The world's largest beaver dam is in Alberta and it's 13 hockey rinks wide
Alberta is home to many strange things from bizarre rural museums to delightfully odd roadside attractions and while many of them are legendary (like the Gopher Hole Museum), some may have also flown under the radar.
For example, you might not know that the world’s largest beaver dam can be found inside the prairie province.
Spanning almost 800 metres, it’s more than eight times the size of the Statue of Liberty or, to follow a more Canadian measurement system, 13 hockey rinks wide.
While the front of the dam is 775 metres in length, it actually holds as much as 70,000 cubic metres of water.
To put that size in perspective even further, the amount of water the dam holds is equivalent to around 92,000 dump trucks of water.
Government of Canada
Government of Canada
Located in Canada’s largest national park, Wood Buffalo National Park, the area is known for its diverse wildlife. From wood bison and whooping cranes to, of course, beavers, many creatures call it home.
You’ll have to be pretty dedicated if you would like to see the dam for yourself, though. To get there, you’ll have to hike for days through wetlands, muskeg and thick boreal forest, or charter a private sightseeing tour.
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The entire thing is so big that it’s even visible from space, which is actually what helped it get discovered. Scientists were combing through thousands of satellite images in search of changing landscapes from climate change when they stumbled across the dam.
Its remote location, which is 22 kilometres away from the shores of Lake Claire, kept it a secret until 2009 but it’s now one of Canada’s unique claims to fame!
If you aren’t a wilderness explorer, you might be more interested in this giant beaver statue that popped up in an Alberta small town 20 years ago.
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