Fort Nelson

Fort Nelson is a town of about 3,400 people (2016) and stopping point along the Alaska Highway in British Columbia's Northern Rockies. It is located within Northern Rockies Regional Municipality.

Understand
The Fort Nelson area has served a number of roles. In the early 1800s, there was a fur-trading post. It was an important staging point for the building of the Alaska Highway and subsequently became a servicing center along the road. Resource extraction — forestry, oil and gas — have been the economic mainstays of the community, with tourism becoming more important.



History
Fort Nelson, named in honour of the British naval hero Horatio Nelson, was established by the Northwest Trading Company in 1805 as a fur-trading post. Due to fires, floods and feuds, Fort Nelson is in its fifth location.

The Fort Nelson Airport was also a valuable asset for allied military forces in World War II, as it served as an airbase for the United States Air Force and for the Royal Canadian Air Force. Contrary to popular belief that the construction of the Alaska Highway commenced in Dawson Creek, Fort Nelson was the original mile 0 on the Alaska Highway because of the existence of a previously constructed road from Fort Saint John to Fort Nelson.

The United States Army built perhaps the most notable historical artifact in the area, the Alaska Highway. Construction began in 1942 out of a firm belief that Alaska faced significant threat of Japanese invasion. Initial highway construction was performed by over 11,000 U.S. soldiers. After approximately nine lengthy and strenuous months, the highway was finally completed, making Fort Nelson a bustling service-center along the famous road. After the Japanese surrender of 1945, the U.S. Army ceded the Canadian portion of the highway to the Canadian government, which opened it to the public in 1948.

In the years following World War II, the construction of the Alaska Highway, and the construction of the Fort Nelson Airport, Fort Nelson grew considerably as a community. In the early 1950s the first five acres were sold to locals, which marked the start of the community as a separate entity from the military. Oil- and gas-exploration in the early 1950s provided Fort Nelson with the industrial sector that it required to jump-start expansion of the community into what would eventually become the village of Fort Nelson in 1971. After the completion of BC Hydro's natural-gas power plant to provide electricity to the region, Fort Nelson experienced growth. A railway was built by the Pacific Great Eastern up to Fort Nelson in 1971 which allowed efficient transportation of the local industry's major products (lumber, oil, and gas) to larger markets in the south.

Climate
Winters, except when dry chinook winds blow from the Pacific Ocean, tend to be severely cold and generally dry with snow depth of only 0.5 metres (19.7 in) typical owing to the dryness of the 1.77 metres (69.69 in) snowfall, while summers are warm and occasionally rainy, though spells of hot weather are rare.

Fort Nelson is colder than anywhere else in British Columbia from November through February, but the mean average temperature during the summer is warmer than coastal areas even far south such as Victoria and comparable to Vancouver.

By car
The town is Mile 300 of Highway 97 (Alaska Highway). It is roughly 450 km north of Fort St. John and 600 km southeast of Watson Lake in the Yukon. In the Yukon the highway is numbered Highway 1.

About 27 km west of Fort Nelson on Highway 97, it intersects with Highway 77, which travels south from the Northwest Territories.

Airlines
Airline operating to Fort Nelson :


 * Flies to Fort Nelson from Prince George (1.5 hours).

Go next

 * Muncho Lake Provincial Park — Hiking, camping, boating, wildlife and some beautiful scenery, 200 km west of Fort Nelson on the Alaska Highway. Nearby are the Liard Hot Springs, a natural hot spring in the forest of the Northern Rocky Mountains, and Stone Mountain Provincial Park.