Wikipedia:Today's featured article/November 15, 2010

Chetwynd is a small town in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains in northeastern British Columbia, Canada. Situated on an ancient floodplain, it is the first town encountered after emerging from the Rockies along Highway 97 and acts as the gateway to the Peace River Country. The town developed during the construction of infrastructure through the Rocky Mountains in the 1950s, and was used as a transshipment point during the construction of hydroelectric dams in the 1960s and 1970s and the new town of Tumbler Ridge in the early 1980s. Home to approximately 2,600 residents, the population has increased little in the last 25 years but is significantly younger than the provincial average. Chetwynd has dozens of chainsaw carvings displayed throughout town as public art and is home to the weekly newspaper, the Chetwynd Echo, and a Northern Lights College campus. Nearby, there are four provincial parks, two lakes, and several recreational trails. Highways 29 and 97 intersect in town with Highway 97 connecting it to Prince George and Dawson Creek and Highway 29 to Tumbler Ridge and Hudson's Hope. Its economy is dominated by the primary industries of forestry, fossil fuel extraction, and transportation. (more...)

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