Fantasy Caravan Day 13 - Dawson's Creek, BC

We arrived at Dawson Creek at the end of a rather long travel day on day 12.

Our Fantasy Ambassadors (tail gunners (Julie) and wagon masters (Judi and Ken)) had made spaghetti dinner for us!

Gathered in the meeting room at Northern Lights RV Park and Cabins

Salad and spaghetti and meatballs (there was also bread and coconut cake)

Two young people from the Dawson Creek Visitor's Center came to share some information about Dawson Creek and the Alaskan Highway and other things we might find of interest:

• British Columbia has a population of about 5 million, Texas has a population of 30 million, the whole country of Canada has a population of 38.5 million, USA has a population of 333 million.
• History - Dawson Creek was named for George Mercer Dawson, a surveyor in the late 1800s.
• In the 1920s, Dawson Creek was the dominant business centre for the rural area.
  
• In the early 1930s, the railroad built its western terminus 2 miles from Dawson Creek (the story we were told was that the farmer who owned the land where they wanted to built the terminus wanted too much for his land so they selected a site 2 miles out of town). Not to be defeated, the town moved its buildings 2 miles to relocate where the railroad would be. They evidently rolled the buildings using logs as rollers. The large two story Co-op building (general store) took about 2.5 weeks to move. The businesses continued doing business as they were moved ("Where is the Co-op store today?"). 
• The train station now houses the visitor center.
• In 1941, the town had about 500 residents.
• In 1942, with the US entry into World War II by the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States decided that there needed to be an overland route to Alaska. Thousands of US Army personnel, engineers, and contractors poured into Dawson Creek, the terminal of rail transport, to construct the Alaska Highway. The ~1500 mile highway was completed in less than a year in 1942 (March 9 - October 28, 1942).
• Milepost 0 is at the traffic circle in Dawson Creek (it used to be in the middle of the traffic circle, but they determined it was unsafe for pedestrians wanting to take pictures!).
  

On Thursday morning, we got together for our travel meeting to prepare for Friday, and then all joined together at the 0 mile marker...

Carl and me at the 0 mile point

Our Fantasy ambassadors -- Julie & Jeff (tail gunners) and Judi and Ken (wagon masters)

There was a group picture taken too and I think we are all supposed to get a copy -- so I'll try to post that later.

A "Sticker Forest" at Dawson Creek

An early grain elevator has been re-purposed into being used as an art gallery.

Some history

We had heard that there was a portion of the Old Alaska Highway and one of the old bridges (wooden) just a few miles out of town, so Carl and I drove there...

On the current Alaska Highway, the signs indicated that the bridge on the old road was closed...

... just in case you missed the first sign!

After we had turned off the main Alaska Highway, this was on the old road...

There were barriers preventing any vehicle traffic, but it was okay to walk onto the bridge.

Parts of it appeared to have been recently renovated (the guard rail looked like it was new or newly painted).

The top decking of the bridge was missing in places.

The bridge was curved and banked.

It almost looked like the boards were curved. Carl said that he has gotten curved boards at Home Depot, but they weren't for an application where he *needed* a curved board!

We drove back into town to get gas for the Jeep and some cat food for Miss Kitty -- this time we went around the traffic circle near the mile 0 marker and I got a picture of the surveyor statue that is still in the middle of the traffic circle.

Dawson Creek was a nice place to stop for a couple of days; we'll be driving each of the next three days.