Commentary by Joe McWilliams

Times sure are changing. The other day I went for an online tour of a couple of places I grew up in and hardly recognized a thing. The Google satellite view might have had something to do with that, but mostly it’s because nothing much remains of what was there in the 1960s and 1970s.

In one case, the so-called ‘Site C’ dam on the Peace River is the culprit. The new reservoir started filling last year, and every one living or doing business in the flood zone has long since been bought out and their structures removed.

Thus it is that Lynx Creek is without residents or residences for the first time in over 100 years. Maybe longer than that, though I know next to nothing about its history.

I do know that in the 1960s, when our family moved there, it was a lively little community, with dozens of families and a lot of kids tearing around and having all kinds of fun. I was one of them.

That was in the W.A.C. Bennett Dam construction days, so every piece of property within 20 miles of the dam that could hold a trailer court, had one. In Lynx Creek those days, there were maybe half a dozen houses and well over a hundred trailers. We were lucky to have one of the houses. It was one of those unfinished ‘handyman’ specials when my parents bought it. My dad, being a handyman, found that no obstacle and went to work.

But it’s all gone now. A new highway, perched on concrete stilts, crosses the valley at a safe height.

The other location was the farm we lived on for several years in the early 1960s. It was on the Cameron River, a tributary of the Halfway River, about 20 miles off the Alaska Highway. I had a very hard time finding any sign on the satellite imagery that there was ever a farm there, let alone a farm yard, buildings, etc., and roads, all established through a lot of very hard work – mostly by my father on his own.

Where did it all go?

Well, the location probably was impractical. It was certainly picturesque, but to get to it required driving over abandoned oil roads and down an even worse one into the valley, which had a habit of flooding.

The Cameron was in the business of eroding our farmstead and home field from the moment we got there, almost. The last time I visited was over 20 years ago, and most of that field had gone, and a big part of the barnyard too. Nature having its way.

There are farms – or maybe one farm – in the vicinity still, judging by the fields in the satellite image. Whoever owns them is probably wise to steer clear of the river valley. Rivers are best left alone, perhaps. Apparently nobody told BC Hydro that.

But hey, we have to get our power from somewhere, don’t we?

In Alberta, we get it mostly from gas or coal-fired generating stations. Those will eventually run out too, and what will we do then? Start damming rivers? Go nuclear? Every type of large-scale energy generation has its drawbacks, even wind and solar. Hydro doesn’t pollute, but it makes whole valleys disappear. On the other hand, it makes nice lakes.

Solar and wind don’t pollute – except in the manufacturing, I guess – but they certainly do chew up the landscape. And if we’re to move over to them on a large scale, which many hope for – the impact will be huge.

Maybe fewer humans is the answer. Best of luck with that.