The City of Terrace received a recognition award from Heritage BC in the education and awareness category for the restoration of the Second World War-era gunnery installed near the Northwest Regional Airport.
“The restoration of the gunnery and the accompanying signage recognize a unique story in the history of Terrace and British Columbia,” wrote Paul Gravett, executive director at Heritage BC in a letter addressed to City Planner Ken Newman. The award will be given to the city on Friday, May 11, 2018 as part of Heritage BC’s annual conference.
Last year the City of Terrace applied for a $10,000 grant made available by the BC Museums Association to create the interpretive signs placed adjacent to the gunnery backstop, located at the corner of Max Neubacher Way and Bristol Road.
The backstop was built for use by the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) for sighting and calibrating aircraft machine guns. The site was added to the Community Heritage Register list, which was established by the city in 2006. Two other Second World War-era sites were also added, including the ammunition bunkers between Highway 37 and Bristol Road and the reserve gas tanks located behind the baseball field in Duncan K Kerr Memorial Park.
Of the three sites, the gunnery backstop near the airport is the most visible. The large H-shaped structure, stretching 72 feet wide and 23 feet high, has two concrete buttresses extending from the central wall that faces south towards the airport’s infield. At the time of its use, a military aircraft facing north would aim its targets on the south side of the structure between the buttresses filled with earth, into which the aircraft would fire to sight their guns. A propeller from a 1952 Bristol Freighter, used by local aviation company Hawkair Aviation until 1999, was installed at the base of the backstop as ‘a measure of its value to the community.’
The signs were built in front of the gunnery backstop as a way of explaining the connection between the Second World War and the more modern history of Terrace.
They were installed in October 2017 with landscaping expected to be finished by the spring.
brittany@terracestandard.com
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