W.A.C. Bennett Dam, Hudson's Hope BC

Rick was probably most impressed along this trip by our tour of the Bennett Dam just outside Hudson's Hope. It is a completely earthen dam, built between 1961 and 1968 at great cost and effort by our most famous of Premier's W.A.C. Bennett and the Crown Corporation of BC Hydro who manages it to this day. The reservoir for the dam is 227 miles long, and covers 410,000 acres.  The structure is the world's largest earth-filled structure. The dam itself is 600 feet high with 10 generators and produces one third of the total power needs for the province of British Columbia (13 billion kilowatt hours annually).

We enjoyed our tour of the visitor centre, and then a one hour tour of the power house itself, which is buried into the bedrock behind the dam. We were driven by bus down 500 feet into the bowels of the dam where a guide gave us instruction about the entire process of power generation.

The earthen dam with power house on the left side, reservoir on the right.

Bill and Rick inside the visitor centre.

Showing the size of the drainage basin for the dam and the Peace River.

The bus took us down 500 feet into the backside of the dam at the level of the bottom of the power house which we entered on the right side. Ahead of us is the dam itself. It was filled with rocky material from a terminal moraine approximately 6 miles away and brought by conveyor belt to the dam site. It was a long and extremely difficult task.

Inside we visited the generator room which is the size of the Titanic with 10 turbine generators set beneath the floor. Each turbine is fed with lake water through a 5 and a half metre diameter tube.

Next we progressed to the area of the manifold which carries the water from the turbines out of the power house into the Peace River...

Back up at the parking lot, we took the truck across the dam to the other side...

The roadway is a narrow 2 lane track, and the down hill side gave us some very impressive views of the outflow of the Peace River away from the power house.

The viewpoint on the far side of the dam shows the reservoir on the left side, the top of the dam where  we drove across, the earthen side of the dam and the Peace River exiting from the power house at the base of the dam.

Of all the days spent in travel, this was by the far the most impressive experience we had!!

Ontario to BC.....Across the Mighty Land

The comments will be brief, unlike the long trip which took three 8-10 hour days to accomplish. Not that there weren't many interesting things on the prairie to stop and see, but they are all difficult to photograph from a moving truck.

Entering Manitoba..

The surprisingly green and lush town of Neepawa, childhood home to our well-known Canadian writer, Margaret Lawrence.

Most of Manitoba is either under water or just plain wet.

The part that isn't grows excellent grain.

Some of the land actually undulates...

Saskatchewan.

More wheat.

Ukrainian settlements...

The city of Saskatoon thriving with over 200,000 inhabitants and all the accoutrements of any larger city like traffic jams, freeways, commercial strips and so on (sigh),,,

Crossing the North Saskatchewan River just outside Saskatoon...

Rivers are king in the northern areas...mighty ones that flow either south in to the Mississippi basin or north into the Arctic basin

Some of the Agricultural might of the prairies...first the old fashioned version

And now the modern ones...

Crossing into Alberta...

Trust me, this is the provincial border (the red posts) that divides the town of Lloydminster into its double identity. I hope the folks there can deal with the potential confusion this must cause...

Skirting Edmonton.  Self explanatory.

North Saskatchewan River...

The small river of Pembina ...

The town of Beaver Lodge, Alberta...

Somewhere along the way we crossed into Beautiful British Columbia. Not only Beautiful but Modest because there was no sign!!

The town is Dawson Creek, and mile zero for the Alaska Highway...

The River is now the mighty Peace River at Taylor. This river you will meet several times and especially at the WAC Bennett Dam in Hudson's Hope (pop about 1,000) ahead..this river  has a huge drainage area (which you will see in the next blog) that flows north eventually to the Arctic basin drainage system.

Beautiful BC lives up to its name. Almost immediately the land rises up and envelopes you in virgin forest and foothills of the Rocky Mountains.

In a short time we plunge down the banks of the Peace River towards Hudson's Hope...

This is the Valley of the Peace, an extremely fertile northern valley with some of the best soil in the country. The only thing that limits its potential is its location in the far north and the shortness of the growing season.

At last we reach our destination for the next few days, the small community of Hudson's Hope, home to my cousin Bill Lindsay. His dad and my mom were first cousins and they grew up in Weston Ontario together in adjoining homes. Bill grew up in Guelph Ontario whereas my sister and I grew up near Woodbridge Ontario. As he had no sisters and I had no brothers (I always really wanted one), I have appointed Bill my unofficial "brother"...I am sure that Rick's cousins Sue and Carol among others will understand exactly how I feel!!

Next blog will be all about this sweet, historic and very friendly very northern community of Hudson's Hope and the great and mighty Peace River and it's WAC Bennett Dam.