August 13, 2011 | Tips from Travellers >
Hudson's Hope, Museums
View a larger image on flickr.com
The first thing I have to say about is Hudson’s Hope is wow! Hudson’s Hope is old! I grew up in Tumbler Ridge, the youngest town in British Columbia. Tumbler Ridge just had its 30th birthday, while Hudson Hope reached the rip old age of 106 this year. The town has only been incorporated since 1965, but the trading post was established in 1805, making it the third OLDEST town in British Columbia. However, age hasn’t phased this community even one bit. Hudson’s Hope is a beautiful community situated on the edge of the peace river and is decorated with updated infrastructure and plenty of flowers. The visitor centre is a unique log cabin definitely worth noting, and has a quiet park and gazebo located behind it.
You can’t actually tell that Hudson’s Hope is as old as it is until you start looking at the history of the town. The museum is a great place to start, and is exactly where my friend and I decided to begin digging (although the information wasn’t hard to find in the least).
The Hudson’s Hope museum had quite a few displays ranging from first nations artifacts to some of the belongings of the first settlers in the area, but the history of Hudson’s Hope extends past the human history. Hudson’s Hope has dinosaurs!!! Well... at least they used to millions of years ago. Actually, Hudson’s Hope even has it’s own dinosaur, the Hudsonelpidia. This was probably my favourite exhibit in the museum.
After we were finished looking inside there was even more to see outdoors. We took our time goofing around and taking pictures of the old pioneer cabins and machinery, with the Peace River Canyon as our backdrop.
The Hudson’s Hope museum is definitely a worthwhile stop, whether you are going for the pictures, the history, the experience, or all of it!