spooooook

I'm mulling over a job offer in Drumheller, and was wondering whether there are any BE members out there from Jurassic Park and District who could give me the "heads up" on the place - pros and cons of living and working there, quality of life, the usual sort of thing.

Hope everyone had a nice Christmas, and a Happy new year to all.

S.

gibsonslanding

great place if you're into bones and all things ancient, with bones....fasinating.......it's a very long way from anywhere though......not alot goes on in drumheller, except bones......

MrGreen

Just my opinion,..but.....I could never imagine living there, even for a great job and piles of money etc. It's basically a remote and weird kind of place. It's an interesting/quirky town to drive through and visit but basically it's just the red deer river, weather-beaten plastic dinosaurs, tumbleweed, run-down looking dinosaur-themed motels and restaurants with smatterings of dusty car dealerships. There's also the old downtown area (some lovely old buildings, although still run down) along with residential streets in various parts of town with 'some' picturesque little streets here and there in among the more run down places...oh, and the prison. Obviously it has one of the best dinosaur museums in the world along with some interesting geographical stuff and history around it in the badlands, hoodoos etc. Also, the whole area was built on coal mining and there's some interesting things to see on that front. But the attractions alone don't make it a nice place to live in terms of the quality of life you were asking about. It's a pretty redneck place too. The few times I've stopped at the Superstore there I've generally seen a mix of bored looking housewives pushing carts around in their slippers, hutterites and working guys, although come to think of it that might be a Superstore thing rather than a Drumheller thing as I've seen that exact demographic in calgary too. I imagine it would be a huge culture shock too compared to moving out somewhere nearer to Calgary for example. It's a cliche but...it's a nice enough place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there.

Piff Poff

Mandymoochops should be along shortly!

Talking to an English lady that runs a store in Drum, she says there is every cult imaginable in and around Drum.

The scenery IMHO is amazing and rivals the rockies - but then I love fossils and stones and, well I'm just a bit odd. There seems to be enough shopping for day to day needs and I would be quite happy living there I think. I have however only been on day trips to the area and we have also spent a long weekend there and experienced and amazing thunder storm - in a RV that we had not long got and had no idea on how to put the awning up and the BBQ we had going wasn't ready to eat and well a lot of people got wet trying to put our awning up.........We found that we had a piece missing.

That's as about helpful as I can be

mandymoochops

I have to agree with what has been said above.

Drum is a strange old place to live, but what makes it in my eyes is the friendliness of the people.

Ok so there are no fancy restaurants, but theres a few good bars. The key thing to making it here is to meet people, as the community is all about "visitng" (Canadian for going round to friends and chatting about randomness and probably drinking!)

There is a go kart track, golf course (beautiful actually) ski hill (sort of) and thats about it. If you were moving from a big city to come here you would find the shock a bit too much to bear I think.

But on the whole I really enjoy living and working here - if you need anything else then send me a pm and i'll answer as best I can

2Huskies

It's a weird place for sure, scorching in the summer but pretty bleak in the winter.It seems a very quiet kinda place & i've no idea what the main employer would be there.Even the RT museum is a good car ride out from the town.

spooooook

Thanks for all the replies.

Mandymoochops - what line of work are you in? What attracted you to immigrate to Drum in particular?

Thanks,

S.

mandymoochops

The main industry here is the oil patch - theres a lot of self employed maintenance people here as Drum is a pretty central place.



I work in a bank here in town, and camehere due to o/h being offered a job in Drum!!! When I first saw the place I nearly died - pretty much had a hissy fit of "I ain't living here its crap" type thing. You have to get used to the place but its good when you do!

DaveLovesDee

Any place that has the word Hell in it's name may not be the place to move to, lol. Only kidding MMC

mandymoochops

Yeah well any place that shares a name with an English seaside town has gotta be a bit suspect too eh?

DaveLovesDee

I'm just glad we don't get the tourists

drumhellerbound

Hey Spoooook (may have missed an "o" or two, soz!),

Reading this thread with interest as I'm hoping to move there in a couple of months (all being well with TWP application etc) - OH has had job offer in farming based near there.

We had a reccie there end of October, it looked very bleak then (not much colour left, no snow yet, all very grey and brown), and must admit during the drive there from the airport I was thinking "where the hell have I landed?!".

Really wasn't sure about the town until OH took me to the river and that changed my perspective on the town (beautiful river). We then took a drive to Airdrie to have a look at a bigger town and I felt very happy to get back to Drum after the visit, so the town was obviously growing on me already!

I have come across a few people who do not really understand why anyone would want to live there, the town certainly doesn't appear to have a lot to offer, but it seems to have enough, as well as great walking tracks in an amazing landscape and not forgetting the river, and hopefully a very friendly community....OH and I are not into big towns, posh restaurants, cinemas etc, and we enjoy an easy life, socialising over BBQs and drinks and Drum seems to be ideal for us - obviously we'll have to wait and see how it turns out!

Piff Poff

Drumheller from what I have seen never does get very green. Saying that one of these pictures looks pretty green to me Oh! I also remember seeing lots of cactus which I thought rather cool.

mandymoochops

It does get green I promise!!!!!

One of the benefits of living in the valley is that in winter we tend not to get the severe snow as they do "up top" - to the point where as soon as you come out of the valley it is impossible to drive as you can't see a thing!

The summer weather though does get very very warm - up to plus 40 - however as DB said we have the red deer river which is excellent for tubing on in those conditions.

I can't honestly say what it is I love about this place - it just grows on you very quickly

drumhellerbound

Yes, really looking forward to the summers there - MMC, what's the situation like in Drum with the mosquitoes?