Dawson Creek

This article covers the location of Dawson Creek, Canada. For the television series, see Dawson's Creek

Dawson Creek
The "Mile Zero Post" of the Alaska Highway; South view of the center
coat of arms	flag
Location in British Columbia
Dawson Creek
State :	Canada
Province :	British Columbia
Regional District :	Peace River
Coordinates :	55 ° 46 ′  N , 120 ° 14 ′  W Coordinates: 55 ° 46 ′  N , 120 ° 14 ′  W
Height :	665  m
Area :	24.37 km²
Residents :	11,583 (as of 2011)
Population density :	475.3 inhabitants / km²
Time zone :	Mountain Time ( UTC − 7 )
Postal code :	V1G
Mayor :	Dale Bumstead
Website :	www.dawsoncreek.ca

Dawson Creek is a small town in northeast British Columbia in Canada with 11,583 inhabitants (2011). The city has the nickname " Mile 0 City " (German city ​​of the zeroth mile ) because it forms the southern end or beginning of the Alaska Highway . The associated milestone Mile 0 Post is the main element of the city flag. The name Dawson Creek comes from the creek (English creek ) of the same name, which flows through the city and was named by a surveyor in August 1879 after George Mercer Dawson . As the city service center of the surrounding rural areas south of Peace River , site of the Peace River Regional District and transportation hub on the way from Alberta to the part of British Columbia north of the Rocky Mountains is, she gave herself the title of The Capital of the Peace (dt. Capital of peace ).

history

Dawson Creek was one of the farming communities established by Euro-Canadian settlers on their way west through the plains of the Peace River Country . Immigration increased after the Canadian government granted the settlers their land of settlement as property (see US Homestead Act ). After several shops and hotels opened in 1919, Dawson Creek became the most important settlement in the area. On May 28, 1921, Dawson Creek was founded as a Co-operative Union (cooperative association), which reinforced the importance of the place as a business center again.

After intense land speculation, the Northern Alberta Railways terminus was built three kilometers from the village. The line was completed on December 29, 1930, and the first passenger train reached the station on January 15, 1931. The railway connection and the construction of many grain elevators attracted more settlers and led to Dawson Creek in 1936 officially (English as a village village ) was founded. After the start of World War II , refugees from the Sudetenland began arriving in the region in 1939 and settled on land purchased by the Canadian Pacific Railway and held in trust by the Canadian Colonization Association. In this way the population exceeded the 500-inhabitant limit in 1941, and by 1943 it was several thousand. The site developed rapidly in 1942 as thousands of U.S. soldiers, engineers, and contract workers came to the railroad terminus to build the Alaska Highway .

In 1951, after the road was completed and construction workers left Dawson Creek, its population was about 3,500. The place experienced tremendous population growth in the 1950s, especially after the British Columbia Highway 97 (John Hart Highway) and a parallel railway line connected Dawson Creek with interior British Columbia ( Cariboo ) and the Lower Mainland , the region around Vancouver . During this time, the largest gas plant in Western Canada was built and agencies of the Canadian federal government were set up and the city had about 11,000 inhabitants in 1961.

The city's growth slowed in the 1960s; Dawson Creek had its highest population in 1966 with 12,392 inhabitants. In the 1970s, the provincial government set up offices in the city, Northern Lights College opened a campus in Dawson Creek, and Dawson Creek Mall was built. In addition, several modern grain elevators were built and the five old wooden grain elevators dismantled. Today only one of the historic grain elevators remains, which is now an art gallery. Dawson Creek's population and economy have not grown significantly since the 1970s. This is mainly due to the nearby towns of Fort St. John and Grande Prairie (in Alberta ). The former developed into the industrial and the latter into the commercial center of the region.

The granting of local self-government for the municipality took place on May 26, 1936 ( incorporated as Village Municipality ). Dawson Creek has had city status since June 27, 1967.

population

Population development 1951-2004, according to BC Stats.

The 1941 Canadian Census found 518 permanent residents in Dawson Creek. In the 1951 census, 3,589 inhabitants were counted, which corresponds to a sevenfold increase in the number of inhabitants in ten years. The 1956 census found 7,531 residents. This rapid population growth is due to the construction of the Alaska Highway in 1942, which made Dawson Creek the terminus of the railroad from the United States via Alberta and brought thousands of workers into the city. The new road made the city a major truck-to-train transfer point and a transportation hub en route to northeast British Columbia from Alberta. However, Dawson Creek's population has hardly changed since the late 1970s.

