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Tracks found at the Williston Lake Tracksite. (Photo Credit: City of Fort St. John Agenda)
Some dinosaur stomping grounds have been found in northeastern B.C.
Dinosaur tracks have been discovered in Peace River Canyon, and researchers are hoping to make the area open for public education. The site was discovered in 2008 by a local resident, and now the Peace Region Palaeontology Research Centre (PRPRC) is moving forward with the site.
The researchers are hoping to expose more of the Williston Lake Tracksite. (Photo Credit: City of Fort St. John Agenda)
B.C.’s Peace Region is not unfamiliar to dinosaur tracks, as Charles M. Sternberg documented footprints of various dinosaurs in 1930. However, this area flooded in the late 1970s and now the remaining footprints that weren’t salvaged are under Dinosaur Lake.
This new tracksite has rocks from the same age as the Peace River Canyon rock layer, and it’s the first large track surface found from this historic area since the flooding of the Peace River Canyon tracksites. This new area, the Williston Lake Tracksite, is thankfully flat and not endangered by flooding or industrial development.
(Photo Credit: City of Fort St. John Agenda)
The best part? The exposed surface is absolutely covered in dinosaur footprints. The PRPRC says that the divots in the area are all footprints waiting to be cleared of debris. They estimate that the site is 115 million years old.
The PRPRC has been researching the area, but they’d like to turn the site into a dinosaur track science outreach centre and tourist destination to showcase B.C.’s dinosaur history, such as the St. George Dinosaur Tracksite in Utah. Recently, they made a presentation at a council meeting for Fort St. John to discuss the potential tourism site, and the centre is now crowdfunding to move forward.
(Photo Credit: City of Fort St. John Agenda)
The centre is hoping to raise funds so that they can quickly document and conceal the footprints in the summer of 2015, making sure that the tracks can stay safe from theft and vandalism until the centre’s ready to move on to the science outreach centre.
According to their crowdfunding campaign, the Williston Lake Tracksite will mark the largest tracksite documentation project ever undertaken in Canada.
To donate to the project or to learn more about the tracksite, check out PRPRC’s crowdfunding page.
(Photo Credit: City of Fort St. John Agenda)
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