Jamie Davis and his heavy rescue crew in Hope have become household names with the success of Highway Thru Hell.
The television series follows the team as they work to keep the local highways open for truckers under unpredictable winter conditions. One of the main stars of the series is the Coquihalla Highway north of Hope, which features some of the steepest and most treacherous terrain in North America. During the worst storms, big wrecks can come as often as every 12 hours. Davis owns a fleet of custom-built heavy rescue trucks with some of the most sophisticated equipment on board. One of the trucks features a fixed 30-tonne crane and two powerful winches, which extends the truck’s reach for hundreds of metres. It would take eight standard tow trucks to match the capacity of this heavy rescue truck.
Fans of the show can now purchase merchandise online at www.jamiedavistowing.com, at Hope Drive-In on Old Hope Princeton Way, and at the tow yard on Silver Skagit Road.
Hope and the Fraser Canyon have been the backdrop for many big screen productions over the last three decades. In the fall of 1981, Hollywood rolled in and raised the American flag over our town for the filming of First Blood, the first in the series of Rambo movies. It was a time for stargazing in Hope as Sylvester Stallone (John Rambo) and Brian Dennehy (Sheriff Teasle) frequented many local businesses. The film still keeps Hope on the movie-making map and has made our area a mecca for Rambo fans. Movie posters and photo stills are displayed at the Hope Museum along with other film memorabilia.
Rambo: First Blood fans can take a walking and driving tour of the film’s key locations. The Coquihalla Canyon, known as Chapman Gorge in the movie, is where the police officer fell out of the helicopter, and is another favourite site on the tour. Observers can also see where Rambo clung for his life as he hung precariously on the rock wall of the gorge high above the waters of the Coquihalla River.
Thanks to the quiet small-town look and our majestic mountains and canyons, Hope and the Fraser Canyon have a long history of Hollywood productions filmed in the area.