According to the 2001 Canadian census, the city had 10,740 people in 4,410 households. The median age is less than the rest of British Columbia, with 22.4% of residents under 15 years of age, compared to 18.1% in the province. 11.1% of the population are over 65 years old, while at the provincial level it is 13.6%. The religion with the most followers is Christianity : 37% of the population are Protestants , 18% Roman Catholic .

According to the same census, the 2001 unemployment rate was 10.4% and the activity rate , the active workforce as a percentage of the total population, was 69.5%, compared with 8.5% and 65.2% in all of British Columbia. Dawson Creek's higher employment rate shows that a larger part of the population is working or looking for work, the above-average unemployment rate indicates an oversupply of labor. The unemployment rate is also believed to be related to Dawson Creek's economic structure, in which seasonal and temporary jobs, for example in agricultural processing, mining, and oil and gas drilling, play an important role. However, the poverty rate was also below average: it was 16.5% in 2001 compared to the provincial average of 17.8%.

The census in 2011 showed a further increase in population for the small town. The city's population grew by 5.4% compared to the 2006 census (from 10,994 to 11,583 inhabitants), while the population in British Columbia grew by 7.0% at the same time.

economy

Dawson Creek is a sales and service center for the region between the Peace River in the north and the Rocky Mountains in the south. The city's economy developed mostly on the basis of the primary sector and depends on large resource-based employers. In addition to agriculture, retail, tourism, and oil and gas extraction are important.

The agriculture was and is the most important economic sector for Dawson Creek, especially because the city is a transportation hub for the transshipment and delivery of agricultural products from road to rail. The city is surrounded by the so-called Agricultural Land Reserve , a fertile cultivation area whose soils consistently produce good yields of quality grain and grass plants. Especially wheat , oats , rye , barley , flax , hay , alfalfa and sweet clover are grown. Animal husbandry used to be important, but this has declined sharply after the BSE crisis and the associated global border closings for Canadian cattle.

As a service hub, Dawson Creek has numerous retail businesses serving both the countryside and the city's residents. However, retail has lost demand in recent years in favor of Grande Prairie , the closest major city in the Canadian province of Alberta, as Alberta does not have provincial sales tax on retail purchases, while British Columbia has a 7% tax . Therefore, residents of British Columbia drive to Grande Prairie, especially for more expensive products. The situation of the local retail trade was made even more difficult by the establishment of wholesale supermarkets such as Walmart . Residents still often go to Alberta for expensive products, but apart from that, the large supermarkets offer a range of medium-priced and inexpensive products that have so far been practically unsuccessful in Alberta, so that the retailers in the center of the city in these segments are now also under price pressure.

Dawson Creek is also a tourist destination and has hotels , motels and camping parks. The majority of visitors come to Dawson Creek to drive the Alaska Highway from there . Many of them drive in convoys on the highway and meet in Dawson Creek.

The petroleum and natural gas economic activity that has fueled the economy of nearby Fort St. John has expanded to Dawson Creek in recent years. Finds from deposits south of the city and rising energy prices have prompted the city to support the development of oil and gas production.

Transport and infrastructure

Simplified city map of Dawson Creek

With the city's rapid growth, the Dawson Creek road network was developed in a short time in the mid-20th century. It follows a grid plan made up of large blocks that are only connected to one another by a few connecting roads, for example a bridge over the stream or a level crossing . Since there are many stop signs within the blocks of the grid , the main traffic moves on the two main streets. These are 8th Street in a north-south direction and Alaska Avenue in a southeast-northwest direction. Both roads meet at a roundabout where a metal statue marks the beginning of the Alaska Highway . The major transportation destinations in Dawson Creek are the shops on the southern portion of 8th Street and the central portion of Alaska Avenue. Most of Alberta's traffic crosses the city, especially that to the oil-producing rural areas; that traffic comes from the north on 8th Street and then follows Alaska Avenue northwest or vice versa. Despite the identification of Highway 2 - south and west of the city as a dangerous goods route, many trucks still use the route described on the 8-road and the Alaska Highway, which in many cases hinders traffic and damages the road.

Central roundabout facing south on 8 Street; the metal statue points the way to Alaska.

