St. Paul, Alberta's Monument to the Centennial Year: A UFO Landing Pad

Think of 1967 and Canada, one looks to the big events that we still recall - Expo '67 and Canada are two that come to mind.

There were a number of commemorative events commissioned. We will discuss them in the days ahead.

But we also note that there were many smaller and offbeat activities and happenings that did not necessarily garner national attention.

For example, Helen Davies in The Politics of Participation: Learning from Canada’s Centennial Year wrote:

In addition to all the commissioned events, the newly created Order of Canada, buildings, displays, concerts, festivals, pieces of art and music, Canadians came up with celebration ideas of their own. For instance, one woman spent two and a half years hooking a rug, which she offered the federal government for display, that portrayed “the Houses of Parliament bordered by the provincial flowers, with end panels depict Canadian industry and an outside border of the provincial crests.”3 Students created parks in their schoolyards, women’s groups worked on creative Centennial projects including “anthems,” communities planned dances and wrote plays, and neighbourhoods encouraged beautification projects. Everyone, from the various levels of government down to children and to the smallest grassroots organization planned and carried out Centennial projects.

We came across an especially unique museum that was established as part of the Centennial commemoration. It had little to do with Canada, per se, but it did catch our attention fro being unique

The UFO landing pad in St. Paul, Alberta was created that year as the world’s first welcome mat for our alien visitors.

It was done so with civic pride.

In 1967, a proposal was made to build the world's first UFO Landing Pad as a landmark for the town. The Government of Canada responded to this proposition and, during the grand opening on June 3 1967, St. Paul was declared the Centennial Capital of Canada.

At that time, Paul Hellyer, Minister of National Defence, flew in by helicopter to officially open the Pad. The pad was one of over 100 Centennial Projects organized by the town.

The sign beside the pad reads: "The area under the World's First UFO Landing Pad was designated international by the Town of St. Paul as a symbol of our faith that mankind will maintain the outer universe free from national wars and strife. That future travel in space will be safe for all intergalactic beings, all visitors from earth or otherwise are welcome to this territory and to the Town of St. Paul."

In the 1990's the town opened an adjacent UFO tourist information centre to welcome visitors. As one enters St. Paul from the West, you can drop in to visit the UFO exhibit downstairs, complete with actual photographs of UFOs, crop circles and cattle mutilations. The exhibit is designed to educate. A UFO Hotline compliments the display with reports of UFO sightings and encounters of all kinds.

The UFO Landing pad was also featured across Canada as a film crew with Cineplex Entertainment was in the town in May 2014 filming a pre-show piece to be played in Cineplex movie theatres across Canada throughout the month of June

So, 50 years later it continues to operate as an exhibit on extraterrestrials. It's also the world's first (official) UFO landing pad.

According to the town's website, "This is an opportunity to view actual photographs of UFOs, crop circles and cattle mutilations."