The Cypress Welcome Centre reopened last week. (Adrian St.Onge/CHAT News)

By Adrian St.Onge

Cypress Welcome Centre opened in Walsh, providing much needed border rest for travelers

May 19, 2024 | 1:38 PM

As people travel on highway one, they will trip onto Walsh, right in the heart of Cypress County. Some travellers might just pass by Walsh, but now there’s a major reason to stop and take a rest.The Cypress County Welcome Centre is now open to visitors.

Kylie Stennick, a college student and one of the four staff members at the Welcome Centre said that her pitch to newcomers is to find the hidden gems of Cypress County.

“We have such a beautiful area. We have so much to look at. We have a lot of people from the United States and say that it’s a very boring drive, which it can be. If you’re driving across Saskatchewan and Alberta, there isn’t a lot to look at until you hit the Rocky Mountains, so you have to find those beautiful areas,” Stennick said.

“We send people to Elkwater or we send them to Irvine and we tell them, we might be the Prairies, there might not be a whole lot to look at during your drive, but if you find those places to stop and take a peak, you’ll be grateful,” she said.

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The Welcome Centre is home to a green space, two dinosaur exhibits showing the giants that roamed the land millions of years ago and a play area for children to blow off some steam.

Souvenirs are available there as well, including a t-shirt from Mikayla Irwin from Seven Persons. Irwin won a t-shirt contest back in March.

Themed “Southeast Alberta’s Playground”, the t-shirt was ready just in time for the Welcome Centre’s re-opening last week.

Irwin said the sales play into a dream of her’s.

“Well I didn’t really think of, like, a playground. I thought of like a sunset and hills and the teepee for like Cypress County and Alberta,” Irwin said.

“It’s really cool because I always dreamed of having my art showcased and something where people can buy it and now, this is my chance,” she said.

Stennick says that the Welcome Centre has already seen significant foot traffic since opening and is open seven days a week from 9 a.m to 5 p.m.