It has become a very large commercial sector serving local citizens and visitors because of its central location in Northern Ontario and also has a busy rail line and airport. The pulp and paper mill is probably the largest industry here but it appears that agriculture & tourism also plays a major role here (mostly camping / hunting & fishing tourists I would guess).

They have a town’s mascot, known as Max the Moose, a large cement statue whom stands 18 feet tall and weighs nine tons, found outside the Dryden Information Centre. It may be pretty cool to have a moose that big but I think they could have put a little work into it to make it look a little better (… I will need to go get a picture of that before I leave and add it … ).

Dryden is the home town of NHL super star hockey player  Chris Pronger (currently playing hockey with the Philadelphia Flyers). He even has the local arena named after him with a digital sign providing the town with important information like “It’s COLD outside!”  (see photo) – I would hope that most people here would be able to figure that out with out having somebody tell them about it (especially since you have to be outside to read the sign – ???) but sometimes you never do know …

The town boasts a motto of “The Great Canadian Experience” well if that’s the case I have yet to feel that special experience yet.  In fact we have been having some bad luck with the weather  (gotta love snow in October ) and havebeen basically stuck here for almost three weeks, getting only a few flights here and there.

So I should have lots of time to make another Dryden post or two with more info, summary of what I think about this place and other sarcastic comments off course…

It is kind of like the Bill Murray movie “Ground Hog Day” where a TV weatherman who, during a hated assignment covering the annual Groundhog Day event in Punxsutawney (a town just like Dryden I am sure), finds himself repeating the same day over and over again. For us it has been having to eat in the same restaurants over and over …

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It does have an extensive water system fed by the English River into what may appear as an infinite amount of lakes, ponds, streams and rivers. Lots of wildlife too, on my travels here I have saw several black bears, coyotes, deer, moose, eagles, rabbits and various types of birds (Our project areas are actually a few hours drive north of the town so sometimes I have been spending up to six hours a day traveling on dirt roads and secondary roads).

 In front of one of the bar / restaurants in town is an old Seabee amphibian bush plane, somewhat odd type of lawn ornament but it seems to fit in here none the less. The town was a little different then most in Ontario as we noticed that they had several restaurants that were not open on Sundays or holidays (such as Labor Day) witch allowed Subway to benefit from. 

The weather has been great while we are here so there has been no time to do much extra curricular activities, like checking out the local beach or some of the several recreational trails in and around town.

Perhaps someday I when I have lots of money and free time I will come back and rent a float plane to go check out some of the great places to go camping and fishing …