The Badlands Belles are so sure visitors are going to love touring the Badlands, they are running trials of various tours in hopes that one day tour operators will build on it.
Bob Davis, executive directors of Canadian Badlands, explained the Badlands Belles have developed various tours in the region including the Drumheller valley.
“The tour that has been organized for this area is called Echoes of the Badlands and all the tours are tours of the history and characters of the region they are in,” said Davis. “It is more than just looking at geography and sightseeing, it is touring, learning and experiencing some authentic historic aspects.”
Davis explains the Badlands Belles have organized the tours and are put on by tourism operators in the area. Canadian Badlands was involved with facilitating and planning, working with each site and helping to promote and prove that tours like this could be viable.
“The idea is to try and create the kind of tour that tourists would pay for so it could become a regular commercial activity,” said Davis.
In all, there are eight tours including the Wonders of Water Tour in the Bassano and Brooks area, Prairie Catalogue Homes in the Acadia Valley, Empress-Oyen area and the Mormon Trail Tour in the Cardston, Raymond McGrath area, to name a few.
Davis adds that municipalities in the area of the tours have all contributed to the project as they see the value of such tours.
“When each municipality contributes a little, they all benefit a lot because a lot gets done, as opposed to doing it all themselves,” said Davis.
Owen Thompson, one of the managers at the East Coulee School Museum, is involved with the Echoes of the Badlands Tour. He said the tour starts in Downtown Drumheller and heads east to Wayne for lunch, out to Dorothy and then back through East Coulee. He sees the value of such a tour.
“It allows us to take the museum outside our walls. We are limited by the space we have in the school, but when we get everybody on the bus, you are still telling the same stories but in the actual places where they happened,” said Thompson.
He adds that today, much of the traffic through the East Coulee School Museum is through bus tours.
“This is developing our own versions of the same thing,” said Thompson.
He said they are booking the tour for August 16 and they are also looking at a fall date for a second tour. For more information or to book a spot, contact Thompson at the East Coulee School Museum at 403-822-3970 or B. J. Janzen at 866-677-2211.
