McAbee Fossil Beds Heritage Site re-opens to the public

“It was like a free door and everybody was walking in and taking what they wanted, and it wasn’t something that was being managed very well,” said Frank Antoine, project manager for the McAbee Fossil site. “When they turned it into a heritage site it turned it shut the door for people to come onto this site.”

Seven years later, the fossil beds are being re-opened. Going forward, the Bonaparte Indian Band will be responsible for the stewardship of the site, which lies on their traditional territory.

“It give us an opportunity to again be a part of a story that’s going to be sharing our story with it,” Antoine said.

Image Credit: CFJC Today / Adam Donnelly

The Bonaparte Indian Band collaborated with many different groups in the development of the site, including Thompson Rivers University.

“We’ve worked with the government as it became a heritage site and we’ve worked with the group that’s organizing this event today to make sure there’s going to be a long-standing involvement in public education, which is what our role is,” said TRU’s Dean of Science, Tom Dickinson, “and the sort of oversight and ability to coordinate kinds of research that would go on here.”

The fossils found at the site have been extremely well preserved and paint a picture of life many years ago.

“At the time, fifty-some million years ago, there was a lake, there was a tropical forest with a variety of plants, insects and fish,” said Elisabeth Deom, senior stewardship officer for the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development’s Heritage Branch. “So, those organisms died and accumulated at the bottom of the lake and layers upon layers those plants and animals got protected and they fossilized.”

Image Credit: CFJC Today / Adam Donnelly

It’s just the start of the new era for the McAbee Fossil Beds Heritage site. There is more development in the works to improve visitor experience.

“I always say it’s going to take three-to-five years to build our dream of what it needs to be, whether it’s going to be a visitor’s centre, a research centre for the people from around the world, but also our own people to learn about who we are today.”

Admission to the site is currently free and guides will be available to show visitors around Thursdays through Mondays.

by Jill Sperling

McAbee Fossil Beds Heritage Site re-opens to the public

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