Pachyrhinosaurus Bonebed and the History of Alberta, Canada - Tuesday, July 12, 2022

Tuesday, as predicted, was a dreary, rainy-day washout. Thanks to our friends Jocelyne and Don Graham (who used to live in Grande Prairie, Alberta), for recommending the Centre 2000 free museum. It is located in the basement.

Upon entering the museum, we were greeted by the Pachyrhinosaurus new species, a horned dinosaur from 73 million years ago (late Cretaceous), around the time of the duck-billed hadrosaurs and the Tyrannosaurus rex.

Pachyrhinosaurus new species.

The dinosaur bone bed found in Alberta is the largest bonebed of predominantly one species in the world. This bonebed is unique in that it contains fossils of five different age sizes. Paleontologists concluded that the pachyrhinosaurs traveled in family groups. This allowed the adults to protect their young.

What a great start to a museum; learn about a new species of dinosaurs! But, there is so much more. For the space it occupies, this museum is jam-packed with information about Grande Prairie and Alberta. 

The museum flowed from the earliest known occupants of this area to current planetary concerns. Let's check out a few exhibits.

Read this, then see the chart below.

Formations (rock layers) over millenia.

The Great Glaciation arrived 25,000 years ago, covering most of Canada with the Laurentide Ice Sheet, a little over one-half mile thick (2 km). Glaciers also formed in the Rockies and into the valleys. At that time, there was so much ice that the sea level dropped and Alaska and Siberia were joined by a 500-mile-wide land bridge.

Wiconsinan glaciation.

Ammonites and where to find them.

After the Ice Age.

This is Alberta's Peace Country. The history in Centre 2000 details the Native population and how they lived with the land. With the arrival of the Hudson Bay Company, things changed dramatically. 

The Hudson Bay Company (HBC), 1670.

Canoes in a Fog, 1869 oil
painting by Frances Hopkins.

After the fur trade, came the settlers. Settlers arrived and claimed homesteading rights. 

Native people were displaced, much like in the United States. Their rights were taken away and treaties were made and broken.

The gold rush.

Treaty No. 8 extinguished aboriginal
claims on the land.

Main trails to the Peace Country 
before 1916.

Much of the major history of Alberta, Canada, paralleled our history in the United States. After settlement and working through hardship toward a better life, the Peace Country became embroiled in World War II. The United States wanted to develop a roadway through Alberta, British Columbia, and the Yukon to Alaska. The reason was to be able to get troops, tanks, supplies, and planes into Alaska to be closer to where the war was thought to be heading. 

Canadian authorities cooperated with the United States and thousands of U.S. troops flooded Canada to build roads and airports to allow the development of bases in Alaska. Major setbacks in building roads occurred when the U.S. troops insisted on building roads through muskeg and permafrost the same way they built roads in the United States. That did not work at all. 

It took cooperation with Natives and Canadian civilians who knew the makeup of the land, the geology, and the geography of the areas. They set the U.S. troops on the right road with construction techniques that suited the conditions. And still, to this day, Mother Nature has the last word.

I highly recommend you visit Centre 2000 to find out even more about the history of Alberta.

There are exhibits on beavers, trumpeter swans, the natural history of the Peace, the Metis people, airplanes, automobiles and riverboats, the German-speaking Sudeten immigrants from Czechoslovakia, the settling of the land before World War I, the time between the wars, the making of the oil pipeline, and the building of highways that got interrupted by World War II. You will find a lot of information about the oil fields of Alberta as well.  

There was one more exhibit room that had art from local artists. I loved walking through and looking at the diversity of techniques.

"Kakwa Falls," by Tim
Heimdal.

Attributions on "Kakwa Falls" art.

More gorgeous artwork by 
Tim Heimdahl.

Paintings by Carmen Haakstad of
Canola Fields in Peace Country.

After we finished a few hours in the museum, we went back to the 5th wheel and had dinner. At 6:30 pm, we returned to Centre 2000 to take a free two-hour bus tour of Grande Prairie that was put on by the Chamber of Commerce. Our guide on the bus was from Rotary International. 

We went all over town and out into the country to see a Rotary International kid's summer camp and campground, a Rotary City Campground (a nice place right downtown and open to the public), Evergreen Park horse racing, Wild Horse Casino and Lounge, TARA Event Centre, Coca Cola Centre (NHL-sized ice arenas), and many restaurants, hotels, and other businesses. 

We won a gift bag for coming from the farthest away! Check with Centre 2000 for the nights of the free bus tours. (I think it's Tuesdays and Thursdays.)

We had a great day exploring Grande Prairie! Thank you, Don and Jocelyne, for recommending things to see and do in Grande Prairie.