Pioneer Village ... Life in Dawson Creek!!

As you can read, Walter Wright is responsible for the Pioneer Village here in Dawson Creek.  Buildings have been moved here and furnished with donations from other families in this area to give you an idea of what life was like in the early 1900's.

This rather large log cabin has many rooms, including four bedrooms upstairs.  The inside ceilings had been covered with paper and the walls whitewashed.

What an amazing stove ... I could cook on this!!!  From the Dutch Oven to the waffle maker, this homemaker had it all.

The living room was fully furnished, including a piano and an old quilt wall hanging that was hand sewn.

This building is the Dawson Creek Schoolhouse, complete with wood stove and desks.

The inside of the St. Paul's Anglican church is rather austere.  The Pastors/Ministers went from church to church by horseback in the summer months.

This cabin was built by Mr. Marion and his brother, early cooks who came to make their fortune on a small parcel of homesteaded land.  First living in an 8'x8' cabin, he built this one (not much bigger) for his wife and 10 kids.  It has a living room, a kitchen and 3 bedrooms upstairs.  Pretty cozy for 12 people!!

Farming was one of the major occupations in this area, with harvesters like this one gathering all the grain.   This bunch was pretty inventive ... if it required a horse to pull it, they took old truck and tractor parts and made it self-propelled.

When World War II began, the Alaska Highway project became extremely important to the U.S.  Here's one of the trucks used on the highway.

This MAC truck was used to haul supplies to those building the highway up until it was retired in the 80's.   Truck drivers were paid $1.49 an hour.  They traveled all of 45 mph on the gravel road.

This is a closeup of the log cabin dove tailing.  It was amazing how precise they were with the cuts and how well they fit together.  

Reflections of the coming storm that we got caught in coming back from the grocery store.  When it rains here, it pours!!!  One hour later the sun was out.

Here's one of the original cafes in Dawson Creek ... food was cooked on the old wood stove.  

George Dawson was the first settlor here ... this advertisement for his town was an effort to get people to come to this area.

From Pioneer Village, we went to the Railroad Museum, which also had memorabilia on the Alaska Highway.  It was amazing the amount of stuff that was donated, including a beautiful purple wedding dress made in Paris France.  Both of these museums are a definite MUST if you drive the Alaska Highway.

Next to the train station was this grain elevator.  Farmers brought their grain to this building, where it rode elevators to the top and then down the chutes to the waiting trains.

Dawson Creek is a lot larger than I expected, but seems to be stuck in the 40's when it increased in size drastically due to the road building.  I must say I'm spoiled by the Super Walmarts ... because the ones here aren't super at all, but pretty old and tired looking.  

Today we start up the Alaskan Highway ...