The Tumbler Ridge Museum Foundation operates the Peace Region Palaeontology Research Centre, and employs palaeontologists Rich McCrea and Lisa Buckley. Detailed information on the palaeontological discoveries that have been made so far, their collection, storage, preparation and description can be found at the PRPRC website: www.prprc.com

Tumbler Ridge lies on the eastern flanks of the northern Rocky Mountains, in an unparalleled foothills location in an area of outstanding natural beauty. Over the past five years the Tumbler Ridge’s non-profit non-mechanized outdoors group, Wolverine Nordic and Mountain Society, has developed twenty two hiking trails that lead to area highlights. Visit their website at www.pris.bc.ca/wnms for further details of this magnificent trail system that leads to mountain summits, caves, canyons, waterfalls, dinosaur tracks and much more.

Tumbler Ridge is known as the “waterfall node of the north”. Although Kinuseo Falls has the largest volume and is the region’s best known waterfall, there are dozens of other falls with varying degrees of accessibility. Bergeron Falls is the highest accessible falls in BC’s northeast, at over 300 feet high. It is reached via a 5 kilometer hiking trail. The Cascades, in Monkman Provincial Park, are one of the world’s least known scenic treasures. Here the waters of Monkman Creek plunge eight times in a row, separated by lake-like widenings. Trail access was improved in 2004 and 2005, and rustic campsites constructed. The Museum Foundation and Wolverine Nordic and Mountain Society are partnering with the creation of the Monkman Memorial Trail which will transect the Rocky Mountains along this historic route, through superb scenery.

Some of the Tumbler Ridge area’s scenic highlights are featured in a photographic display in the Tumbler Ridge Community Centre.

While the palaeontology topic is so big and hot in Tumbler Ridge that is justifies a separate TRMF theme, the area’s other natural history is no less fascinating. Some of this is currently threatened by the Mountain Pine Beetle epidemic, with its unpredictable outcomes.

The region is still blessed with abundant wildlife, with an impressive variety of large mammal species that are often seen, including Grizzly and Black Bear populations.. The bird list is steadily increasing and stands at 227. In 2004 the BC Field Naturalists held their AGM in Tumbler Ridge, attracted by one of the regions’s ornithological claims to fame, for this is where eastern and western species meet at the extremes of their respective ranges.

Large parts of the mountain ranges of composed of limestone, and the area has been explored over the past decade for its cave potential. Although no huge caves have yet been discovered, an impressive array of smaller caves has been discovered, up to 200 feet deep. BC’s only known ice caves and first underground icefall are other interesting features, and the search continues.

Many of these themes will be developed into museum exhibits in the future.