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Sunday, May 11, 2014

Our Day in Dawson Creek, British Columbia, Canada







Nine thousand people
live in Dawson Creek.






Dawson Creek sprang up in 1896, during the Klondike Gold Rush.   Entrepreneurs sold mining supplies, opened hotels and provided pack animals to hopeful miners.  When the gold rush faded, Dawson Creek all but faded away, from a population of ten thousand to just five hundred hearty souls.











The Alberta Pool Elevators
houses an art gallery.










The Surveyor Statue in Dawson 
Creek's largest traffic circle points
 northwest, the route of the 









Here we are, at the start






The United States declared war on Japan on December 8, 1941 after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. Alaska was an unguarded American asset and a Japanese airbase was just 750 miles away.  President Roosevelt sought and gained permission to build a supply road 1,523 miles from Dawson Creek, British Columbia to Fairbanks, Alaska.  The population of Dawson Creek grew from 500 to  over 10,000 in March, 1942 when it became the staging point for and southern end of the Alaska Highway.  Construction lasted just eight months.  On October 25, 1942 the northern and southern routes were joined.  







This Greyhound Bus tows
a trailer behind it.











This church is so cute!









Eric stands at the Alaska
Highway marker in
downtown Dawson Creek.






The Visitor Center in Alaska
Highway House is closed until
2 pm on Monday, May 12.






















sites with full hookups.












Some of the sites are
pull-throughs to accommodate
RVs & tow vehicles.












opens on June 1st.



























Dawson Creek
Regional Airport





















A 1956 Ford
in traffic













Memory Lane is the Dawson
Creek Art Mural District









Eric stands at the Alaska
Highway Marker Mural.






Two panels of a four panel
mural of a 1958 parade.






This nearby mural has a
very different theme.






It's Mother's Day and very few people were out this afternoon.  Eric and I felt that we had Dawson Creek all to ourselves.... This is probably an unusual experience.

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