new map for peace river time zone region (BC, Canada)

Chris Walton Chris.Walton at telus.com
Fri Mar 11 22:20:51 UTC 2011


Anybody not interested in Canadian Time Zone maps can skip this post.

For those that are interested, I have created a Google map showing a new definition for the Peace River time zone region in British Columbia.
Click the following link and wait a few seconds for the map to load:
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF&msa=0&msid=212137821026080676505.00049e218aa6e439340d4


The time zone boundary in this new map extends further north then the boundary in my "Google Earth Canadian time zone map".
I have not yet updated the Google Earth map; I will try and do that sooner or later.

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And now for some more detail and discussion:

The following web site claims that time zone boundary crosses HWY#97 just south of Pink Mountain.
http://www.vancouverisland.com/regions/towns/?townID=3621


One of the larger roadmap publishers in Canada is in agreement; their maps show a time zone boundary passing just south of Pink Mountain.

Looking at The National Atlas of Canada "Time Zone Map" it is possible to deduce that the time zone boundary passes somewhere near Pink Mountain.  The scale of the map makes it difficult to determine the exact location of the line; Pink Mountain is far too small to actually appear on a National map.
http://atlas.nrcan.gc.ca/site/english/maps/reference/national/timezones/map.pdf

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To the best of my knowledge there are no "time zone" road signs along HWY#97.  If there are any such signs they would have to be covered up (or removed) during the summer tourist season.  During the summer months all of BC (except the south east corner) is on UTC-7.

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This week I decided to place some phone calls.
I talked to employees and owners of bushiness in  Pink Mountain, Sasquatch Crossing, and Buckinghorse River.
I was quickly able to determine that all these places are on MST year round.
It become obvious that the roadmaps, and the National Atlas of Canada, and the vancouverisland.com web site are all incorrect.

I then sent an e-mail to the owner of an RV park in Sikanni Chief asking where the time zone boundary crosses HWY#97.
I got a quick reply.  The owner "presumed" the time zone boundary followed the district boundary between "Peace River Regional District" and "Northern Rockies Regional District".

Wikipedia indicates that the district boundary was created in 1987 when "Fort Nelson - Laird Regional District" was split into "Peace River Regional District" and "Northern  Rockies Regional District"; the boundary runs right along the 58th parallel.

I phoned the motel in Prophet River which is just a few miles north of the district boundary.
I had expected that the motel would operate on PST/PDT.
The motel owner explained that the motel operates on MST; there were personal reasons for this!
The motel owner also told me that the Prophet River IR a few miles up the highway uses PST/PDT.
I was asked which direction I would be arriving from.  I had to explain that I was calling from downtown Toronto and would not be staying in Prophet River for the night.

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When making the new Google map, I made the time zone boundary follow the northern, southern, and eastern boundaries of the Peace River Regional District.  For better or for worse, I ignored the use of MST by the single motel in Prophet River.

The western boundary of the time zone region follows watershed boundaries formed by the Muskwa and Hart mountain ranges.
Printed roadmaps and the National Atlas of Canada appear to follow a similar north-south line through these same mountains.

And that's all for now.
-chris





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