Historic Fort William Park

Thursday, September 3, 2015

Yesterday we traveled the short distance from Sleeping Giant to Trowbridge Park in Thunder Bay.  After getting set up we went to Wal-Mart for groceries and found WiFi in the parking lot of the Landmark Hotel.  We spent the rest of the day planning out our 6 days we will be here.  It was a disappointment that the campground does not have WiFi, so we will be accumulating several posts, then uploading them all at once when we find WiFi.

Today, Thursday, we went to Historic Fort William Park located west of Thunder Bay.  The park is a re-creation of Fort William during 1817.  Fur trading was big in Canada during this period.  As we mentioned before, there were two large companies, Hudson Bay, headquartered in London, and the Northwest Company, headquartered in Montreal.  Fort William was owned and run by NWC and was a gathering place once a year during the summer months where trappers brought their furs from as far west as the Pacific Ocean and as far east as Montreal.  Supplies also came during this time from Montreal.

The vehicle used for transportation was the birch-bark canoe.  Some things to ponder.  First, think about the terrain both east and west of here.  It is tough and desolate.  There is no completed waterway in either direction, so the canoes had to be portaged around non-navigable areas, of which there were many.  Now think about the 800 pounds of stuff they were carrying.  At each portage, the canoe was unloaded and carried.  At about 250 pounds.  The canoes were light for their size, about 22 feet, but think about 2 or 3 guys lugging that thing for sometimes miles over hilly rough trails.  Then they went back for the cargo, making multiple trips. Geez…, makes ya tied just thinking about it!

The journey took 6 weeks from Montreal and over 2 months from the northwest.  For the trappers, this was payday, but they did not receive money, they received company credits.  The fur pelts were the “currency” and it was based on the beaver.  The beaver was one unit, the fox, for example could be worth 1/2 to 2 units.  A 1/2 unit would get you a  tin coffee cup, a wool blanket could cost 12 units.  So a trapper would amass credits that they could use to buy goods or services at Fort William.

Craftsman, doctors, and cooks, etc. working at Fort William were there under contract from NWC.  They received room, food, and clothes, but were paid by company credits.  So, for anything additional they used company credits.  When they left, quit or retired, they had to go to Montreal for their “lump sum”.  See any similarity?  They lived on credit, just like many do today.

 

Trapping was done in the winter months so the trek to Fort William started as soon as the ice melted.  This was a busy place during summer months.  When the trading was completed the pelts were packaged into 90 to 100 pound bundles in preparation for shipment back to Montreal.  The trappers gathered they goodies and made their way back to their trapping grounds.

This is the building where the pelts are pressed and packaged.  The interpreter is demonstrating how one moves 500 pounds of pelts to the canoe.

The Park interprets life at the fort.  We learned how tin cups are made.  They are actually made from steel sheets dipped in molten tin.  The sheets came from Europe via Montreal.  We learned how birch bark canoes are made.  The bark is lashed to the rib frame with strips made from tree roots.  The seams are sealed with a mixture of charcoal, bear grease, and tree sap.

All in all it made for an interesting day.  There were interpreters at many of the 42 buildings in the park.  They each talked about or demonstrated their expertise.  Here are a few shots taken around the park.

Inside the barrel maker workshop.  Since most shipping was by water, barrels and kegs provided a good waterproof shipping container for items that absolutely had to stay dry, and of course, were used for liquids also.

The Fort had glass windows, but the glass of this era caused distortion.

 

The Fort front gate.

The weather was perfect today, high 70s and bright sunshine.  We’re hoping for more of the same for tomorrow as we explore the area.

The Boreal Forest

Tuesday, September 1, 2015

This is our last day at Sleeping Giant Provincial Park.  Only a light fog today, so our plan was to hike some trails.  Every since entering the north shore area at the Soo, we have been in a Boreal Forest.  We think we have enough understanding of what that is to share what we have learned.  A wide swath of land encompassing most of southern Ontario is Boreal Forest and is seen in other far north locations.  Michigan’s UP is not Boreal, for example.

The key components making up a Boreal Forest is a cool, damp environment with lots of decaying material.  Needles, leaves, and logs on the forest floor, with mostly evergreens, white birch, and aspen trees.  You have seen many of our pictures of lichen, moss, and mushrooms.   These thrive in this environment, with the exception of mushrooms, they can even grow on rocks.   With the heavy morning fog that we have seen, and even today with high humidity, there is plenty of moisture to keep these guys happy.

We have seen more varieties of mushrooms than anywhere and they are all over the place along these trails.  Lichen, varieties we’ve not seen before, grow here on other plants and rocks and possess a wide range of colors.  The moss is on trees, on the ground, on stumps, even rocks and varies in color and texture also.  It does remind us of Oregon, but the variety here is much greater.

One of the hikes, called Sea Lion, takes you to a rock outcropping.  At one time, before 1900, it had the shape of a crouching lion, but it’s head fell off.  Now its just an arch, although Lynn thinks it looks like a sea horse, you be the judge.

