Festival du Voyageur official, fur industry expert perplexed by theft of 140 pelts from Fort Gibraltar site

Fur industry experts are puzzled after learning of the theft of what’s estimated to be thousands of dollars worth of pelts from the replica Fort Gibraltar site in Whittier Park this week.

The head of Festival du Voyageur, which operates the historical site in St. Boniface, said about 140 fur pelts were taken. The theft happened sometime between 5 p.m. Monday and early Tuesday morning, executive director Breanne Lavallee-Heckert said.

“It’s quite a significant toll on our collection,” said Lavallee-Heckert, adding festival officials and police are trying to determine the exact value of the loss.

The furs were stolen from the fort’s trading post cabin after a window was smashed.

The pelts — of beavers, muskrats, coyotes, foxes, lynx, wolves, mink, otters, fishers and bears — are used for educational demonstrations about life at historical fur-trading posts throughout the year, and at the francophone festival’s namesake winter events.

Lavallee-Heckert said it’s believed the theft was targeted, given only one cabin on the property was damaged and the amount of effort it would take to remove all of the goods.

“That’s quite a significant amount of furs to take out of a cabin and toss over a fence, so (we’re) assuming this is something that was planned,” she said.

The pelts are marked with Festival du Voyageur’s logo or initials, and the animal the fur came from written in French, which will be quickly noticeable if someone tries to sell them, she said.

Winnipeg Police Service spokesman Const. Claude Chancy could not provide further details Thursday.

Doug Chiasson, the executive director of industry group the Fur Institute of Canada, said news of the thefts has quickly made the rounds in the tight-knit sector.

“It’s certainly unusual, more so for the fact that it’s a theft from a historic site, as much as it’s a theft of fur,” Chiasson said.

“We do see, on occasion, theft of fur, but generally, more often (it’s) fur garments — people breaking into a fur store and stealing a coat or something like that, versus making off with just the skins themselves from somewhere like Fort Gibraltar.”

Chiasson said he wonders whether the furs were stolen by someone aiming to make money by reselling the stolen pelts, or if it was perpetrated by an anti-fur activist personally opposed to their display.

“Certainly, the fur community, such as it is… everyone knows each other. It’s making its way quickly around the industry, folks are aware that there’s a bunch of skins out there stamped with Festival du Voyageur on the back,” he said.

Many of the pelts were donated by International Fur Dressers and Dyers Ltd., a local company, and bear the firm’s stamp on the skin.

“There’s very specialized folks that work in and around fur, especially selling skins like that. It’s a very unusual choice, if (resale) was the goal,” said Chiasson.

“Stealing a ready-to-wear coat, all you need to do is find someone the coat fits and maybe they’ll be inclined to buy it, but these are skins… you can’t wear them.

“Everyone’s just confused.”

Lavallee-Heckert said they are extremely valuable to Festival du Voyageur.

“They’re a really important piece of history and how we teach the history of the fur trade — the animals are what connect us back to that history,” she said.

“They’re really a useful interpretation tool… it’s quite the loss.”

She said the hope is that the collection will be restored ahead of next winter’s festival in February.

The original post, where furs and other goods were bought and sold, was built by the North West Company in 1809 near The Forks at the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers.

It was later captured and destroyed by the Selkirk Colony in 1816.

North West Company rebuilt the fort a year later, and it continued operating under the Hudson’s Bay Company after a merger in 1821.

Fort Gibraltar’s name was changed to Fort Garry the following year, and 13 years later it was abandoned, aside from warehouse use.

The fort was destroyed by the Red River flood of 1852. It was eventually rebuilt by Festival du Voyageur in 1978, eight years after the inaugural festival.

It was named a National Historic Site in 1924.

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca