SANDRA M STANWAY
Brooks Bulletin
There is renewed interest in revitalizing and making the 111-year-old Brooks Aqueduct an attractive tourism destination.
In January Brooks Region Tourism hosted a meeting with reps from the county, city, museum, EID and the province to discuss moving forward.
“We just want to make it more of a regional draw for tourism,” said Mitch Iwaasa, economic development officer for the area.
The Aqueduct, which has been maintained from time to time, is situated on a 19-hectare property that is rundown.
“I think from a tourism side you’re not going to have a full time interpretative person but in today’s day and age there are options for QR codes for a self guided tour. There were some suggestions around that.”
“The Brooks Aqueduct is a key part of the story of rural development in southern Alberta and we really appreciate how much the local community in and around Brooks values its importance as a piece of history and a visitor attraction,” said Chris Weber who works on the Aqueduct file at the province with Alberta Arts, Culture and Status of Women.
He said the department’s intention is to conserve and maintain the structure to ensure that it can be enjoyed by future generations.
“We are currently assessing how we can continue to best tell the story of the Aqueduct to visitors, both onsite and online. QR-coded signs are indeed one of the ideas that we are looking at,” said Weber.
About a decade ago an attempt was made to revitalize the area and enhance the visitor experience with a path that goes along an unclean pond and the Brooks Kinettes installed a children’s play area.
Iwaasa said while the region would like to see the area revitalized provincial reps said they would look into the issue.
“The pressure to get things done locally is a little bit higher than perhaps the province. Part of it is funding,” said Iwaasa
In 2019 an app to record Aqueduct structure changes was created and used by a PhD candidate. It was the same year funds were provided by the federal and provincial governments for repairs.
Peter Dawson of the University of Calgary has also completed a digital preservation report which is available online at https://alberta.preserve.ucalgary.ca/.
The Aqueduct was built between 1912 and 1914 at the cost of $700,000 (about $18.5 million today).
The 3.2 km-long reinforced concrete flume carried water from the Bow River “to transform 55,000 hectares east of Brooks from semi-arid rangeland to farmland suitable for settlement,” states the plaque near the structure.
It ranges in height between 20 and 25 meters (66 feet-82 feet).
The majority of the structure remains, while one section was removed in 1983 to allow for the construction of Range Road 142.
In 1988 the site was named a National Historic Civil Engineering Site by the Canadian Society for Civil Engineering, in November 1983 it was formally recognized as a federal historic site and in 2000 it was recognized as a provincial historic site.
