Northern Alberta Is Hiding Something Most Canadians Don't Know Exists

0:00 14 remarkable geographic facts about northern Alberta that even many lifelong Albertans have never heard before. 0:46 Alberta 1:34 Wood Buffalo National Park 3:50 Peace Athabasca Delta 4:38 whooping crane 6:02 beaver dam 6:59 wood bison 7:46 Slave River 8:48 Canadian Shield 9:34 Athabasca River 10:24 Athabasca oil sands 11:42 peatlands 12:45 Caribou Mountains 13:53 Fort Chippewyan Join me as I uncover 14 remarkable geographic facts about northern Alberta that even many lifelong Albertans have never heard before. I explore the vast boreal forests, salt plains, sinkholes, and inland waterways of Wood Buffalo National Park, including the Peace Athabasca Delta, the world’s only natural nesting ground of the whooping crane, and a beaver dam discovered from space. I also follow the Slave River, examine Alberta’s only section of the Canadian Shield, and trace the Athabasca River toward the Arctic Ocean. Along the way, I look at the Athabasca oil sands, peatlands that store enormous amounts of carbon, the high Caribou Mountains, the darkest skies in the world, and the remote community of Fort Chippewyan. After decades of teaching Canadian geography, I want to show why northern Alberta is far stranger and more remarkable than the familiar image of oil, cattle, and mountains.