This year visitors can head to downtown Drumheller and walk through its colourful history guided by the voices a few volunteers who revamped the downtown walking tour.
A few years ago a walking tour was introduced. This year it has been revamped and updated, and is available at the Valley Doll Museum.
The walking tour, called “Heads I Win… Tails You Lose” is told through the voices of Doug Wade, Grant Daly and Gerry Mancini in character as residents from the past. The writing for the project was done by Chip Aiello.
“It is a walk downtown, it is historical with three guys who used to live here pointing out different places of interest,” said Aiello. “It was fun writing, I’ll tell you. I’ve never written a three part piece.”
Many know Aiello’s writing voice from his column called Chips and Salsa, which appears in inSide Drumheller. While he has played around with more creative writing, it was a new challenge to write dialogue in the voice of fictional characters on the real history of downtown.
“It was fun, it was something different,” said Aiello, adding that the tour was revamped this year to reflect some new stories Aiello has learned about the core, and to reflect the changes in businesses downtown.
Those wising to take the audio tour can sign out a CD player and headphones at the Valley Doll Museum for a small charge used to maintain the equipment. After that they can embark along a guided tour, telling the story of various landmarks, and the people who built the valley. The tour runs about 40 minutes.
