Magical Journey Through Time LbNA #70541

I have a DEEP love for history, and Heritage Park is about the most magical place on earth, by my estimation. You can step back in time inside this place and experience (or imagine) what life once was like in Alberta and throughout much of the West. Once admission is paid, all activities are free. Ride on an antique, steam-powered train, tour the park on a horse-drawn wagon, circle the Glenmore Reservoir on a historic paddleboat, catch some thrills at a turn-of-the-century carnival. Not to mention, learn about the people and lifestyles that existed generations before us at dozens of historic buildings that have been moved to this site. Well-trained interpreters are stationed throughout the park (in period clothing, no less!), performing tasks at most buildings that their residents would have done. Baking bread in wood stoves, weeding gardens, tending to livestock, milling lumber, smithing horse shoes. And they love to tell their stories. It's wonderful! For hours of operation, price of admission, park map, etc., go to www.heritagepark.ca.

With 15 boxes in this series, you could find them all in one day, with just limited time to enjoy the park itself. If you've got an annual pass, it might be nice to break this series up into two or three visits. Hence, there are THREE logbooks associated with this series (letterboxes #4, #8, & #11 below), so you might choose to divide up your search to find one logbook on each visit. The rest of the locales are stamps only.

Letterbox #1 does not require admission into the park. Letterboxes #1 & #2 are accessible year-long, during regular hours. The rest are only accessible during warm months, when the historical village is open. Please consult the Heritage Park website for hours and accessibility (www.heritagepark.ca).

#1 (This is the only box in the series available without paying admission.)
Off the plaza, this place a drink to take
Well, actually a drink to MAKE
A local business, in business STILL
Hanging by a magnet, under a small tractor wheel

#2 (This box is the second box available year-round. However, admission must be paid.)
Enter the museum on “petro street”.
On the first level, keep your feet.
Take this trailer for your wilderness holiday.
Found near where children play.
Go up by the hitch, and reach under the fuel.
Hanging by a magnet, be secretive, as a rule.

#3
Head into the park and promenade through time.
Notice the years fall away as you walk on a line.
Look up the hill. Notice friends of feather and fur.
The biggest and scariest, next stop on your tour.
Go to Brother Bear, and a few paces behind,
Notice two trees and then three bushes in a line.
Hung by wire in the northern-most of these
Is the treasure that you seek.

#4 (Contains a logbook)
Continue into the park, staying up high.
Look for something that rotates up in the sky.
Under the northern steps, under a rock,
A logbook awaits inside a box.

#5
Onward through time, find a place of great fun.
My toddlers’ favorite ride where one faces one.
Back and forth, to and fro,
Step on the brake pedal and they’ll no longer go.
Find the ship nearest the horses.
Magnet under seat, of courses of courses.
Update June 1, 2017: missing

#6
A real ship resides inside this park.
Go past this paddleboat and locate some rocks.
Just beside a round house for choo-choo,
9 steps south of the sign is a large boulder of gray-blue.
Reach in the space to the north of that rock
And find a stamp inside of a box.

#7
You're hungry now, find a bite or a nub.
Try a CAFE, but you have to be in the CLUB
The sign with the info about this locale,
Reach your arm inside. Magnet holds your pal.

#8 (Contains a logbook)
Head to the place where children can learn.
Stand on the porch and to the west you should turn.
Look down low, in fact underneath.
Beneath the porch you’ll find what you seek.

#9
Now to a place across the street
Where a congregation of people can meet.
And into the space where the departed find rest.
A large three-trunked tree by Sam Livingston is best.

#10
Work your way to a shed with large tools
For farmers and seeders and hay raking fools.
Find the press, early baler from I.H.,
On the far north side, under a bale is the place.

#11 (Contains a logbook)
“Scorch front” has a home that you should seek.
The west-facing side near the donkey, ducks, and geese.
Alongside the house there are six leafy friends.
Two quite close together at the corner on the north end.
With your back to the house and the bush to your front
Look under a rock for the logbook you hunt.

#12
Journey further back when buffalo roamed.
Outside the trading post there’s a stone that is honed.
Reach into the sign and feel all around.
Magnetted stamp will surely be found.

#13
Onward you journey, find a place for a drink.
A sarsparillo, perhaps, or something stiffer that stinks.
Outside this place, a rickety fence is north-bound.
At a gate hinge, look under a rock at the ground.

#14
Leaving this settlement, to a station take aim.
This one is now Lake Louise, because it changed names.
In the center, sits a source of heat.
Go to the back and reach underneath.

#15
The last stop is sorta out on its own.
80 acres isn’t huge, so settlers weren’t completely alone.
Given a house and a shed, some fence and a well,
English gentry thought they could rough it quite swell.
But most of them didn’t and ended up leaving.
Still, you should stop and take a second for breathing.
The table outside would be nice for a rest
Face to the south and reach under, to the left.

Hike length: 0.5 miles