Fort William Historical Park
Encyclopedia
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
historical site located in Thunder Bay
Thunder Bay
-In Canada:Thunder Bay is the name of three places in the province of Ontario, Canada along Lake Superior:*Thunder Bay District, Ontario, a district in Northwestern Ontario*Thunder Bay, a city in Thunder Bay District*Thunder Bay, Unorganized, Ontario...
, Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
, that contains a reconstruction of the Fort William
Fort William, Ontario
Fort William was a city in Northern Ontario, located on the Kaministiquia River, at its entrance to Lake Superior. It amalgamated with Port Arthur and the townships of Neebing and McIntyre to form the city of Thunder Bay in January 1970. Ever since then it has been the largest city in Northwestern...
fur trade
Fur trade
The fur trade is a worldwide industry dealing in the acquisition and sale of animal fur. Since the establishment of world market for in the early modern period furs of boreal, polar and cold temperate mammalian animals have been the most valued...
post as it existed in 1815. It officially opened on July 3, 1973. It was designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 1923.
History
The North West Company had a major trading post called Fort Charlotte located at Grand PortageGrand Portage, Minnesota
Grand Portage is an unorganized territory in Cook County, Minnesota, on Lake Superior, at the northeast corner of the state near the border with northwestern Ontario. The population was 557 at the 2000 census...
, Minnesota
Minnesota
Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...
. After the rebel colonists' victory in the American Revolutionary War
American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War , the American War of Independence, or simply the Revolutionary War, began as a war between the Kingdom of Great Britain and thirteen British colonies in North America, and ended in a global war between several European great powers.The war was the result of the...
, Britain finally ceded the area to the United States (US) under the Jay Treaty
Jay Treaty
Jay's Treaty, , also known as Jay's Treaty, The British Treaty, and the Treaty of London of 1794, was a treaty between the United States and Great Britain that is credited with averting war,, resolving issues remaining since the Treaty of Paris of 1783, which ended the American Revolution,, and...
of 1796, to settle the northern border. British/Canadian fur traders wanted to create a new center of operations to avoid US taxes. They moved the trading post north to what became Fort William on the Canadian side of the border.
Fort William Historical Park is known as a living history
Living history
Living history is an activity that incorporates historical tools, activities and dress into an interactive presentation that seeks to give observers and participants a sense of stepping back in time. Although it does not necessarily seek to reenact a specific event in history, living history is...
site. Numerous historic buildings have been reconstructed to show the range of the post, and costumed historical interpreters recreate Fort William of the year 1815. Fort William was then not primarily a settlement, but a central transport depot within the now-defunct North West Company
North West Company
The North West Company was a fur trading business headquartered in Montreal from 1779 to 1821. It competed with increasing success against the Hudson's Bay Company in what was to become Western Canada...
's network of fur trade outposts. Due to its central role, Fort William was much larger, with more facilities than the average fur trade post. Reflecting this, Fort William Historical Park contains 42 reconstructed buildings, a reconstructed Ojibwa
Ojibwa
The Ojibwe or Chippewa are among the largest groups of Native Americans–First Nations north of Mexico. They are divided between Canada and the United States. In Canada, they are the third-largest population among First Nations, surpassed only by Cree and Inuit...
village, and a small farm.
Historical interpreters represent the many roles and cultures involved in the fur trade, including Scottish
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
fur traders (people of capital), who often took Native American wives and had their families living with them; French Canadian
French Canadian
French Canadian or Francophone Canadian, , generally refers to the descendents of French colonists who arrived in New France in the 17th and 18th centuries...
voyageurs
Voyageurs
The Voyageurs were the persons who engaged in the transportation of furs by canoe during the fur trade era. Voyageur is a French word which literally translates to "traveler"...
and workers, who also had wives from among the Natives; and native hunters and trappers
Aboriginal peoples in Canada
Aboriginal peoples in Canada comprise the First Nations, Inuit and Métis. The descriptors "Indian" and "Eskimo" have fallen into disuse in Canada and are commonly considered pejorative....
. The native people in the Fort William area are predominantly Ojibwa and are represented accordingly among the interpreters.
The North West Company's "winter partners", fur traders who lived at the post, in the early years married into the upper classes of the native people, strengthening their alliances. There were thus two tiers of society - the fur traders and chiefs and their daughters, and the workers, who formed liaisons or married native women. The descendants of the latter tended to stay in fur trapping and became the Métis
Métis people (Canada)
The Métis are one of the Aboriginal peoples in Canada who trace their descent to mixed First Nations parentage. The term was historically a catch-all describing the offspring of any such union, but within generations the culture syncretised into what is today a distinct aboriginal group, with...
ethnic group. While also of mixed heritage, children of fur traders and chief's daughters tended to receive thorough English educations (as well as learning Native culture from their mothers' families) and often moved within the upper classes of Canadian society, including being selected for government posts.
Fort William Historical Park has a working community of skilled tradesmen, including a blacksmith
Blacksmith
A blacksmith is a person who creates objects from wrought iron or steel by forging the metal; that is, by using tools to hammer, bend, and cut...