 

Here are some other pictures taken along this trail.  The scenery was outstanding.

The shoreline consisted of flat rounded rocks.  People scratched their names on them and perched them on a large ledge.  So we added ours.

We did ours on sandstone, just to be different.  The beach also had black sand, which Dan has been looking for, so down he went despite Lynn’s objections.

Ironically, had he waited about a hundred feet, there was an easy walk to the shore.  Ahh, but the challenge made that black sand special… Really!

Of course there were also some small stuff that caught our eye.

 

A black mushroom.  At first glance we thought it was just withered up; it is alive and there were a bunch of them in the area.  Its one of those unique varieties mentioned above.

Ok, for the parting shot about the Sleeping Giant, it was clear enough to get  a shot of it today.  This is The Sleeping Giant, as viewed from across Marie-Louise Lake.

He is lying on his back, head toward the right.  So first bump on right is his head, the second bump from the right is his Adam’s apple, third from right is his chest, and the long bump at the left end are his legs. Like we said, it requires lots and lots of imagination.  

Tomorrow we go to Thunder Bay, our last stop in Canada.

Looking for Amethyst

Monday, August 31, 2015

Woke up with mid-50s and thick fog everywhere, again.  There were a couple of things we wanted to do outside the park today.  The first was to go find ourselves some amethyst.  As you probably know, amethyst is a type of quartz, colored purple from minerals in the quartz.  This area is apparently loaded with it.  There are several locations (mines) that let you go in and dig around a bit for the stuff.  We chose Blue Point Mine, near Pearl, for our “mining” experience.

Well, they really don’t let you into the mine, a recent safety issue.  You dig around in a pile of rock they blew out of a hole.  It’s an open pit, not an underground mine.  Anyway Lynn was having a ball.  Searching, digging and whacking with her hammer.  Couldn’t get her to leave, even when our bucket got filled.  She would have stayed here all day, but we had more to do!

It’s about 2:30 and the fog has burned off, just in time as our next stop was Quimet Canyon.  It is a canyon formed from glacial action.  Its over 3000 feet deep with sheer rock edges; pretty scenic.

They have a couple of observation decks to view the Canyon.  It was quite a view.  It was possible to see Lake Superior from  up here.  The canyon appears to extend all the way to the lake, although it flattens out before reaching the lake.

Today’s Selfie.

Now it was back to the park to take a drive over to the giant’s head, the Thunder Bay Lookout.  The following map will help show you where it is in the park.

The main road into the park is 587.  That little yellow road is the connecting road to the lookout.  The term “road”  is generous;  the thing was dirt and loaded with foot deep potholes and ruts.  Poor truckie got a workout and really dirty. It took most of an hour to travel the five miles, but it was worth it.  The view was awesome!

They built a platform out from the cliff.  As you can see we were up a ways.

Get me off this thing!

Well time to call it a day.  More tomorrow!

Sleeping Giant

Sunday, August 30, 2015

Today we moved to Sleeping Giant Provincial Park.  Wowee, the fog this morning during our journey was unbelievable!  So where is the park you ask?  If you look at an Ontario map, you will see a peninsula just east of Thunder Bay, in fact that peninsula forms the eastern side of the bay.  The park is located near the end of that peninsula.

The park gets its name from the shape of a rock ridge creating a profile, according the Ojibwa, of a sleeping giant.  Legend has it the giant was Nanabosho, son of Kabeyun (the west wind), who led the Ojibwa to the North Shore of Lake Superior to save them from their enemies, the Sioux.

One day Nanabosho found silver.  Being worthless to the Ojibwa, he ordered it buried in Sibley Bay (current location of Silver Islet, see below) and its location remain a secret.  They were concerned the white man would steal their land for the silver.  Well, word got out and one day two white men were paddling a canoe to where the silver was buried.  Nanabosho disobeyed the Great Spirit and raised a storm which sank the canoe and the men drown.  As punishment Nanabosho was turned to stone.  To this day he lies on his back looking toward the location of the silver (Silver Islet).

Due to it’s size and the continuous fog and haze, we have only viewed the Giant in photographs at the Visitor Center.  It takes some serious imagination, and notations on the picture to see the Giant.   

There are a bunch of trails in the park we are hoping to hike, but today we went to Silver Islet.  A little town from the long gone silver boom in this area.  Silver was mined out of a small island off shore for 16 years in the 1860s.  More than 1100 people lived here in it’s heyday. Today there are less than 100.

Most of the old miner’s shacks have been restored into summer cottages, but still retain the old character from 140 years ago.  There is no electricity, water, or sewer here.  Many of the cottages have solar panels for electricity and amazingly, satellite dishes for TV.  Got to have the necessities, right?  Water is pumped from the lake, but sewer is an unknown.  Rock doesn’t perk very well for septic systems, so not sure how they manage that.

The only store here maintains irregular hours and was closed today.  They are known for great homemade pies. Rats!  Here are a few shots of the town.

So, what is the attraction?  Checkout the million dollar view.

If things go as planned tomorrow, we will visit a canyon and do some mining for amethyst.