Road Trip 2010: Day 13Dawson Creek, BC

This morning Terry and went down to Dawson Creek to take in the sights. There's the visitors' center with all its information and a nice little museum, a walking tour of the city , and...well..that's about it.

The visitor's center is located on the circle in town where Routes 2 and and 97 meet. It contains a museum of life during the building of the Alcan Highway (now known as the Alaskan Highway) and another of the wildlife to e seen along the highway between here and Fairbanks.

There are two plagues pointing the way to Alaska from the parking lot. As well as a statue of a US Army surveyor pointing the way.

Mile 0 Poster in the Visitors' Center parking lot.

After viewing the museums, we crossed the street and headed into town. First we stopped at the CIBC bank to change some US $$ for Canadian then we could look around a little more comfortably with some cash in our pockets.

Mile 0 Marker on 10th Street

In the middle of the intersection in front of the bank, was the Mile 0 Marker. It was from here that the Alcan Highway stretched northwestward to Fairbanks, Alaska in 1942.

The town of Dawson Creek has grown tremendously since the completion and modernization of the Alaskan Highway. Many of the old buildings are gone but the history remains. Plaques on many of the buildings give the history of what has been on that particular site and a provides a flavor of what the downtown must have been like.

One thing that stands out is the number of murals painted on the sides of the buildings in courtyards and small alleyways. These commemorate the cities past and the work on the Alcan Highway.

Mural celebrating the 50th anniversary of Dawson Creek's incorporation as a city.

More of the same.

One of many murals dedicated to the Alcan Highway.

Why more towns do not use murals to display their pride and history I do not know. They really add a great deal to the atmosphere of the town.

******

At 3 PM we drove back over to the Northern Lights Campground for "Happy Hour"--which turned into more of a "Happy 15 minutes" when a brief shower sent everyone running. That was enough time for us to connect with one other person who was staying at the Mile 0 Campground. She in turn, came over to our trailer and told us about two other couples staying at Mile 0 who invited us over for some wine and snacks. Once there two other couples also showed up. We ended up with 11 people who were going on the caraventure sitting around getting to know one another. Then we called the wagon master and his second in command to come over and join us in what quickly became a bonding session. Even the little bit of rain that dared spritz our little party did not dampen our spirits.

Tomorrow we all move over to Northern Lights for our final information/preparation session.