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ROUTE GUIDE 167
area for over 250 species of birds along the shores of Beaverhill Lake. his area is part of Edmonton Parkland and is one of the must-see tourist attractions of Alberta – if you’re into bird watching! Beaverhill Lake can be seen to the north between mile 225 and mile 227.
Mile 260: Clover Bar
he 504-metre (1,653-ft) long Clover Bar Bridge carries the Canadian into Edmonton across the North Saskatchewan River. he fringe of oil reineries on the outskirts of the city is a reminder of Alberta’s huge wealth of petroleum resources.
Mile 266.7: Edmonton
As the most northerly situated city, life in Alberta’s capital is greatly afected by the elements. For months at a time, its 1 million inhabitants pretty much stay indoors, giving rise to the development of the world’s second-largest indoor amusement park, Galaxyland. It is situated inside the largest shopping mall in North America (5th largest in the world), the West Edmonton Mall, which typically accommodates up to 150,000 shoppers each day.
Like so many other towns and cities, Edmonton sprang up around the fur trade. In 1795, Fort Edmonton was established by the Hudson’s Bay Company, to facilitate trade with the Cree and Blackfoot nations. But after the Canadian government took control of the Hudson’s Bay Company territories in 1870, mining, timber and boat-building began to take of.
In 1885, the Canadian Paciic Railway built the Calgary-Edmonton line to help the early settlement’s growth, but it was the Yukon Gold Rush of 1897 that caused the population to increase, and quickly beat
the 4,000 mark. hat igure had doubled by 1904, and by 1915 two transcontinental trains were running through the city, essentially ensuring it became the key commercial city it is today.
Edmonton was considered the Oil Capital of Canada following the discovery of vast Albertan oil reserves in 1942. It remains the key hub for the Northern Alberta oil sands projects, as well as the diamond mining of the Northwest Territories. In fact, nighttime sees giant storage tanks outside the city dramatically lit up with spotlights, making them a focal point against the night sky.
Alberta: The Quiet Oil Boom
Few people realise that the most signiicant oil boom is not taking place in the deserts of the Middle East, but
in Fort McMurray in the northern reaches of Alberta.
Alberta has the world’s third largest proven oil reserves, with more than 175 billion barrels. hat’s second to Saudi Arabia’s 260 billion and third to Venezuela’s 290 billion. But there is a growing belief that Canada’s reserves extend deeper underground, pushing the igure to 2 trillion. hat’s four times the amount of reserves in Venezuela and Saudi Arabia combined!
he Alberta oil sands may be an environmental controversy, but the reserves are so vast that they will help solve the world’s energy needs for the next century. And American leaders across the political spectrum prefer Canada as an oil supplier. In fact, unknown to most Americans, Alberta’s “non-conlict” oil makes it the largest supplier of oil to the U.S.