On June 3, 1967, the Minister of National Defence flew into a farming town in northeast Alberta to open a landing pad for visitors from space.
Key facts
- St. Paul built its UFO landing pad in 1967 as one of more than 100 centennial projects the town organized, according to St. Paul, Alberta.
- Paul Hellyer, then Minister of National Defence, flew in by helicopter and opened the pad on June 3, 1967.
- The back stop carries a map of Canada made with stones supplied by each province.
- A sign beside the pad declares the ground beneath it international territory and welcomes visitors from Earth or elsewhere.
The town that treated the centennial as a dare
Canada’s centennial year produced commemorative projects in nearly every community. Most were arenas, parks and plaques. St. Paul went a different direction.
A platform, a stone map and a sign
The town built a raised platform for interstellar visitors, set a map of Canada into the back stop with stones from every province, and posted a sign that declares the ground international territory and hopes outer space stays free of national conflict. Published figures for the weight of the concrete vary, and we could not confirm a single number. Local accounts also say a time capsule sits beneath the deck, due to open in 2067.
Still free to visit
Nearly sixty years after the ribbon cutting, the pad is still there, and visitors still pull off the highway to see it. A centennial project that small towns kept up on their own is rarer than the ones that were paved over, and St. Paul’s is still on the map.
The town’s own museum or archive is the next call for anyone who wants the original budget and the concrete figure. Until then, 2067 is the date to watch.
