Bowron Lake Circuit Open for the Season

WORLD-CLASS CIRCUIT ATTRACTS VISITORS TO REGION

Although living next to the Bowron Lake chain of lakes is something that most residents in the area take for granted, the reality is that the Bowron Lake chain is a rare jewel, and one of the best canoeing circuits in the world.

The circuit draws visitors from around the globe and is part of the diverse and magnificent backcountry that makes Wells such a great place to live.

And the best news? It's open for the season. Bowron Lake Provincial Park officially opened on May 15, and is open until September 30.

First time visitors to the area can look forward to a an awe-inspiring 116 km chain of lakes that has tremendous diversity in topography and vegetation.

From the rounded hilltops of the Quesnel Highlands on the west side of the circuit to the imposing Cariboo Mountains on the eastern and southern sections of the circuit, the park has an amazing array of scenery and wildlife.

If you are planning a trip to Bowron Lake this year there are three resorts located right on the lake that can help with all facets of your visit: Bear River Mercantile, Becker's Lodge, or Bowron Lake Lodge & Resorts.

If you'd rather do all of the trip planning yourself, visit the BC Parks website or download the Pre-Trip Information Booklet (pdf viewer required).

Posted by Sundance Topham Comments Top

Island Mountain Arts Presents Toni Onley Exhibition

UNIQUE "IN THE STUDIO" EXHIBITION AND SALE

The Island Mountain Arts Public Gallery in Wells, BC is pleased to present "In the Studio," a rare exhibition and sale of artworks by renowned British Columbian painter, Toni Onley (1928 – 2004) from May 20 to June 18.

Toni Onley is one of the most widely known and admired painters in British Columbia. He combined a traditional British watercolour technique with modernist abstract form and Oriental brush painting to invent a unique vision of landscape.

Featured in the exhibition are prints that have been generously donated to the Island Mountain Arts Society from the Toni Onley Estate in order to help raise funds towards a legacy fund in his name.

The fund will help to provide scholarships to emerging and professional visual artists to attend the newly re-named Toni Onley Artists’ Project (formerly the Wells Artists’ Project), which is an eight-day artist mentorship program. Down the road, plans are in place to expand this program into an eight-month artist-in-residence program in Wells called the Toni Onley School for Professional and Emerging Artists.

Also featured in the exhibition and sale are a number of Onley’s signature watercolours. A unique aspect of this exhibition will be the installation of the 7' x 12' painting wall from Onley's studio. The wall, with its many layers of paint, provides a rare insight into the artist’s creative process. Along with the wall there is a collection of his brushes, palette and a painting board he used for his watercolours. Combined theses items provide the name and back drop for this important exhibition - "In the Studio".

These special pieces appear courtesy of the permanent collection of the Art Gallery of the South Okanagan in Penticton. Though Toni never made it to Wells, he had discussed with Paul Crawford his desire to fly his LA4 Buccaneer amphibious plane up to paint in and around Wells, Barkerville and the Bowron Lakes. Sadly his life tragically ended on February 29th, 2004 when he had a heart attack while flying his plane and crashed into the Fraser River. With a great respect for the life and work of this remarkable BC painter, Island Mountain Arts is honoured to have the use of his name for the legacy fund and school.

Toni Onley very much embodied the spirit of this project, as he had a great passion for going into remote areas in order to gain inspiration and paint, he also was very savvy in the business of being a successful Canadian artist. With the Toni Onley School in Wells we hope to honour and celebrate these aspects of Toni and create a program that will help artists to develop their studio practice, as well as their knowledge of the business side of art.

It is with great pleasure and excitement that we welcome you to view the work of this celebrated Canadian artist in one of the only exhibitions and sales of his work to take place in Northern BC. A limited number of historic Toni Onley exhibition posters will also be for sale. For more information about the exhibition or about this summer’s Toni Onley Artists’ Project please call toll free 1-800-442-2787, locally 994-3466, email info@imarts.com or visit www.imarts.com.

Story by Julie Fowler Comments Top

Visitor Centre Here to Help

STOP BY THE NEW VIC BY THE LAKE

Two lovely Visitor Centre veterans staff the Wells Visitor Centre this summer.

Krystal Schuster is from Quesnel and attends Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops while Stephanie Wilson is a University of Northern BC alumnus that now calls Vancouver home.

The Visitor Centre carries area maps and guides, including local trail guides and maps, area topographical maps, local GPS information, Forest Service/ backroad maps (including the 3100 road between Wells and Likely), and information on the local businesses, activities and events.

