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Housed in a drab building well out in the western suburbs - a ten-minute drive from downtown - at 12845-102nd Ave, the Provincial Museum of Alberta (daily 9am-5pm; $6.50; tel 453-9100) makes a reasonable introduction to the history, culture, flora and fauna of western Canada if Edmonton is your first stop in the region. There's no getting round the fact, though, that Calgary, Victoria and Vancouver all have vastly superior museums on similar themes, although much of Edmonton's museum is in the process of being spruced up. To reach it by bus , take the #1, #14, #100, #111, #113, #114 or #120 buses heading west to "Jasper Place" on Jasper Avenue. Natural history exhibits include painted dioramas and stuffed animals, taxidermy being the stock in trade of virtually all western Canada's museums; by far the best section concerns the region's bison herds and their virtual extinction. Other displays include a humdrum collection of domestic appliances, a couple of beautiful chrome stoves and vintage jukeboxes and a rundown of the native peoples of the province. The last collection used to be pretty workaday, but has been cheered up considerably by the Syncrude Gallery of Aboriginal Culture, where money from Syncrude, one of the big companies involved in the oil sand business, has produced a series of state-of-the-art multimedia displays that do justice to the history and culture of the Blackfoot and other aboriginal cultures with displays of art, artefacts, and other exhibits. Other more engaging parts of the museum are the Bug, a showcase of live and often exotic insects, and "Earth's Changing Face", a geological display of gems, minerals, rocks and dinosaur exhibits. The museum also comes into its own when hosting temporary and travelling exhibitions from collections and museums around the world - ask at the visitor centre for details of latest exhibitions.
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