This short 1952 film documents the construction of the Aluminum Company of Canada’s (Alcan) massive power development project, which diverted the Nechako River at Kemano into a hydroelectric powerplant inside of a mountain, which would provide power for Alcan’s smelter in the newly created town of Kitimat in the Kitimat Valley. The film features the use of heavy machinery, including Harvester International’s TD 24 tractor. The film opens with shots of mountain lakes and snow-peaked caps. Viewers see mountain summits and northwest forests. A wrecking ball on chains is connected to two TD 24s and is used to know down or uproot trees (01:30). A tractor bulldozes trees. Viewers see processed bars of aluminum (02:37). At an aluminum plant, viewers see the metal being produced. Spools of aluminum come off the production line (03:14). Aerial views show mountains with glaciers in the north-central region of British Columbia. Graphics of the Nechako River detail the construction plans for a hydroelectric power plant and the new city Kitimat. Men survey land and operate heavy machinery as construction begins (06:05). Men prepare to detonate explosives in a mountain which will be used to build a dam on the Nechako River (06:54). A man pushes the plunger on the detonator and the mountain explodes. Tractors move rocks and diggers move earth from the mountains of rubble. Crawlers spread the earth and clay. A tractor pulls a roller to compact the earth. Viewers see the Kemano Valley (09:50), where cars move into the tunnel to remove the rock being drilled and detonated. Dynamite is detonated (11:45), and then a Mucker digs up the rubble and moves it onto a conveyer belt to be carried away. An aerial view shows the camp where the entrance to the tunnel is (12:35). Rail cars bring rock out from the tunnel. Machines move earth where the power station will be built inside the mountain (14:27). A truck hauls rock out of the tunnel. A tractor-powered drag line hauls gravel out of the river (15:43). TD-24 tractors push gravel into the river to be washed. Viewers see the construction camp (16:55), where a man feeds several black bears. There is a shot of the powerline towers (17:44), followed by footage of a helicopter picking up a cargo net of rock to haul up the mountain (18:28). A road is being built up the mountainside road. A TD-24 Crawler climbs up the mountain, plowing snow to open up the road all the way to the mountain pass. Tractors bulldoze tree stumps to clear a path for the power lines. Two men climb into a helicopter and fly off to the site of Kitimat (22:47). There is an aerial shot of the level land of where Kitimat will be built. Machines spread gravel and compact the earth at the Kitimat site (24:00). More trees are cleared with the wrecking ball and chains. There is a good shot of the mountains surrounding the Kemano Valley, and the film ends with footage of men working in the tunnels and moving earth with the tractors.

Kitimat is a district municipality in the North Coast region of British Columbia, Canada. It is a member municipality of the Regional District of Kitimat-Stikine regional government. The Kitimat Valley is part of the most populous urban district in northwest British Columbia, which includes Terrace to the north along the Skeena River Valley. The city was planned and built by the Aluminum Company of Canada (Alcan) during the 1950s.

Kemano was a settlement situated 75 km (47 mi) southeast of Kitimat in the province of British Columbia in Canada. It was built to service a hydroelectric power station, built to provide energy for Alcan to smelt aluminum from its ore. The Kemano Generating Station is built 427 m (1,400 ft) inside the base of Mt Dubose in a blasted cavern. It produces 896 MW of power from its eight generators, each of which has a capacity of 112MW.

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This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com