, tinsmith
Tinsmith
A tinsmith, or tinner or tinker or tinplate worker, is a person who makes and repairs things made of light-coloured metal, particularly tinware...
, carpenter
Carpenter
A carpenter is a skilled craftsperson who works with timber to construct, install and maintain buildings, furniture, and other objects. The work, known as carpentry, may involve manual labor and work outdoors....
, cooper
Cooper (profession)
Traditionally, a cooper is someone who makes wooden staved vessels of a conical form, of greater length than breadth, bound together with hoops and possessing flat ends or heads...
, and birch bark
Birch bark
Birch bark or birchbark is the bark of several Eurasian and North American birch trees of the genus Betula.The strong and water-resistant cardboard-like bark can be easily cut, bent, and sewn, which made it a valuable building, crafting, and writing material, since pre-historic times...
canoe
Canoe
A canoe or Canadian canoe is a small narrow boat, typically human-powered, though it may also be powered by sails or small electric or gas motors. Canoes are usually pointed at both bow and stern and are normally open on top, but can be decked over A canoe (North American English) or Canadian...
builder. They all craft products according to traditional early 19th-century methods and tools. Many of their crafts are not widely practised elsewhere. Fort William's canoe builder has built birch bark canoes for other Canadian cultural sites, including the Canadian Museum of Civilization
Canadian Museum of Civilization
The Canadian Museum of Civilization is Canada's national museum of human history and the most popular and most-visited museum in Canada....
.
Each summer Fort William Historical Park hosts the "Great Rendezvous", a recreation of the annual meeting of company fur traders that took place at this central location. Participants from all over Canada and the United States register to camp for the weekend at Fort William Historical Park and take part in this historical reenactment
Historical reenactment
Historical reenactment is an educational activity in which participants attempt torecreate some aspects of a historical event or period. This may be as narrow as a specific moment from a battle, such as the reenactment of Pickett's Charge at the Great Reunion of 1913, or as broad as an entire...
.
Fort William Historical Park is located on the banks of the Kaministiquia River
Kaministiquia River
The Kaministiquia River is a river which empties into western Lake Superior at the city of Thunder Bay, Ontario. Kaministiquia is an Ojibwe word meaning " with islands" due to two large islands at the mouth of the river...
at Point de Meuron. This point is a few kilometres upstream from the original fort's site, Fort Kaministiquia
Fort Kaministiquia
Fort Camanistigoyan, now standardized as Fort Kaministiquia, located at the mouth of the Kaministiquia River on Lake Superior in what is now northwestern Ontario, Canada, was established in 1717 by Zacharie Robutel de la Noue following the restoration of the system of trading permits by...
, which has been built over as part of the city of Thunder Bay. It also has separate historical significance, as Point de Meuron was named after the mercenary De Meuron soldiers who used the point as a base camp when attacking Fort William in 1816 as directed by the North West Company's rival, the Hudson's Bay Company
Hudson's Bay Company
The Hudson's Bay Company , abbreviated HBC, or "The Bay" is the oldest commercial corporation in North America and one of the oldest in the world. A fur trading business for much of its existence, today Hudson's Bay Company owns and operates retail stores throughout Canada...
.
Fort William Historical Park is a historical site operated by the Ontario provincial government. It has been noted as one of Canada's top ten tourist attractions and as one of Canada's top living history sites.
Location
The park is located at the South end of King Road, which runs off of Broadway Avenue two kilometres west of Highway 61Highway 61 (Ontario)
King's Highway 61, commonly referred to as Highway 61 and historically known as the Scott Highway, is a provincially maintained highway in the Canadian province of Ontario. It connects the Pigeon River Bridge, where it crosses into the United States and becomes Minnesota State Highway 61, with a...
.
Amphitheatre
In 2008 the Fort built an amphitheatre to host a variety of events. It is one Canada's largest purpose-built outdoor entertainment venues. The Amphitheatre is designed to host events with audience sizes up to 50,000. It is configured to be capable of hosting multiple independent events at the same time. The Amphitheatre is a year-round venue, capable of featuring six regulation-size hockey ice surfaces in the winter, and a full-service campground during special events and concerts in the summer.Affiliations
The Museum is affiliated with: CMACanadian Museums Association
The Canadian Museums Association is a national organization for the promotion of museums in Canada.The Canadian Museums Association is the national organization for the advancement of the Canadian museum sector, representing Canadian museum professionals both within Canada and internationally. The...
, CHIN
Canadian Heritage Information Network
The Canadian Heritage Information Network is a Canadian government-supported organization that provides a networked interface to Canada's heritage, largely through the World Wide Web. It aims to give access to Canada's heritage for both Canadians and a worldwide audience, by supporting the...
, and Virtual Museum of Canada
Virtual Museum of Canada
The Virtual Museum of Canada is Canada's national virtual museum. With a directory of over 3,000 Canadian heritage institutions and a database of over 600 virtual exhibits, the VMC brings together Canada's museums regardless of size or geographical location.The VMC includes virtual exhibits,...
.