One of the PNE Fair's most celebrated exhibits ever is being restored in preparation for a return to next year's annual end-of-summer exhibition.

And a giant section of the 986,000-piece puzzle is on display at this year's fair as a sneak preview, free with admission until September 6.

The Challenger Map, a huge relief map of the entire province of British Columbia—complete with snowcapped mountains, forested slopes and valleys, lakes and rivers, and coastline and islands—debuted at the PNE's B.C. Pavilion complex in 1954 to help mark the opening of the British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Vancouver.

During its more than four decades on display, the map was viewed by millions of fair visitors. The Guinness World Records Ltd. website lists the Challenger Map as the world's largest relief map.

Built by George Challenger, his son Robert, and the rest of his family during a seven-year period in the 1940s and '50s, the 1,850-square-metre (6,080-square-foot) topographical exhibit, the size of two tennis courts, wowed fair visitors for 43 years until 1997, when it was removed to storage due to the impending demolition of its building to make way for the Hastings Park Sanctuary green space.

“This is an important day, one that has been a long time coming and we are thrilled to be bringing it home,” PNE president and CEO Shelley Frost said in an August 19 release, two days before the fair's opening. “The Challenger Map is a part of PNE and B.C. history that holds a special place in the heart of our organization as well as in the hearts of generations of British Columbians.”

The release announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the Pacific National Exhibition and the family of the now-dead George and Robert to return the map to the PNE. Fundraising is underway to pay for the restoration and installation work needed to bring the intricately detailed work out of almost a quarter-century of storage.

The PNE said the map's likely new permanent home will be the Livestock Barns at the north end of the fairgrounds, with the 2022 fair being the target for the grand reopening.

The mammoth exhibit, which consists of 196 sections (of which only eight, or about four percent of the map, are on view at the fair presently), was put into storage courtesy of an unused Air Canada hangar at the Vancouver International Airport.

The map's almost one million pieces were cut by jigsaw out of quarter-inch Douglas fir plywood donated to the Challengers by forestry giant MacMillan Bloedel. The map's huge scale is one inch to one mile and the vertical relief is one inch to 1,000 feet.

Bill Challenger, George's grandson and Robert's son and the president of the Challenger Relief Map Foundation, said in the release that the return is like a homecoming.

“Our family is so excited that my grandfather’s map will be returning to its rightful home at Hastings Park," Challenger said. "We believe the map is an incredible asset to the people of British Columbia and we’re grateful that it will be on display once again.”

Any individual or corporation wishing to donate to help defray the costs associated with the repair, repainting, transport, and assembly of the map is asked to go to the Friends of the Challenger Map website or to call the PNE at 604-253-2311.