Green

Self-guided windmill tours

You’ve seen them dotting prairie fields and the rolling foothills all across southern Alberta: wind turbines – tall, impressive, and even somewhat mysterious. How are they built? How do they work? How are the sites chosen? What exactly are they doing to better the environment? If you’ve ever pondered questions like these while passing by any of the several wind farms visible from Alberta’s southern highways, getting the answers is now as easy as the click of a mouse or a quick visit to any one of several tourist information centres around the province.

Vision Quest has released a self-guided CD audio tour that takes interested travelers on a journey to three of the company’s prominent wind facilities (McBride Lake, Summerview and Castle River) as well as several spectacular landmarks and attractions in between.

Entitled Journey Into the Wind, the 11-track disc provides an interactive and entertaining approach to learning about wind power. CDs are available at visitor information centres across southern Alberta and also online. MP3 audio files can be quickly and easily downloaded from the company’s web site (www.transalta.com/) directly onto an iPod, or burned onto a personal CD. “We’ve had so much demand for tours of our facilities, we needed a new way to provide the information,” explains Jason Edworthy, Vision Quest Managing Director, Market Development. “We hope that Journey Into the Wind will satisf people’s curiosity, and perhaps even encourage them to support clean, renewable wind energy development, wherever they may be from.” Two Calgary radio personalities are the familiar voices of the news announcer Christina Rowsell and Country 105’s Phoenix.

The tracks also include interviews with several Vision Quest staff members as well as local area residents. Peigan tribe Elder, Wilford Yellow Wings Sr. lends his voice and wealth of stories as a guide through the Peigan Reserve. Other tour highlights include the historic town of Fort Macleod and the Old Man River dam.

Look for Journey Into the Wind in the following tourist centres:
• Kootenai Brown Pioneer Village, Pincher Creek
• Fort Macleod Chamber of Commerce Visitor Information Centre
• 1884 Barracks Provincial Historic Site
• Head Smashed in Buffalo Jump Visitor Information Centre
• Claresholm Tourist Information Centre and District Museum
• Cardston Information Centre
• Frank Slide Interpretive Centre
• Lethbridge Visitor Information Centres
• Nanton Visitor Information Centres
• Crowsnest Pass Chamber of Commerce and Visitor Information Centre