Rich dinosaur history makes Coates Conservation Lands a find in the Edmonton area

Nikki Paskar carefully navigates the hiking trailat Coates Conservation Lands, onehour southwest of Edmonton.

"This place is so special to me," says Paskar, conservation coordinator with the Edmonton and Area Land Trust."You can sit in the serenity of the forest and just relax and think."

This 32-hectare spacefeatures a 1.3-kilometretrail, which meandersthrough the forest to the bottom of Willow Creek connecting with theNorth Saskatchewan River a few kilometres away.

Thislandis awildlife corridor for fox, coyote, moose, snowshoe hare and is also home to a variety of birds, Paskar says.

'An immediate sense of tranquility'

3 years ago

Duration 1:39

Tag along on a tour of Coates Conservation Lands, a natural area with a rich dinosaur history, an hour southwest of Edmonton.

You can see more from Coates Conservation Lands on Our Edmonton on Saturday at 10 a.m., Sunday at noon and 11 a.m. Monday on CBC TV and CBC Gem.You can also find it and 55 other green space gems in the capital region on this map.

Open to the public in 2016, the land was donated to the land trustby Ethel Coates who wanted to see the spot "conserved in perpetuity."

A natural legacy

Born in 1922 to a farming family in Carbon, Alta.,Coates spent 45 years working for Imperial Oil and traveled the world.

Her nieceCheryl Bissell says Coatestaught her familyabout birds, how to ski and canoe.

"She made you pay attention to nature and all of its offerings, all the while relishing in it herself," Bissell says.

Coates decided to retire in the Calmar area and found "her little piece of heaven" in Willow Creek.

For close to 30 years she gardened, kept bees, walked the hills and valleys andskated on the creek.

"She loved her land with a passion and never ever wanted to leave it," Bissell says.

Coates died in 2014 at the age of 92.

In addition to her zeal for nature there was another reason to protect the space dinosaurs.

Dinosaur discoveries

"In the early 1990s Hadrosaur footprints were extracted from the area via helicopter and brought to the Royal Tyrrell Museum,"Paskarsays.

"Shortly after that they found Albertosaurus skin impressions as well as a number of dinosaur bones."

• Backyard dino dig 'all I need,' says world-renowned palaeontologist Philip Currie
• Hot Tip: It's warming up and we're sharing some sweet spots to stretch your legs
• Outdoor gems map: 50 sizzlin' sites to skate, ski, stargaze in and around Edmonton

Philip Currie remembers it well.

"It's a pretty cool story," says thepaleontology professor at the University of Alberta.

The world-renowned dinosaur hunter was called to the area in 1994 to investigate a find by12-year-old Tess Owen andher father Tom Owen.

The skin impression of an Albertosaurus, a type of tyrannosaur,was found at the bottom of the creek. The fossil mayhave fallen from the cliff abovealthough, Currie says, they weren't able to pinpoint the exact spot.

It's now in the back collections of the Royal Tyrell Museum in Drumheller, where researchers are still studyingit.

"In fact, it has attracted a lot of attention over the years because skin impressions of tyrannosaurs are pretty rare," Currie says.

Alberta is rich with specimens and theEdmonton area is no exception.

"Even people who dig sewers hit dinosaur bones periodically," Currie says.

Protected areas like Coates, where people can wander and observe, are fantastic.

"I think it's an exciting place for paleontologists and it's a cool place to go walking."

Coatesand 10 other natural areas are open to the public under the stewardship of the Edmonton and Area Land Trust.

Theday-use area has interpretive signs along the trail anda small parking lot at the intersection of Township Road 502A and Range Road 280.