Hanna, Alberta – the town where Nickelback grew up – runs its own hometown tour.
In 1995, three young men from Hanna, Alberta formed a band that would go on to sell more than fifty million records. Hanna kept the story.
Chad Kroeger, his older brother Mike, and their schoolmate Ryan Peake started Nickelback in Hanna — a town of about twenty-seven hundred people three hours northeast of Calgary. They rehearsed in Alberta basements, gigged in Alberta bars, and by 1996 had moved on to Vancouver. Daniel Adair joined on drums in 2005 and remains the band’s drummer today.
What Hanna has done with that story is more interesting than the story itself.
“This is Where I Grew Up” — the self-guided tour
Named after a lyric from Photograph — Nickelback’s most-Hanna song and the video most fans arrive humming — This is Where I Grew Up is a self-guided walking tour of the town’s Nickelback landmarks. You pick up a map at the sign at the entrance to town on Highway 9. Each stop is marked with a QR code. Scanning the code opens a short story about the location — many of them narrated by the band members themselves.
Tour stops
- The old Hanna High School — now the Community Services Building at 210 6 Avenue East. Where the band members went to school, and where scenes from the Photograph music video were filmed in July 2005.
- The mailbox at 29025 — the rusty mailbox featured in the Photograph video.
- The Hanna Roundhouse — a piece of prairie railway history from the town’s early days, also visible in the video.
- The Hanna Curling Rink — where a series of large-scale murals depicts Nickelback album covers, painted by Alberta artist Donna Brink. The most recent addition — the cover of the 2022 album Get Rollin’ — was added on Brink’s return trip.
Signs down, murals up
Two large highway signs proclaiming “Proud to be the home of Nickelback” stood at the entrances to Hanna from 2004 until May 2023, when they were taken down as part of a provincial sign-replacement schedule. The murals stayed. The tour stayed. The town’s willingness to be a Nickelback pilgrimage site stayed.
Visiting
- Where to start: Pick up the tour map at the sign at the entrance to Hanna on Highway 9.
- How long: About two hours on foot. Less if you drive between stops.
- What to bring: A phone for the QR codes.
- Where to eat afterwards: Jerry’s Burger Baron is a Hanna institution and a natural landing spot at the end of the walk.
- Tour operator: Harvest Sky Economic Development / Explore Hanna — harvestsky.ca/nickelback/
Photo: Sarah German, CC BY 2.0; JKMusicGroup – Mika Newton, Troy Harley and Julia Kurbatova at American Music Awards 2011, CC BY 3.0
