Fort St. John continued

Road Trip

​A fabulous surprise, well, near-surprise, was the arrival on Friday of daughter Katie who flew up from Vancouver for the weekend.
 
Now a threesome, we headed off to Hudson's Hope and the W.A.C. Bennett Dam. ​

Uncle Garnet took me there by bus back in 1964 when it was under construction--I recall seeing the ant-like trucks way below as they hauled dirt into what became an enormous earth dam. This time we were bused 500 feet underground to view the turbines and get a sense of the history and magnitude of the project.
We are given information on how turbines work as well as an overview of the BC power grid and the immensity of impact this dam and its companion the Peace River  dam has. Also some of the geological history in the area and the fact that dinosaurs were once there. There is a brief mention of the displacement of mostly Aboriginal people when the giant lake was created. The current public issue is the latest dam project, Site C, a hot button topic that seems to out shine the pipeline controversies swirling throughout the province.

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http://www.dawsoncreekmirror.ca/regional-news/site-c/bc-hydro-acknowledges-w-a-c-bennett-dam-s-dark-side-1.2275956

​https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._A._C._Bennett_Dam

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The excursion was a good break from installation work and the artist talk tomorrow afternoon.