Lower Fort Garry listed among best historic sites

Manitoba's Lower Fort Garry has been named one of the top 10 national historic sites in the country by Canada's History magazine.

Described as the oldest stone fur trading post in North America, the fort is located about 30 kilometres north of Winnipeg on the western bank of the Red River.

Making the list is quite an accomplishment, considering there more than 150 aministered by Parks Canada, according to the magazine.

"[And] there are almost 800 other national historic sites, owned by custodians, including individual Canadians, historical societies, businesses, or other levels of government," the magazine states.

"We chose our top ten based on their historical significance and the quality of visitors’ experiences. We also wanted to cover a broad time period and represent as much of the country as possible."

The original Fort Garry was established in 1822 near the forks of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers in what is now downtown Winnipeg.

'These places bring the past alive in a way books and television can't.' —Nelle Oosterom, Canada's History magazine

A devastating flood destroyed the wooden fort in 1826, prompting the HBC's then-governor, George Simpson, to find a new location. He chose the site further north because of the higher ground and had it built of limestone instead of wood.

However, it never became the administrative centre it was intended, as most of the population in the Red River Settlement still lived near the forks.

As a result, the HBC rebuilt a fort at the forks location, calling it Upper Fort Garry and referring to the one further north as Lower Fort Garry.

The HBC owned Lower Fort Garry until 1951, when it was given to the federal government.

Now a major tourist attraction, the fort gives visitors a glimpse into the past, using costumed interpreters — from May to September — who recreate life as it was in the 1850s.

The fort still has its original walls, ramparts, ammunition batteries, and residences, which together make up the biggest collection of original nineteenth-century fur-trade buildings in Canada.

The other nine sites on the list are:

• L’Anse aux Meadows, a viking village in Newfoundland and Labrador.
• Fortifications of Québec, the 250-year-old remains of Old Quebec.
• Grand-Pré, the site of the 1755 Acadian expulsion Nova Scotia.
• Fortress of Louisbourg, a fort dating back to 1720 when one Nova Scotia had one of the busiest seaports in North America.
• Rideau Canal, Ottawa's 202-kilometre-long waterway.
• Batoche, the site in Saskatchewan that served as the final battlefield of the Northwest Rebellion of 1885.
• Bar U Ranch, the legendary ranch that once employed the Sundance Kid, before he was drawn to more lucrative work as a train robber.
• Nan Sdins, the remnants of Haida village on the island of SGang Gwaay in British Columbia.
• Dawson, the Yukon city that boomed during the klondike gold days.

"These places bring the past alive in a way books and television can't. People young and old can get a feel for what things were like in the past," Nelle Oosterom, senior editor at Canada's History, stated in a news release.

"And for young people, a positive experience at a historic site will often ignite a lifelong interest in further explorations of our history and heritage."