welcome fellow travelers today we're in victoria bc to see the greatest little show on earth
tucked inside the fairmont empress it opened its doors in 1971
and has continued to be one of victoria's most popular tourist attractions
the attraction has 85 different dioramas grouped by theme
including historical scenes ones related to the canadian pacific railway frontier land fantasyland
it even got an upgrade in 2014 when it expanded by another thousand square feet with dioramas
that tell the story of camelot let's take a look here's the american war of independence which
raged from 1775 to 1783 this specifically is the battle of saratoga october 6 1777.
it says this shows the redcoats attacking the rebel artillery
this scene is of western france august 1918.
some of the little details in the miniatures like a crackling fire
this one shows germany in 1945 it says by spring in 1945 the european war was
concentrated in germany itself and a lot of towns were in ruin just like this one
that tank didn't make it down there look at the hundreds of
miniatures in here detailing the american civil war
everyone's different and unique can't even imagine how long it would have taken to put this together
let's head into the next section see the great canadian railway
this section shows the construction of the canadian pacific railway which occurred in
the 1880s this section down here represents gas town named after gassy jack dayton
here's a recreation of the town of yale from 1885
and here's the last spike being driven
and here's cowtown calgary 1885.
here's the sun rising over regina 1885 looks like we're going to head east across canada
looks like the sun's setting over toronto 1915
oh it's playing at the theater laurel and hardy and
leave him laughing and finally we've made it all the way to the maritimes
and a lighthouse overlooking the atlantic ocean
next area let's head into frontierland
and here's a historic moment this is when sitting bull met with the superintendent
and guides from the northwest mounted police now we're talking right down here i found fort woop
with a whiskey trader and his pack mules arriving at the fort
here's the fictional pioneer ville which is a composite of many pioneer towns of the day
looks like we've got a brawl happening out in the street stage coaches uh arriving
at the bc express company a schoolhouse in the background a cattle drive and a church
this is a typical town around the year 1870.
this diorama has first nations longhouses and totem poles
looks like the first nations are interacting with some explorers
and here's the dawn of a new era this exhibit celebrates the arrival of the horseless carriage
the roundabout
next up we're heading into fantasyland
let's take a peek into santa's workshop
right down there rudolph in his red nose
oh and back there all of the other reindeer here's a scene from gulliver's travels
when gulliver is tied down by the miniature lil putins this is snow white in the seven
dwarfs there's snow white tending the house and the dwarfs headed into the diamond mine
says diamond mine keep out go back hey that dwarf has a turtle with a light on it
that's an innovative way to light the mine over here are the dwarfs inside the diamond mine
by the looks of it it's a pretty lucrative mine the whole thing is diamonds
there's those turtles again those are handy workers
this giant scene is titania's palace from a midsummer's night dream
there's tons of little details in here
here's a swiss family robinson tree house lots of jungle noises
a scene from the classic novel oliver twist
what's interesting is the size of the models is changes from scene to scene
sometimes the people inside are quite tiny sometimes they're four or five inches big
out of fantasyland and now we're going to check out old
got the londontown back there you can see the traffic moving through the town
some of the english buildings the parliament and double decker buses
into the great circus there's the big top everyone's lining up to get inside
hey here's an old-fashioned sideshow i like the uh the old-fashioned posters sideshow
posters luring people inside some of these are actually real sideshow uh there's chang and eng
mandrake here's the midway with the number of rides
such things there's the octopus down there
tilt-a-whirl
they're actually doing a pretty good job at avoiding each other
and over here the rodeo and wild west show which ran from 1883
a recreation of the sword in the stone
he got it and here's a recreation of king arthur's famous sword the excalibur
here's a scene of the famous knights of the round table oh exciting let's get ready for a joust
and here's a giant scene of the kingdom of camelot
there is a storm gathering as we speak that will surely destroy all of those around us
i didn't think we'd find it but here it is the holy grail
you have chosen wisely situated in the highest point had to exemplify
of the art of courage thanks for joining us today to explore miniature world
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