B.C. town mulls Stonehenge replica

CBC NEWS: Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Some people in a small town in B.C.'s Interior are hoping a coincidence of geography will help their community cash in big.It so happens that the location of Barriere, north of Kamloops and about 400 kilometres northeast of Vancouver, lines up with a world-renowned piece of English history —Stonehenge. And some town councillors are intent on exploiting that fact to help attract more tourists."I think it's quite an exciting thing. There's not that many places in the world that can lay claim to being on the same latitude as Stonehenge," Coun. Virginia Smith told CBC News.

Smith said the town discovered Barriere is one of only five Canadian communities that lie right on the latitude of 51 degrees north, the same as the famous English site that is believed to have been built 4,500 years ago.Smith said there was another coincidence that came up as she investigated further. The precise 51-degree line cuts through a new park the town is designing.Coun. Glen Stanley said city council hopes to honour the mysterious English attraction, which is made of huge stone slabs arrayed in partial circles, the biggest being about 100 metres in diameter."Well, you know, different places have their different things, so we thought, 'Let's build a Stonehenge,'" Stanley said.And the vision is for more than just a scaled-down version. Stanley said the town, population 1,900, wants to build a replica, out of concrete. Stanley said the decision isn't final, and the cost isn't known, but he believed Barriere's own version of Stonehenge could be a reality within the next couple of years.

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