Fort William Historical Park was awash with redcoats, bluecoats, militia, muskets, wall guns, and cannons as British and American forces clashed during the “Battle” of Fort William July 26th and 27th.

Military re-enactors from the U.S. and Canada put on a colourful show with plenty of “smoke and fire” as they demonstrated battle tactics from the early 19th century, with Fort William serving as the battlefield.

The fictional conflict and attendant scenarios reflected action from the Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812, providing visitors with a close-up look at what period warfare was like during the early 19th century.

The action also served to illustrate how the North West Company and their rivals were affected by the war and the role the fur traders played during the conflict. During the War of 1812, the NWC’s Chief Director, William McGillivray, was appointed Lieutenant Colonel, in charge of overseeing the Company’s Corps of Canadian Voyageurs, who saw some action assisting the British for roughly a six-month period. 

A bit of drama was also evident as Fort inhabitants reacted to the engagements on the battlefield, witnessing the fallen. The captain on the British side was not immune to the gunfire, felled briefly by a stray musket ball, only to recover in time to witness the receipt of the sabre of the surrendering American commander.  

A visiting teacher from London, Ontario commented on how impressed she was with how the event was staged, seeing history come alive in such dramatic fashion.

Over 40 re-enactors will be involved, coming from Manitoba, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois and Thunder Bay, their numbers complemented by Fort staff.

The “Battle” is a bi-annual event at Fort William Historical Park, alternating with The Fort under Siege.

Hear this article

Local

Historical park has grand plans
By THE CHRONICLE-JOURNAL
Friday, May 23, 2008

From an amphitheatre to a flashy new website, the Fort William Historical Park has five large-scale projects in the works that general manager Sergio Buonocore hopes will help shine the spotlight on the entire region as a tourist destination.
The amphitheatre, which Buonocore said will have a capacity of about 50,000 people, is set to open in mid-August for the Anishnawbe Keeshigun festival.

“It‘s very much a community facility – anyone can rent it from us for any type of function,” said Buonocore, who added that the “world-class” facility is designed in a Roman-style bowl shape to ensure clear views all around for people attending events there.
Another major project set to open in mid-August is a centre to promote the park to American tourists.

“We‘re opening the Fort William Historical Park Canada Gateway Centre,” said Buonocore, who noted that there are several thousand cars that go to Grand Marais each day from various locations in Minnesota and area. “Only 350 of those 6,000 cars go to the Ontario border . . . we‘re going to go fishing where the fish are, as the saying goes, and build the facility there.”

The organization is also working on an intensive “place-branding” campaign to draw in Canadian tourists by advertising Fort William Historical Park at the airport, in hotel lobbies, tourist information centres and sporting facilities. As well, Buonocore says they‘re going to have about 60 billboards placed across Canada and near Minneapolis and Duluth.
“We are going out this year into Alberta, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, southern Ontario and Quebec with French boards – again all branding Fort William Historical Park in Thunder Bay, Ont.,” he said.
In about a month, they will also be launching a new website that Buonocore says will include educational components like downloadable videos, audio files and stories about the history of the fur trade.

Finally, the park is at work on a $48-million proposal to construct an aboriginal village that will illustrate the pre-European contact-era in Canada‘s history. Buonocore said it‘s something they‘re working on in partnership with the Nishnawbe Aski Nation.
In addition to the village, this would include a residence or accommodation property for workers (“Our hope is that we‘d be able to bring in aboriginal youth from First Nations all over Northern Ontario as employees,” Buonocore said), an IMAX theatre and an RV park.
“We‘ve already conducted preliminary studies and our next step is to move towards an engineering and architectural study, a business plan, a market analysis and so on,” said Buonocore. “That‘s where we‘re at right now.”

Hear this article

Local

Fort’s quick cleanup gets praise from Tourism Minister
By Alana Toulin
Saturday, June 28, 2008

After experiencing some flooding earlier this month, things have returned to normal at Fort William Historical Park just in time for the summer tourist season. The site was a hotbed of activity Friday during its free Community Appreciation Day, even drawing Ontario Tourism Minister Peter Fonseca to come check out the action.

Fonseca toured the site with Thunder Bay-Atikokan MPP Bill Mauro and Thunder Bay-Superior North MPP Michael Gravelle and after greeting children and spending time in the woodworking shop, he said he was “delighted” the site was able to clean up and reopen so quickly.
“It‘s great,” he said of the popular tourist attraction. “Fort William Historical Park is so well-branded and marketed here in Thunder Bay and across Northwestern Ontario and stateside. Sergio Buonocore and his team here have really put together a marvelous experience.”
While Fonseca acknowledged some of the challenges facing Ontario‘s tourism sector –including high gas prices and the slumping U.S. economy – he said the province is doing fairly well in attracting visitors overall.

“When we look at the numbers, we‘ve actually experienced growth in our tourism compared to other jurisdictions like B.C. and Quebec, which have (declined),” he said. “This is partly because of great attractions like Fort William Historical Park and all the things we have to do and see here in Ontario; as well as some specific marketing campaigns you may have seen on TV or in print.”
Fonseca added that he encourages people to visit www.ontariotravel.net to check out all the vacation experiences Ontario has to offer.

Hear this article

Local

Brigade arrives in Thunder Bay
By Alana Toulin
Sunday, July 13, 2008

Sixty-three days and over 3,300 kilometres is a long time to spend in a canoe, but for the paddlers who have spent the last few months retracing explorer and fur trader David Thompson‘s two-hundred-year-old path, it was well worth it.
“It was a once in a lifetime trip,” said Andrew Dorion Saturday at Fort William Historical Park, where around 160 paddlers from the David Thompson Brigade wrapped up their epic journey. He and his six-member Team Black Bart come from the Cumberland House Cree Nation in Saskatchewan and completed the whole journey from Rocky Mountain House, Alta., to Thunder Bay.

“It‘s unexplainable right now because of all the excitement. . . . Everyone‘s so happy and it‘s great to be here after so many days.”
Their team braved unpredictable weather including snow and hail and put in long hours (10 and sometimes even 12 hours a day) to complete the route, sometimes travelling more than 100 kilometres a day. They trained hard and made sure to pack light and had a clear goal in mind.
“Two guys in the boat represent aboriginals all across Canada. Us younger guys represent the youth all across Canada and the older guys represent residential school survivors,” said Dorion. “That‘s why we‘re doing this.”

For Lavern Thompson, being part of the David Thompson Brigade had special significance. He‘s a seventh-generation ancestor of the explorer and said it‘s been a way to explore history and learn more about a relative he is very proud to have in his family tree.
“I‘ve had my heritage handed to me on a silver platter,” said the Toronto native, adding that the people he met along the way showed and taught him much about his famous ancestor.
Jokingly comparing the experience to “summer camp on steroids,” Thompson said the experience was a phenomenal one that made him proud to be Canadian.

“The brigade is a touchstone to history and the past. We don‘t tend to celebrate our heroes in Canada. David Thompson was surely a hero – he‘s surely a hero of mine,” he said.
Soaking up adulation from the crowds that gathered to greet the brigade and take part in the Fort‘s Great Rendezvous event was David Bates – dressed in period costume and standing in as the man himself.

“I had the incredible luck to be chosen to be David Thompson,” he said, adding that Thompson was most famed for his fur trade career with the North West Company and the Hudson‘s Bay Company and his mapmaking skills.
“He is the embodiment of all that is good about the fur trade. The fur trade was on occasion a nasty business, but Thompson embodied all the virtues.”

Hear this article