Dawson Creek was created as the intersection of two major expressways and as a service center for the agricultural area. It is connected to Grande Prairie and southern Alberta by Highway 2 and 8th Street, to Peace River and northern Alberta by Highway 49 and Alaska Avenue (east of the roundabout), and by Highway 97 and the Alaska Avenue (west of the roundabout) with Fort St. John and Alaska to the north and inner British Columbia to the west. While the central roundabout is the beginning of the Alaska Highway, a few junctions west of it is the "Zero Mile Post", which is a central milestone and shows distances from Dawson Creek to many other places on the Alaska Highway, of which the 2,400 km 1,523 miles) away Fairbanks is the furthest destination.

Since 1931, Dawson Creek was connected to the passenger rail network via the Northern Alberta Railway . Since 1958, the Pacific Great Eastern Railway (later BC Rail , now part of the Canadian National Railway ) connected Dawson Creek with the inland of British Columbia, the port cities on the Pacific , Vancouver and Prince Rupert . Since the city lives mainly from reloading and transporting the products of resource-based industries such as grain, oil and gas derivatives and wood, the movement of goods has always been more important than the number of passengers. Therefore, since 1974 no passenger trains have run from Dawson Creek. Today the railroad connects Dawson Creek with Chetwynd , British Columbia, from where there are connections south through the Rocky Mountains into the interior of the province and north to Fort St. John and Fort Nelson .

Dawson Creek has three aircraft take-off and landing areas. The regional airport Dawson Creek , built in 1966 ( IATA airport code : YDQ, ICAO code : CYDQ) is located about 4 kilometers southeast of the small town . The airport has an asphalt runway 1524 meters long. Another airport (Flying L Ranch Airport) is located about 14 kilometers northwest of Dawson Creek (IATA airport code: -, ICAO code: -, Transport Canada Identifier: CDC3). This has a grass runway that is 610 meters long. The third airport is the sea airport (IATA code: -, ICAO code: -, Transport Canada Identifier: CBC3) on a lake near the regional airport.

Greyhound bus routes connect Dawson Creek with Vancouver. The route follows the provincial highways 97 and 1, the journey takes about 19 hours. There is a bus service to Edmonton via Grande Prairie .

Geography and climate

Climate diagram
J F. M. A. M. J J A. S. O N D.     29   -9 -21     22nd   -5 -17     21st   1 -11     18th   10 -3     37   17th 2     76   20th 7th     84   22nd 9     60   21st 7th     47   16 3     29   9 -2     28   -2 -12     31   -7 -18 Temperature in ° C ,  precipitation in mm Source: Canadian Climate Normals 1971-2000. In: Environment and Climate Change Canada . Retrieved September 21, 2012 .

Dawson Creek is flat with only the northeastern edge rising above the city. The stream that gave the city its name flows from east to west through the center of the city. According to the Canada Land Inventory, the soils in the surrounding area correspond to quality class 2C. This means that the quality and thus the diversity of crops that can be cultivated there is limited by the unfavorable climate. Dawson Creek is located in the southwest of the Peace River Country , 72 km southeast of Fort St. John and 134 km northwest of Grande Prairie . It is located in the BC Peace Lowland ecoregion of the Canadian Boreal Plains , which is one of the continental Interior Plains of North America. The area has a subhumid northern climate, as it belongs to the climatic region of the North American Cordilleras . The city prepares its drinking water from the Kiskatinaw River, which flows north to the Peace River 18 km west of the city.

The city is often dusty and dry in summer. During this time, there are irregular heavy showers that only last a few minutes. The average precipitation in July is 83.5 mm with an average temperature of 15.22 ° C. The city can get very cold and dry in winter. On average, 171 cm of snow falls annually, of which an average of 33 cm falls in January. During this month the average temperature is −14.7 ° C. Strong winds blow in the city all year round. The time follows Mountain Standard Time all year round ; Daylight can be seen for a long time in summer and only briefly in winter.

Culture and leisure

Dawson Creek Art Gallery in a former grain elevator.

Travelers typically meet at Northern Alberta Railways Park before exiting Dawson Creek. The park is approximately 1.3 acres and marks the official start of the Alaska Highway. The park also houses the Dawson Creek Art Gallery in a renovated grain elevator. It exhibits works by local artists and artisans. The Station Museum , also located in the park, is home to an exhibition and original objects about the construction of the Northern Alaska Railway and Alaska Highway. A museum village, the Walter Wright Pioneer Village , is located to the northwest of the city in Mile Zero Rotary Park. The museum village consists of some of the first buildings from the pioneering days of the area and numerous items from that period.

