Fort trading old ways amid new normal

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This article was published 19/07/2020 (2062 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A typically bustling outpost north of Winnipeg where tourism and history intertwine within century old stone walls sat serene Sunday afternoon as visitors carefully strolled the paths of Lower Fort Garry.

The national historic site just off Highway 9 and west of the Red River welcomed back visitors earlier this past week for the first time since COVID-19 arrived in Manitoba.

Doors to the Big House, where trappers and visitors to the old Hudson’s Bay Company trading post would have spent the night, before moving on to their next destination in the mid-1800s, were closed to modern day travellers, as were the doors to the province’s first penitentiary and the many restored outbuildings on the grounds.

As a precautionary measure, Parks Canada has limited access due to the COVID-19 pandemic; the old stone structures weren’t designed with physical distancing in mind, interpretation co-ordinator Matthew Rothenberger said.

“We’re just not able to do that in almost every single one of our buildings,” Rothenberger said. “They were not built for that at all.”

The novel coronavirus has changed the experience at Lower Fort Garry — as it has done for most public attractions — with visitors to the site asked to check-in at a table outside the welcome centre and then walk down an access road to the main gate.

Once inside the stone walls, directional signs point daytrippers counter-clockwise through the fort on a self-guided living history tour that features a dozen physically distanced historical demonstrations led by interpreters in period costumes. On Sunday afternoon, a few families strolled the grounds, some wearing face masks, and all keeping a healthy distance from each other.

Since welcoming back visitors to the fort last Wednesday, interest among locals has been steady Rothenberger said. And while the novel coronavirus delayed the opening of the fort where Treaty 1 was signed in 1871, Lower Fort Garry was one of the first — if not the first — Parks Canada national historic site to open its grounds, he noted.

“We’ve had groups showing up everyday,” he said. “We are open only Wednesday to Sunday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and this will be our offer for the rest of the summer.”

Staff have also developed a 55-kilometre guided driving tour to 10 nearby significant historical sites, which launches on July 23, and runs Thursday evenings, specifically in response to the pandemic.

“You’ll get to tune your radio into the tour and you’ll follow Parks Canada people around for about 90 minutes, visiting a bunch of the historical places in the area to sort of set the scene for how Manitoba was founded,” Rothenberger said.

Outside the fort, tucked beneath a stand of shady trees, Mike Johnston and his family were getting a lesson about First Nation and Métis contributions to life at the trading post.

“Growing up I didn’t know that we had Métis heritage because both my grandma and grandpa hid it because they thought it was kind of an embarrassing thing,” Johnston said. “But in my mom’s generation and in my generation, finding those things out is now something that she feels she can celebrate and it’s been something I’ve been learning about myself, which is a really interesting journey.

“It’s neat to come out to these places and see those aspects of myself,” he said.

Johnston was at the fort with partner Meagan Gydé-Johnston, children Nathaniel and Daphne Chopek, as well as in-laws Debra and Bob Gydé, who faithfully toted the cooler with the family’s lunch.

During a stop at the forge, one of the few indoor spots semi-open to visitors, Nathaniel was given a piece of iron crafted in the shape of a leaf — a discard of one of the adornments made on-site for the Big House — by the blacksmith on duty.

“I’ve always thought blacksmiths and what they do is super interesting,” Nathaniel, 10, said.

Johnston said the family spent the first week of July exploring parts of northern Manitoba, partly in recognition of the 150th anniversary of the province joining Confederation, and they’re working their way through a list of must-see places in the province, written not long after the coronavirus put other summer travel plans into question.

“We used it as an opportunity to see as much of Manitoba as we can,” Johnston said.

“A day trip is fun in the summer and we’re all home and it’s fun to get out and see and learn new things,” Gydé-Johnston added.

Across the park, John Inglis was playing tour guide for out-of-town guests Vic and Edna from Regina, who were visiting Lower Fort Garry for the first time.

“It’s one of the most historic places in Western Canada,” Inglis said. “I’ve been here a number of times and I never get tired of it.”

While disappointed he wasn’t able to show off all of the park to his friends, Inglis said the historic significance imparted by a visit to Lower Fort Garry was not diminished.

“It’s an important place,” he said.

danielle.dasilva@freepress.mb.ca