North to Alaska…Fort Nelson, BC
If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to our E-mail Digest. We will then send you the stories that are posted each day in an e-mail digest. We use a service called Feedburner for delivery of these emails. You will receive an e-mail from Feedburner after you subscribe and you must click on that email to activate your subscription. Thanks for visiting and enjoy all the information!
RV.Net Blog Admin
Once you leave Dawson Creek, Milepost 0 on the Alaska Highway and head north, Fort Nelson is an easy day’s drive away and a great place to spend the night. Once in Fort Nelson, be sure to allow enough time to visit the Fort Nelson Heritage Museum.
Right alongside the highway, the main museum building is made of logs and houses a splendid collection of artifacts, including much that was used in building the Alaska Highway. The best part of the museum, though, may not be readily apparent, though. Curator Marl Brown, shown here, lovingly restores antique automobiles, and a large metal building on the museum property houses dozens of them, all in running condition. Here Marl sits at the wheel of an automobile that first drove down a road in 1908–that’s right, this is a 100-year-old car.
Marl himself turned 75 this year, and to celebrate that milestone in his life he figured he’d take his century-old car for a spin. He drove up the Alaska Highway from Fort Nelson, across the Canadian Rockies, to Whitehorse, Yukon…and then drove back in early July. Total round-trip distance was about 1,200 miles.
When you visit the museum, you’ll probably have to ask to see the cars as the building is usually locked. If Marl is around, someone working in the museum will fetch him, and if he has time he will open the doors to one of the finest collections of antique automobiles in North America.
Contact Ron at rdcomm@gci.net to order a copy of his book, Guide to the Alaska Highway.
Last 5 posts by Ron Dalby
- North to Alaska...in northern British Columbia - August 6th, 2008
- North to Alaska...BaBa Canyon - July 30th, 2008
- North to Alaska...northern British Columbia - July 29th, 2008
- North to Alaska...Prince George, British Columbia - July 28th, 2008
- North to Alaska...sunset near Dawson Creek - July 22nd, 2008
The best part of the museum????? I guess that everything is relative. I found some of the old tools in the shops and cabins to be much more interesting than the cars. How do you do some jobs if the tools are not available and you are stuck with making your own tools. Marl has a great museum here, and don’t down rate the old cars either.
I recommend stopping and visiting with Marl if he has time to talk. He is rather busy at times.