Dawson Creek has a golf course and a variety of outdoor sports such as swimming, ice skating and tennis. Nearby Bear Mountain, just south of town, has more than 20 km of snowshoeing , cross-country skiing and downhill slopes. There are more than 500 km of snowmobile trails between Dawson Creek and Tumbler Ridge and beyond . In summer these routes are used with mountain bikes and quads .

In the city there are three ice rinks, two for ice hockey and one for curling , as well as an open-air speed skating rink and a swimming pool, a skateboard park with a youth center. They are together in the center of the city. The South Peace Community Multiplex is currently being built in the southeast of the city as a new leisure and sports complex . It will replace the swimming pool in particular and is the subject of public debate due to its unfavorable location and the steep rise in construction costs. It was originally supposed to cost 21.6 million CAD (approx. 15.5 million euros). At the start of construction, however, the projected costs had already risen to CAD 35 million (approx. EUR 25 million). The main criticism of the location of the multiplex is that it is far from residential areas in an industrial area directly behind the Wal-Mart market. However, the Dawson City exhibition grounds are nearby, and the multiplex will also house a rodeo , convention center and possibly amusement arcades.

The most important event of the year is the annual autumn fair and exhibition, which has been held since 1953. It takes place on five days at the end of August. Among other things, a professional rodeo competition, trade fairs and exhibitions as well as a parade are organized during this time . Other events include the Dawson Creek Symphonette and Choir Music Festival in March, the Dawson Creek Art Gallery auction in April, the Dawson Creek Spring Rodeo in June, and the Peace Country Blue Grass Festival in July.

A variety of local daily newspapers are available in Dawson Creek , the two most important of which are the Peace River Block Daily News and the Alaska Highway News , both part of the Canwest Global local newspaper chain. The Peace River Block Daily News appears in Dawson Creek and is more focused on Dawson Creek, while the Alaska Highway News appears in Fort St. John, which they focus more on. The Northeast News is a free weekly newspaper that appears in Fort St. John and has offices in Dawson Creek and Fort Nelson. The only radio station that broadcasts programming from Dawson Creek is CJDC 890 AM, a country music station. The only local television station is the CBC station CJDC-TV.

politics

The city of Dawson Creek is governed by the council manager system , one of the two local government systems in the United States and Canada. A city council with six members plus a mayor is elected every three years. Mayor is currently Dale Bumstead. The same election also elects two school committee delegates to represent Dawson Creek on Board of Education # 59, which determines regional education policy. The mayor and the city council pass the local rules and regulations and the city budget. The city has its own fire department that is responsible for the city within a five-mile radius. For the police tasks there is a contract with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police , the Canadian federal and national police .

Dawson Creek is part of the Peace River South constituency for provincial elections. It is represented in British Columbia Parliament by Blair Lekstrom ( BC Liberal Party ), who was elected Mayor of Dawson Creek in 1996 and 1999. In the 2001 provincial parliamentary elections, he was elected to parliament, which he succeeded again in 2005. In 2001 he was elected with 2,176 votes (66.93% in the city and 64.2% in the constituency), second place was Grant Mitton ( Social Credit Party ) with 530 votes. In 2005 Lekstrom received 2,167 votes (56.74% in the city, 57.74% in the constituency), the most successful opponent was Pat Shaw ( NDP ) with 1,314 votes.

Before Lekstrom, Jack Weisgerber was the local MP. Weisgerber was originally elected to the provincial parliament in 1986 as a member of the British Columbia Social Credit Party . In the late 1980s he was Minister of Energy, Mining and Oil, and Minister of Indigenous Affairs. Weisgerber was re-elected in 1991 despite the general loss of votes of his party and was chairman of his party from 1992 to 1993. In 1996 he was re-elected again, but this time for the Reform Party of British Columbia , although in the polls he had been behind the candidates of the BC Liberal Party and the New Democratic Party .

In national elections, Dawson Creek is part of the Prince George-Peace River constituency. In the House of Commons constituency of is Jay Hill ( Conservative Party ) represented. Before Hill, who was first elected to the House of Commons in 1993, Frank Oberle of the Progressive Conservative Party held the seat for 20 years, from 1972 to 1993. In federal elections, voters in Dawson Creek, like those in most of the constituency's wards, largely vote Conservative candidates. In the 2004 general election, Hill received 60.53% of the vote (58.71% in the constituency) in Dawson Creek, and in 2000 he received 69.58% of the vote (69.61% in the constituency).

