A historic, hidden gem

Riel House park easy to overlook

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It's a pretty typical suburban Winnipeg streetscape -- paved front driveways punctuating an endless stretch of manicured lawns; a stack of recycling boxes here, a couple of colourful plastic Muskoka-style chairs there, a man in a ripped T-shirt and jean shorts racing to get his grass mowed before a looming thunderstorm.

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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 07/06/2011 (5236 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It’s a pretty typical suburban Winnipeg streetscape — paved front driveways punctuating an endless stretch of manicured lawns; a stack of recycling boxes here, a couple of colourful plastic Muskoka-style chairs there, a man in a ripped T-shirt and jean shorts racing to get his grass mowed before a looming thunderstorm.

On one side of the street, a boat-and-trailer combo is outfitted with a For Sale sign; directly across, an open gate welcomes visitors to the friendly neighbourhood national park.

A national park, in the ‘burbs?

JOHN.WOODS@freepress.mb.ca
Quillan Daniel, a historical interpreter at Riel House, enters the residence in period dress.
JOHN.WOODS@freepress.mb.ca Quillan Daniel, a historical interpreter at Riel House, enters the residence in period dress.

It’s true. Comfortably nestled on a fairly straight section of River Road in south St. Vital, blending in so well with the surrounding residential dwellings that you might — as many passers-by do — miss it completely as your eyes prepare your feet to brake for the stop sign up ahead, is Riel House, a Parks Canada national historic site that is open to visitors every year from springtime until just after Labour Day.

“I think people have a hard time finding us,” says Monique Oliver, who is in her third summer as Riel House’s director. “The biggest problem is that it’s kind of hidden. Our signage on Bishop Grandin (Boulevard) is quite visible, but once you get closer, it’s harder to see and a lot of people just drive by without even noticing.”

Those who do find it, however will be welcomed by a handful of enthusiastic young people in 19th-century costumes who spend their days telling the story of Riel House, its inhabitants and the settlement of this portion of south Winnipeg.

Olivier, 29, who grew up in St. Vital and says she was seven years old when she made her first school field-trip visit to Riel House, is supported by a quartet of students for whom working at the historic site is a pretty cool summer gig.

“It’s great to have a summer job that’s a little bit different,” says Quillan Daniel, 21, a mechanical engineering student at the University of Manitoba. “I’m anglophone — French is my second language, which I learned through immersion, and this helps me keep up the language.”

From the street, Riel House is a rather nondescript wood structure, surrounded by a rough-hewn fence and with a couple of working gardens out back. Inside, it’s a treasure trove of period artifacts arranged to reflect the way the Riel clan — a dozen in all — would have lived here circa 1886.

While it’s true, Olivier says, that legendary Métis leader Louis Riel never actually lived in this dwelling — his mother, Julie, was given the land (Lot 51, according to the French-influenced seigneurial system that was used to parcel land in the Red River Settlement) on which it’s built after the death of her husband in 1864. She lived here with several of Louis’s younger siblings, including brother Joseph, who built the house.

“He didn’t live here, but he did own a small chunk of this lot,” Olivier says of Louis Riel. “He visited at least once, for his sister’s wedding, and he might have come back every so often just to visit.

“But the main point is that Riel’s body lay in state here after he was executed (in 1885). His body was brought back by the CPR, taken to St. Boniface, and Julie requested that the body be brought here so that the Métis community could view him and pay their respects. After that, his body went by cartage all the way to St. Boniface Cathedral, where he was buried.”

These days, Riel House receives a full schedule of school-trip visits — two per day throughout May and June — and about 20 other visitors a day.

Dropping In is a “random act of journalism” that starts with a thumbtack on a city map and ends with a story from the street. See more Dropping In articles using the map below.

brad.oswald@freepress.mb.ca

Brad Oswald

Brad Oswald
Perspectives editor

After three decades spent writing stories, columns and opinion pieces about television, comedy and other pop-culture topics in the paper’s entertainment section, Brad Oswald shifted his focus to the deep-thoughts portion of the Free Press’s daily operation.

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