Darrell Greer
Northern News Services

HAY RIVER (Aug 24/98) - What started out as the vision of a group of people with little more than high hopes and a dogged determination to succeed came to fruition this past Thursday when a motor cavalcade that started at Grimshaw reached the 60th parallel.

About 140 vehicles carrying some 350 people took part in the cavalcade to help commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Mackenzie Highway.

After ceremonies held at the parallel's visitor information centre concluded, the cavalcade continued on to Hay River, where special homecoming celebrations were being held from Aug. 17-23.

Ron Courtoreille, chair of Hay River's Mac 50 Committee, said the event was about a year in the making and no one envisioned how large it would eventually become.

"The Mackenzie Highway has been a real lifeline to this part of the Northwest Territories," said Courtoreille. "It was the first road in and it was really tough building conditions in the North back then.

"When we were doing our research into the history of the Mackenzie, we discovered it had never been officially opened, so we decided we'd also hold the official opening in connection with the anniversary celebrations."

The southern side's Mac 50 Committee co-chair, Bernice Lorenzen, said the original plans for the celebration called for only about 25 per cent of the activities and involvement which materialized in the final product.

She said when co-chair Leslie Peppler had to resign to move to Edmonton, the committee immediately appointed Bruce Hills to the position, which, she said, he was ideally suited for.

"Bruce is very interested in antique vehicles and our history, so he turned out to be an ideal co-chair," said Lorenzen. "But, as high as our hopes were for this event, none of us really envisioned it would get to the point of what you see in front of you today."

A new book coming

Lorenzen said in addition to the cavalcade, a contest was held to design a commemorative banner which was hung from light standards in every community along the way. Plans were also put into effect for a book on the Mackenzie Highway.

"Tales of the Mackenzie Highway is the book's name. My husband and I and our family gathered all the material and the committee decided we should have 1,000 copies of it printed. It's a coffee-table style book we're selling for $10 and we've almost sold out our second 1,000 copies."

Courtoreille said from his end, it was always intended that the Hay River homecoming would be held in conjunction with the 50th anniversary celebrations of the highway. He said everyone involved in the project worked very hard to see it become so successful.

"The Hay River community, for the most part, has been very supportive of this entire project," he said. "We went to different service clubs to plan some of the functions, such as the fish fry which was sponsored by the West Channel Fishermen's Heritage Committee and the pancake breakfast put on by the Women's Resource Centre.

"The Dene Cultural Institute held a tour of the Alexander and Louise Falls and then held a supper at the centre later that evening. Our public library also got involved by running an afternoon tea for former residents.

"This event wasn't created to be an economic boost for anybody, it's a celebration, but I suppose there has been some spinoffs and benefits to the community. But, first and foremost it's a celebration and we couldn't be happier with the way things turned out."

Looking around the packed fish fry at the Hay River Arena, Lorenzen said it was a lot of hard work to pull off the celebration, but worth every second.

"I remember last January going in to see the Peace River MLA Gary Friedel to explore what government grants may be available to help us with the funding to do this and telling him what our committee would like to see happen," said Lorenzen.

"Although he did everything he could to help us, when I left that day he said to his secretary, 'Man, what a dream that lady's got.' Well, the dream has become reality."