbia Surprises Each year, people pull out power tools for Chetwynd's International Chainsaw Carving Championships. More than 85 wooden statues are displayed throughout town. The District of Taylor boasts the world's largest golf ball, and you can climb the hill featured on the reality television series Village on a Diet. The mountainous scenery near Tumbler Ridge nearly makes me want to move to the community. Dinosaurs got here long before me. Trackways – hiking trails for dinosaurs – were found in the area in 2000. Now visitors can poke around the Dinosaur Discovery Gallery and take a Trackway Tour. They can also drive to Monkman Provincial Park to see the 60-metre-high Kinuseo Falls and take a jet boat tour or paddle below the falls Coral Falls in Sambaa Deh Territorial Park, N.W.T.; (below) Fort Nelson Heritage Museum, B.C. in their own canoe or kayak. The tiny Hudson's Hope Museum has a nice display of the area's rich fur trade, pioneer and First Nations histories, as well as dinosaur bones, skeletons and fossils. A more modern invention is the nearby W.A.C. Bennett Dam – one of the world's largest earth-fi lled dams. The Alaska Highway, which celebrates its 70th anniversary in 2012, starts at Dawson Creek. A display at Alaska Highway House tells the story of how 10,000 soldiers built the highway. Being so far from home, they probably would have liked to step inside an RV in the museum to record a message for family and friends. Dawson Creek also has the Mile 0 Cairn & Arch – where the U.S. army staked the start of the highway. North of Fort St. John, at Charlie Lake, a memorial honours 12 U.S. soldiers who drowned in 1942 while building the highway. The Alaska Highway Veterans and Builders Memorial is in Fort Nelson. Alberta Oddities A giant Millennium Sundial stands outside Grande Prairie's Heritage Discovery Centre, a family-friendly museum that depicts the history of Peace River country. NORTHWEST TERRITORIES 43