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March 2, 2009
Highway 37 North, known to locals as the "Stewart-Cassiar Highway", runs from Kitimat on the coast to its intersection with the Alaska Highway just north of the BC-Yukon border. Highway 37 opened up this part of Northern BC to tourists and mining exploration when it was officially opened in the early 1970's. Originally a gravel road, most of the highway is now either paved or sealcoated to provide a much nicer driving experience. While most tourists only see this road in the summer, many Northerners driving it in the winter when traffic is light and road construction has ended. Travelling wilderness highways in the winter does take a lot of preparation - you must make sure you always have enough fuel and carry enough gear to survive a cold winter night in case of a breakdown. As there isn't much traffic this time of year, although the driving is good, you may have to wait a few hours for help to arrive if you have a problem.
This page was last updated March 30, 2009
March 9, 2009
We decided early on in the life of hollowaybar.com that we wanted to use the website to allow others a glimpse into Northern life, and one of the ways we've done this is with our webcams. One of our most popular site pages, the webcam page is rapidly approaching 60,000 views. The Lakelse Lake webcam and view seen here was one of last year's additions and uploads its images to the Internet every minute or two using a satellite Internet connection. Our mine cameras, which run only in the summer, also upload their pictures using another satellite Internet system. We also have cameras in Watson Lake so that visitors can get a glimpse of the Yukon weather and some of the local flying wildlife at the "bird feeder cam", and in several locations in Terrace overlooking the city, the latest recipient of the Kraft Hockeyville prize. Our webcams have caught some interesting sights so far and will continue to do so in the future.
March 16, 2009
Travelling wilderness roads not only requires being prepared for almost any type of vehicle situation that arises, but also requires keeping a close watch for game that might be on or near the road. A collision with one of these big animals can cause a massive amount of vehicle damage as well as possibly injure the passengers. Most of the time they're fairly easy to spot and tend to leave the roadway when a vehicle approaches, like these caribou seen in December in Gnat Pass, just south of Dease Lake. However, if you're driving Northern roads, particularly near dawn or dusk, many animals are moving around not paying much attention to oncoming traffic. Worse yet if startled, they might run right out in front of your automobile leaving you no time to avoid a collision. The best way to avoid problems with large animals is to take it slow and always drive under the assumption that something is lurking around the next corner...
March 23, 2009
You have to get your hands dirty to go placer mining. Once you stake your claim (electronically through Mineral Titles Online in BC these days), you have to get out to your property and start prospecting. Prospectors spend lots of time looking pouring over maps and pictures of their lands trying to find the most likely hiding spot for gold. They imagine when and where water flowed over the ground, speculate on what he glaciers left behind when they melted, and even try to figure the most likely source of the gold. Only when there's a clear vision will the shovels come out and the testing and sampling process begin. Many holes are dug and pails filled with dirt to be packed back to camp (or the nearest water source) where it's panned to discover its secrets. Somes places are flagged for more testing and others are passed over - but the goal is always to find a good source of gold-bearing gravels that can be dug out and mined.
March 30, 2009
Early explorers heading up the Skeena River from the coast were watched closely as they left the coast near Prince Rupert. Legaix, a Tshimshian chief of the Eagle clan, marked his territory in the mid-1700's with this image of his face painted onto a rock cliff near the mouth of the Skeena. The artists were lowered from the top of the cliff in baskets to apply their paint, a mixture of ochre-earth with salmon eggs as a binder. Legaix, known as the "chief of the mountains", developed a large trading network starting in the 18th century with the British, Russian, and American traders who had discovered that northern coastal peoples had access to a wealth of furs. This pictograph is visible from Highway 16, but the area contains many other messages from ancient peoples in more inaccessible areas like the petroglyphs carved into the rocks further inland at Kitselas on the Skeena River just upstream from Terrace.
