Editor, The Times:
When company comes, a visit to Clearwater Information Centre is a must, even though my husband John and I are pretty good at hosting and playing at tour guides. The displays are worth the stop and we can get up to date information about roads, trails, and more. We point out postcards that show local scenes, usually eliciting a request to know “Where is this?” If possible, we show them.
On a recent trip north John and I discovered just how important visitors’ centres are to travellers. As happens here, polite, knowledgeable locals patiently outlined the essentials for us: cafes, options for accommodation, and places we should see while in the neighbourhood.
Answering questions is definitely what they do best. In some, like Tok, Alaska, a phone and a list of numbers of motels was offered, along with directions. Many, again like the one here in Clearwater, offer tantalizing photos of animals that just might be seen, though they make no promises. Booklets of cities, pamphlets about museums and more, plus maps galore assisted us in exploring the many historical places on our route.
“What shouldn’t we miss in Fort St. John?” we asked. Soon we were at a viewpoint we’d never have found on our own, gazing at the wide, sandy banks forming part of the Peace River Valley. The answer to the same question in Fort Nelson had sent us across the road to a museum stuffed with things we grew up with, and an enviable collection of vintage cars, all still mobile, and elderly farm equipment.
To find our comfortable motel in Fairbanks, Alaska we used a leaflet collected along the way. Here the “landlady” gave us many suggestions, sending us off to the Cultural Centre attached to the Info Centre, the paddocks of University of Alaska containing caribou, reindeer, and musk ox, plus its Museum. We were also at the right time and place to see hundreds of Sandhill Cranes gathering before flying south.
In Haines, Alaska, the gal phoned Alaska Marine to see if we needed a booking to take our car on the ferry to Skagway the following day. “Come back and see me if you need more help in finding a place to stay,” she added, giving us a well-marked map of the town, knowing that motels are few, with cabins and B&Bs hard to locate, and everything filling fast at that time of year when tourists come in droves to view the grizzly bears at their fishing grounds.
And so the list could go on telling how helpful people made a trip into unknown territory, where we knew no-one, so much easier, much more interesting, and more welcoming. That is what happens at the Information Centre and other businesses in Clearwater every day, in greeting all the tourists who come here from everywhere. Like those we met on our travels, they do a great job!
Kay and John Knox,
Clearwater, B.C.
