DIGGING
FOR DINOSAURS & PANNING FOR GOLD: There’s no shortage of fun
at British Columbia’s Museums
by Laurie Cooper
It sounds like something out of a storybook. A
young girl and her father are walking along the banks of a Vancouver
Island river looking for fossils. Suddenly, instead of a
run-of-the-mill fossil, they find a bone – then another, and
another.
After gathering up a dozen bones, they come across
a large boulder-shaped rock with a set of teeth. They have just
discovered an Elasmosaur, an 80-million year old marine reptile, the
first to be discovered west of the Rockies.
I heard this story from Pat Trask. He is the
little girl’s uncle and works at the Courtenay
Museum and Palaeontology Centre in Courtenay, BC. All year
round, Pat takes families on fossil-hunting tours to the same spot
where the Elasmosaur was found.
The expeditions include an animated lecture
followed by a two-hour search for fossils. And here’s the best
part - you get to keep any fossils you find. "Unless you find
another rare reptile," chuckles Pat. "Then we’ll ask you
to donate it to the museum."
I met Pat while researching interesting British
Columbia museums to visit. Of course I want them to be fun, but I
also want to learn something along the way. And when it comes to
making learning fun, British Columbia’s museums have got all the
right answers.
Understandably, not many would be thrilled by a
dry lecture on geology and mining, but faces light up as you strap
on a hardhat and climb aboard the underground train at the British
Columbia’s Museum of Mining at Britannia Beach.
And who could resist the opportunity to pan for
gold with Yukon Dan, a genuine prospector. You can bank on leaving
with a few flakes of shiny gold dust in your pockets.
The budding artist won’t even realize they are
soaking up a Canadian history lesson as they take an art class with
Emily Carr at the Royal
British Columbia Museum in Victoria.
The Museum
of Northern British Columbia in Prince Rupert transports you
back 10,000 years in time. The museum is structured like a
traditional longhouse and the exhibits explore the history and
culture of the Northwest First Nations People. Visitors will
experience plays and art workshops celebrating British Columbia’s
rich Native culture.
Before British Columbia’s Okanagan Valley was
transformed into manicured, symmetrical orchards it was wide-open
cattle range. The British Columbia Orchard Museum in Kelowna is
chock full of old-fashioned equipment used to pick and pack the
Okanagan’s fruit a century ago. Visitors will especially love the
50-foot model train, which demonstrates how the fruit was
transported far and wide.
In the same building, the historical Laurel
Packinghouse is home to the British
Columbia Wine Museum. Explore the complete history of
winemaking with vintage bottles from Ancient Greece, Rome and the
Middle East. The Museum also has a great wine shop on-site you can
take a little taste of the Okanagan home.
Finally, what who could resist the chance to be in
the driver’s seat? At the Revelstoke
Railway Museum, you are the engineers running a specially
designed simulator. Visitors actually control the throttle, brake,
bell and whistle. Thanks to the miracles of computer technology,
others sitting in an actual diesel cab can ride the train through
British Columbia’s famous “spiral” tunnels. All Aboard!
So grab your significant other or a group of
friends, hop in the car and hit the road for an educational and
entertaining cultural adventure through British Columbia’s
distinctive museums. It will be a vacation you won’t soon forget.
