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GORDON M. SHRUM generating station near Hudson’s Hope (B.C. Govt photo].

Some 100 million years ago, huge dinosaurs
lumbered through the tropical swamps and forests
__of northern British Cotumbia, an area now known

as the Big Peace River Country. °

Over geological time the
area has alternated between
tropical, warmth and glacial
‘chill as'a series of ice ages

periodically sheeted the re-'
gion.

Today, of course, the area
boasts of rolling, rich range
‘and farmlands, vast forests
and mineral deposits, untold -
oil and gas reserves, and...
one of the. world’s great
hydro-electric projects.

During the last thaw some
15,000 years ago, a slow-
moving glacier blocked the
mighty Peace River with a
deposit of earth and snow.
The undaunted river was
forced to cut a new path in
the narrow jagged form of
the Peace River Canyon.

IDEAL FOUNDATION

This left modern man a
valuable legacy: the canyon
provided an ideal foundation
for a huge dam and the
moraine, the deposit left only
four miles away, contained
more than 100 million tons of
fill to build it.

Tracks of some of the giant
dinosaurs were found during
the excavation work for the
dam’s power plant. Today,
casts of these imprints are
displayed at the Peace River
Project’s comfortable Tourist
Lookout, perched on the rim
of the Peace River Canyon
just downsteam from the
dam.

Other remnants of past
ages are exhibited at the
Control Building and include
plant and turtle fossils and
pieces of carbonized wood
believed to be from a forest
fire in the area 40,000 years
apo.

An 11,645-year-old mam-
moth tusk was also found and
is now part of the commem-
orative monument on the
640-square-mile — reservoir,
Williston Lake, is the pro-

Highway.

vince’s largest inland body of
water.- Backing up a total of
225 miles into and along the
Rocky Mountain Trench, it
stores = up to 57 million
acre-feet of run-off trapped
from a catchment area: as

large as the province of New
Brunswick.

RECREATIONAL FUTURE

The lake provides a new
water transportation route
for resource industries and
has an immense potential for

future recreational develop:

ment.

Alaska Highway communi-
ties of Dawson Creek and
Fort St. John, or from
Chetwynd on the Hart

Tours at: the project site
begin at the visitor reception
centre on the top floor of the
transf

control building al above the

power plant. Here you can

watch the control console.

from which the complex
operation is directed. Slides,
movies, and displays illus-
trate the project’s construc-
tion saga and_ the Tegion’ s
historic past.

Then -you can descend
hundreds of feet into a
cavern -- blasted from

bedrock 500 feet below the.
shoulder, as long.

dam’s east
as three football fields, as
high as a 15-storey building,
and as wide as a four-lane
highway -- housing ~the
mighty underground power
plant. Here you can stop at
one of the subterranean
manifold chambers where
water surges from 310,000-
horsepower turbines at a rate
of more than 10 million
gallons a minute. ;

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT

FOR NORTH SHORE
SHOPPERS FROM PARK ROYAL
SHOPP

For Your Convenience....

Park Royal Shopping Centre will be open for evening
shopping until 9:00 p.m. on Wednesday, June 29th due to
the Dominion Day holiday falling on Friday, July tst.

Shoppers therefore have two evenings to shop prior to the
July 1st holiday.

ne ee

-Mountain

MACKENZI©®’S ROUTE

This is the power plant of
¢ Gordon M. Shrum
Generating. Station where
electricity is produced for

delivery to the population

centres of British Columbia.:

Ah! the marvels of modern
technology. ‘

To cap a memorable visit,
a picnic at the beautiful Alvin
Holland Park is a must. Or
take a walk. down’ Rock
Mountain Portage Road,
which leads from the project
to the uniquely picturesque
community - or Hudson’s
Hope. This 12-mile journey
east follows the route. taken
by Sir Alexander Mackenzie
in 1793 on his famous
expedition around Portage
to bypass the
canyon.

page 17 - June 22, 1977 - North Shore News

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a4

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