Local Fort Nelson Information :: Fort Nelson Motel and Diesel Fuel on the Alaskan Highway

LOCAL INFORMATION

Fort Nelson is home to about 5000 people & the hub for the whole Northern Rockies, providing a host of services for all who travel along the Alaska Highway.

The town has grown dramatically in recent years, benefiting from tourism, oil & gas exploration, construction, forest products & the logging industry. Fort Nelson was set up as a trading post by Europeans in 1805 by the North West Fur Trading co. & developed through the years as a centre for expansion & trading to the North. By 1942, when the Alaska Highway was being constructed from Dawson Creek to Fairbanks Alaska, Fort Nelson became poised for even greater growth & development. The building of the Alaska Highway in 8 month's time, during wartime, with 27 000 military & private personnel was a tremendous engineering accomplishment. Today, the Alaska Highway is one of the most scenic & picturesque highway routes in the world.

Fort Nelson & Area Facts

Home of the largest gas processing plant in North America, Duke Energy
Northern Rockies district comprises 86 000 sq. Kilometers or 10% of provincial land
Fort Nelson was the original mile ”0” on highway
Current town site is 5th location of Fort Nelson
Muskwa bridge @ the south entrance of town is lowest elevation on the Alaska Highway
200 000 tourists travel the Alaska Highway annually
Town population almost doubles in busy winter drilling season
Most northern railhead in British Columbia
The Alaska Highway – Fort Nelson's main street
Largest employer – Canfor forest products
One of the lowest unemployment rates in the Province