The Royal British Columbia Museum

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October 18, 2017

On a very rainy day in Victoria, we went to the Royal British Columbia Museum. It was a bit difficult to find parking since the truck wouldn’t fit in the parking garage, but we found something a few blocks away. We checked our rain gear and started on the first floor, which is all about people of British Columbia and their varied backgrounds, pictures and stories. There is a great display of the wildlife of BC, so real you think you are there. You can walk through the HMS Discovery, Captain James Cook’s ship, as it landed in a First Nation town to replace a mast. Then you can walk through a recreated town of the 1800’s.

I was particularly interested in the Natural History section that gave great descriptions and displays of how previous climate changes affected animal, plant and human life. There were excellent displays of today’s climate change with our warming planet. Some areas will turn into deserts as fires and heat destroy trees and plants. Different insects and animals will move into these areas that formerly wouldn’t survive the cold. There was a display of how the Mastodon had tusks and teeth perfectly suited for digging through snow and eating moss and lichens. As the climates warmed, they couldn’t adapt to other foods. Rising waters will also affect our landscapes, and warming waters will affect fish populations.

For me, the First Nations section was the best. Great displays showed how they made fish traps, carved bones for tools, cut stone for arrow points, wove goat wool for clothing, made clothes and rugs from skins, made canoes and much more. The totem pole display was awe-inspiring. Martha kept coming back to get me to come along. This is the best I have ever seen. I think it is a shared endeavor with the First Nations.

We had a bit of lunch in their little restaurant, then went into the iMax theater for a 4-D movie of Henry Bates’ research in the Amazon for 11 years in the 1850’s. The screen is four stories high, and you feel yourself looking up into trees and down to the forest floor. It is so life-like, and the photography is incredible and so is the true story. The acting is superb. How could a young man and his friend, Alfred Russel Wallace go to the Amazon in the 1850’s, tramping through such a dangerous forest looking for bugs? If the other three movies are nearly this good, I’d like to see them all.

The Royal BC Museum is a wonderful museum. I hope I get to return.