Travel-Prince of Wales Hotel TB1a

I maintain records on my trackables. For a US-based trackable, this one is unusual for its longevity and movement. In the six-year period, 2010-16, the owner released a total of 2563 trackables in the United States (96%) and Europe (4%). This trackable is one of the 5% of the total that circulated for at least 5 years and had been moved at least 25 times. That is a target rate of at least five drops per year for five years, or a drop every 73 days. The average drop rate of my trackables in the US is 124 days, in Europe it is 71 days. As of 1-Jun-23 this trackable had survived for 7.3 years and had been moved by 29 cachers, for an average drop every 92 days. Please keep it moving, then drop it in a safe place!

No permission is needed to leave the U.S. While in the US, please drop it in a Premium Member only OR a rural cache near a busy trail or road. Do not place it in an urban cache or abandon it at a caching event where there is no security. Transport the bug in the original plastic bag for as long as the bag lasts; the bag keeps the trackable clean and dry, protects the number and prevents tangling with other items. Otherwise, take the trackable anywhere you wish.

In the fall of 2015 my wife and I made a trip from Texas up through Wyoming, Montana, Alberta and British Columbia.  I am always on the lookout for something to convert into a travel bug.  This is one such item, purchased at the Prince of Wales Hotel in Waterton (see photo upload).  I should add that the photo on the travel bug is not the Prince of Wales.  It is Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, and Catherine Middleton on their wedding day.

The Prince of Wales Hotel is located in Waterton Lakes National Park in Alberta, Canada, overlooking Upper Waterton Lake, near the Canada-United States border.   Constructed between 1926 and 1927, the hotel was built by the American Great Northern Railway to lure American tourists north of the border during the prohibition era.  The hotel was named after the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VIII), in a transparent attempt to entice him to stay in the hotel on his 1927 Canadian tour, but the Prince stayed at a nearby ranch instead.

The Prince of Wales Hotel enjoys the distinction of being the sole establishment among Canada's grand railway hotels to have been built by an American, as opposed to a Canadian, railway company. The hotel was designated a National Historic Site of Canada by the Canadian government in 1995.