In addition, the VC carries official Super, Natural BC publications such as regional travel guides, the BC Roadmap and Parks Guide and the BC Approved Accommodations Guide.

Planning a trip this summer? Stop by the Visitor Centre for travel information and book accommodations and activities across the province. Purchase Barkerville admission tickets or tickets for the Sunset Theatre, Theatre Royal or Barnard’s Express and check out the local art and Super, Natural BC and Friends of the Wells Community Hall merchandise available for sale.

Whether you are new to the area and are looking for local information or you are looking for information on the rest of the province, the Wells Visitor Centre can assist you in planning the perfect vacation. Come see why British Columbia is the Best Place on Earth!

The Wells Visitor Centre is located on Jack o’ Clubs Lake is open daily from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm. You can reach the VIC toll free at 1-877-451-9355, locally at 994-2323 or you can email vic@wellsbc.com.

Story by Stephanie Wilson Comments Top

Wells on the Web

THE WWWHERE AND WWWHY OF WELLS

So I'm not exactly addicted to Facebook. Really I'm not. However I do like the concept. So much so that I tend to spend at least part of every browsing day perusing the site. In fact I like Facebook so much that I started an "I love Wells" group on the site.

Which begs a couple of questions. First, what is Facebook? And second, are there any other Wells groups out there in the online universe?

First Facebook. Facebook is a "social utility that connects you to the people around you". (In order to use Facebook you must register a free account)

Sounds simple enough. And it really is. It works on the degrees of separation principle. If you know Bob, and Bob knows Sandra, and you also know Sandra, but haven't seen her in years, you can now contact her through Bob, even though you haven't seen her since....fill in the blanks here.

In simple terms it's a way to keep in touch with friends from around the world that you might have lost touch with. Kind of like an online high school reunion.

Where this site works great, is that it is connected around a network or goup. Because Wells is such an interesting place, and because a large number of people have made their way to work, live and play in our small corner of the earth, I decided to start a group for these people to reconnect and keep in touch.

So far the "I love Wells" group has been up for around three weeks, and there are just over 100 members. On the site you can post pictures, engage in a discussion board, share links, and basically connect with other kindred Wells souls. Click here to visit the "I love Wells" group on Facebook.com. Remember, you need to register to have access, but it's free and painless.

After seeing the immediate response that this group created, I decided to try and find out what other Wellscentric online communities are out there, which brings me to question number two. Are there any other Wells groups out there in the online universe?

The short answer is yes. The long answer is as follows:

ArtsWells: The Island Mountain Arts crew has harnessed the power of the Internet with a number of groups.
MySpace.com - Perhaps the most well known interactive network, myspace allows people or groups to create their own space complete with pictures, music and discussion. To visit the ArtsWells page on MySpace.com visit www.myspace.com/artswells.
Facebook.com - Facebook works as described above. To visit the ArtsWells page on facebook.com click on the following link. (As mentioned, in order to use Facebook you must register a free account).

Wells Community Garden: The Wells Community Garden, though in its infancy, has a small blog style site. To find out what's happening with the garden visit wellsgarden.livejournal.com.

Youtube.com: Although, not necessarily a Wells specific community, there are a variety of Wells (and area) videos on this video sharing network, including the following:
Tony Pantages Video, Random Wells, B.C. Videos (some non-Wells videos will come up in the query due to the nature of the search), Barkerville, Bowron Lakes.

In the future there might be other Wells groups on the web, but those were the only ones that I could find. If you know of others please send the details to myself and I'll post them for all to see.

Posted by Sundance Topham Comments Top

Barkerville Rush Relay a Success

RECORD NUMBER OF TEAMS PARTICIPATE

This year’s Barkerville Rush Relay was bigger than ever with 18 teams from across the province taking part in the 100 km ultra-marathon from Quesnel to Barkerville on the May long weekend.

There was representation from Smithers, Kamloops, Prince Rupert, Williams Lake and Prince George, along with teams from Quesnel and Wells.

As always with events of this size, having enough volunteers is key, and Wells volunteers came through once again as they manned (and womaned) the various stations up to the turn-around point above Summit Rock.

The dinner at the Wells Community Hall was a roaring success thanks to the Bears Paw Café and again Wells residents stepped up to the plate to run the bar for the evening. A big thank you to everyone that participated in the race and in making all our visitors feel like this is the best place to be.

For more information on the Barkerville Rush Relay, including the posted results and pictures from the 2007 event (when available), be sure to visit their website.

Story by Carol McGregor Comments Top

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