Grande Prairie August 2009 -

A ONE-OF-A-KIND WEBSITE that features the entire Peace Country has quickly become one of the most informative websites in the northwestern Alberta and northeastern British Columbia. www.DiscoverThePeaceCountry.com has been online since May 2003, and has grown to include 70 areas of the Peace Country. This unique tourism website features cities, towns, villages, hamlets, parks and lakes, and networks them together for easy access. Each area of the Peace Country includes location, population, history, events, schools, accommodations, camping, golf etc. There are more than 1800 pictures on this website. There are also many links to hotels, restaurants as well as links to other informative websites.

Many communities and businesses in the Peace Country are referring newcomers to the site as a good source of information on the area. Even colleges in northern Alberta, are using this site as an educational tool for research on the area. The support of the many communities and media has been tremendous. Almost every community in the Peace Country that has a website has a link to DiscoverThePeaceCountry.com. There are 10 newspapers in the Peace Country that feature a FREE DiscoverThePeaceCountry.com banner/link on their "FRONT" page of their website. (Including the Daily Herald-Tribune, Peace Country Sun, Grande Prairie INK, Fairview Post, Peace River Record Gazette which have gained revenue over the years from Special Sections that appeared in their newspapers, from photos and information supplied by DiscoverThePeaceCountry.com. In showing their support the Daily Herald-Tribune also hosted DiscoverThePeaceCountry.com on their server for many years at no charge - since 2003)

What makes DiscoverThePeaceCountry.com so unique, is that it is the inspiration and work of "one person". After approximately 6 years in the making, Ken Connors has donated 1000's of hours of his spare time travelling to each area, doing the research, photography and web-pages. "Years ago I had a vision of taking a map, and clicking on it.... and information would come up about that area. Many said it couldn't be done, so I ended up doing it myself", says Connors.

There are a number of clickable maps currently on this website which gives one a virtual tour of the entire Peace Country from Grande Prairie to Rainbow Lake to the north, and Chetwynd to the west, and High Prairie to the east. Many communities have never been featured on the internet before, and are very pleased that Mr. Connors has taken the time to visit their community and put them on the internet for free.
"I have thoroughly enjoyed travelling to all the communities, seeing many interesting sites as well as meeting so many friendly people".

Mr. Connors' efforts of promoting the Peace Country has definitely made more people aware of the entire region especially those who travel northern Alberta or BC. Even though he has been unable to receive any funding from the Province of Alberta, he has not let that stop him. Funding has come from Grande Prairie Hotels, Restaurants, RV Dealers and Golf Courses who advertise their business on this website and from Royal LePage Grande Prairie as well as from Mr. Connors himself. All funds are used in paying for material costs of keeping the website going while promoting the Peace Country. DiscoverThePeaceCountry.com is regarded as a not-for-profit website, as Mr. Connors has volunteered all his time on this website. (a donated value that now exceeds $250,000)

In August of 2004, DiscoverThePeaceCountry.com website was featured in the Vancouver Province Newspaper as one of the top 10 websites of British Columbia. "I am delighted that this site has reached this type of recognition", says Ken Connors developer of the website, pointing out that of the 70 areas on the website, 14 are from British Columbia.

January 2011: Ken Connors takes on the challenge of working full time on DiscoverThePeaceCountry.com. Besides taking photos, and videos, he is now the salesman, ad designer, invoicer, accountant, photographer, video camera man, video editor, voice over person, writer, and person adding content to webiste. There are very few websites in Canada or North America that are able to generate enough income to maintain a business without a storefront business but DiscoverThePeaceCountry.com has been able to do that. DiscoverThePeacCountry.com has also become one of the most viewed websites in northern Alberta and BC and that has been achieved without any provincial or federal funding.

Ken Chernuka was born and raised in the Peace Country. Born in Sexsmith, he received his education at Rycroft Alberta, and attended SAIT College in Calgary. (Radio, TV and Stage Arts). His alias became Ken Connors and was an on-air Radio Broadcaster in Grande Prairie (CFGP, later became SunFM and now Rock 97.7 FM) and Fort St. John, BC (CKNL) as well as other Radio/TV Stations in Alberta and Saskatchewan. (630 CHED Edmonton, 1140 CKXL Calgary, 1090 CHEC & CJOC Radio/TV Lethbridge, CJME Regina) See Kens Radio Scrapbook. After 10 years in radio and television, he switched to newspaper advertising sales (Daily Herald Tribune in Grande Prairie.) which ended in September of 2009, after 27 years. Developing this website is not his only internet accomplishment. In 1999, he came up with more "original ideas" that bridged the gap between newspaper and the internet. "A Shopping Mall" and "How to put newspaper promos on-line" won him a National Award. His picture appeared in the Toronto Sun Newspaper June 24. 2001. (pictured right) Grande Prairie became one of the first newspapers in Canada to take this new internet direction. He was asked to speak to 130 newspaper publishers across Canada about his ideas, and at a seminar with 250 newspaper sales people.