Web links

• City library, with information about the city (English)
• Calverley Collection (historical documents )
• South Peace Multiplex (Leisure Center )
• Dawson Creek Precipitation Study ( April 11, 2008 memento on the Internet Archive ) (PDF, English, on the Internet Archive )

swell

1. ^ ^{A b} Dawson Creek Community Profile. Census 2011. In: Statistics Canada . September 7, 2012, accessed September 21, 2012 . 
2. ^ First Traveler Through Dawson, 1879 The News, Progress Edition , April 27, 1979
3. ^ Coutts, ME (1958). Dawson Creek: Past and Present, An Historical Sketch . Edmonton: Dawson Creek Historical Society.
4. ^ Dorthea Calverley: The Choice of Terminal for the NAR 1983, [17. November 2005]
5. ^ The Sudeten Settlement in the Peace River District , an article from the Calverley Collection.
6. ^ Dawson Creek. BritishColumbia.com
7. ↑ Calendar of Peace Country Milestones Peace River Block News , Aug. 4, 1972.
8. ^ Origin Notes and History. Dawson Creek. In: GeoBC . Retrieved September 21, 2012 . 
9. ^ Municipal Census Populations (1921-2011). In: BC Stats. British Columbia Statistics Act, accessed September 20, 2015 . 
10. ^ British Columbia Municipal Census Populations, 1976-1986. ( Memento of the original from July 23, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. [17. November 2005]  
11. ^ British Columbia Municipal Census Populations, 1986-1996. ( Memento of the original from July 30, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. [17. November 2005]  
12. ^ British Columbia Municipal Census Populations, 1996-2004. ( Memento of the original from September 28, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The  archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. [17. November 2005]
13. ^ Dawson Creek 2001 Community Profile. Statistics Canada [10. December 2005]
14. ^ Harry Giles: Dawson Creek, "The Cross Roads of the North," The Vancouver Province , 1953.
15. ↑ City of Dawson Creek and Fisheries Renewal BC, Kiskatinaw River Watershed Plan ( April 11, 2008 memento in the Internet Archive ), May 2003, p. 28
16. ^ Dawson Creek. (PDF; 75 MB) In: Nav Canada . P. 82 , accessed on September 19, 2015 . 
17. ↑ AGRICULTURAL CAPABILITY CLASSIFICATION IN BC. (PDF; 50 KB) In: Agricultural Land Commission. Retrieved September 19, 2015 . 
18. ↑ Wind Power. Peace Energy Co-op
19. ^ South Peace Multiplex. ( Memento of the original from February 14, 2004 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The  archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. City of Dawson Creek [Jan. November 2005]
20. ↑ CivicInfo BC News, April 16, 2004: $ 21.6 million Multiplex to be Built in Dawson Creek ( July 16, 2011 memento on the Internet Archive )
21. ^ Gary Rusak: Infrastructure Money to Go to Multiplex. Peace River Block News, April 4, 2005
22. ^ Agricultural Fair, Rodeo & Exhibition. Dawson Creek Exhibition [Jan. November 2005]
23. ↑ Major Events in Dawson Creek. ( Memento of May 25, 2006 on the Internet Archive ) Tourism Dawson Creek of November 17, 2005 (on the Internet Archive )
24. ^ Mayor & Council. City of Dawson Creek, accessed August 31, 2019 . 
25. ↑ Organizational Chart (Pdf). ( Memento of August 23, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) City of Dawson Creek [17. November 2005]
26. ^ Statement of Votes, 2001: Peace River South Electoral District. ( Memento of April 11, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Elections BC [17. November 2005]
27. ^ Statement of Votes, 2005: Peace River South Electoral District. ( Memento of April 11, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Elections BC [18. November 2005]
28. ^ Peace River South Electoral District. ( Memento of October 5, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) 36th Provincial General Election - May 28, 1996 [17. November 2005]
29. ↑ Official Voting Results. Elections Canada [17. November 2005] (requires navigation to Prince George — Peace River)
30. ↑ 36th and 37th General Elections: Official Voting Results: Poll-by-poll Results. Elections Canada [17. November 2005] (navigation to Prince George — Peace River required)