Old and New Fort Saskatchewan - The Fort itself

I visited 'The Fort' recently and went inside the newly built reconstruction of the original 'Fort on the Saskatchewan'. Some very interesting information - and you can feel a little like you were really there just after it was built (around 1875).

Here's a photo from one corner of the (newly built) Fort.

And here's a much earlier photo from almost the same location.

A few differences are obvious - plastic bins and the picnic tables - but it's surprisingly close overall. The old photo was taken after the 11ft walls (stockade) were taken down and the original guard house (low building towards the middle of that picture) had been removed. Plus a more recent building shows up (to the left rear...the ice house as I understand from my newspaper correspondent from The Sturgeon Creek Post - a publication I recommend reading if you want to keep track of what's going on in The Fort. The Sturgeon Creek Post is also the original name of the NWMP post that became Fort Sask). A few other things are 'close' - the chimneys in the men's quarters, the height of the flagpole, and some minor building differences - but these could also be due to the difference in timing. It's not clear when the old photo was taken - I got it from here.

Finally, a picture that I liked from the junior officers quarters - makes sense that there would be buffalo hides on the beds but they still had a big impact when we opened the door and first saw them!

1973/74 - Lots of Snow

Continuing with some old posts, the winter of 1973/74 had the most snow that I can recall in Fort Saskatchewan. I took a couple of photos - some carefully positioned so it appeared that the snow banks were up to the top of the first story of our house - and showed them to various English/Dutch (see also my Ft Sask School Band tour) to show how tough we Albertans were. I’d throw in an occasional reference to Edmonton’s record cold spell if they didn’t seem impressed...does anyone else still have the “I survived Edmonton’s Record Cold Spell” certificate from the Edmonton Journal?

Fort Band Tours England and Holland

(Second clarinets draw raves)

In 1974 the Fort Saskatchewan Senior High School Band (with some members from the Junior High, and a few ringers from elsewhere) took the trip of the Erv Miller (conductor) years – to England and Holland.
We started in London and experienced some pretty ‘basic’ accommodation the first night (and that’s putting it mildly - it was some kind of youth hostel place that used to be army barracks in the Kensington area…near where Mum used to live anyway) until my uncle managed to find a university residence that we stayed in and that was much better! We visited Chelmsford and Cambridge (and possibly other places) from our base in London, then went up to the north-east of England to Teesside (near Middlesbrough) and played in a festival there. Stayed with wonderful people in a beautiful house. Managed to forget some stuff there which they sent back to Canada for us!
Next up was Holland, and we went to both Soest and Purmerend (playing in the International Youth Music Festival there) and also made a record at a studio in (I think) Amsterdam. The part of the trip I remember vividly is visiting some Canadian war cemeteries and seeing how well kept they were. All the people we met were extremely friendly, open, and still thankful for all that Canada had done for Holland during the Second World War! I have had the best impression of the Dutch ever since – and have never been disappointed.