Friday, August 19: Fort St. John’s


The town by the same name boasts a two hundred year old fort that is mostly intact or carefully rebuilt. The Fort has interpreters in period dress that explain the daily life of the original for inhabitants. As a fur trading outpost operated by the Hudson’s Bay Company everything in the old store was priced in beaver pelts. A trapper had to skin the beaver, clean and scrape the hide until it was clean of any debris, including meat from the animal, and sew up any holes. Once that was done the pelt could be used in trade to buy blankets, needles, pants, or whatever the outdoorsman needed. Rifles sold for up to 15 beaver pelts. 

A fellow at Meziadin Provincial Park wearing a Puerto Penasco hat stopped by to talk and mentioned that his home was a good place to visit because of the old fort and  it’s interpretive programs. He also mentioned having worked on the 1800’s old Russian Orthodox Church, leading the restoration project that pulled the church from the permafrost and stabilized it on concrete pillars. 

Betsy checking out the goats, rabbits, and turkeys. 

Picture in one of the fort buildings. Nice pets! 

Inside the fur storage building we examples of all the animals that were used in the fur trade from bear and beaver to coyotes, squirrels, fox, martins, mink, lynx, otters, and wolves. Prized were winter furs because of their silky thickness. Wolverine fur was used around the hood of anoraks because ice won’t stick to it, making winter travel more pleasant for the wearer. 


Tear Down building in the middle was not attached to the kitchen, on the left, or the main house, on the right. In the event of a kitchen fire the residents would quickly throw a rope around the tear down room and with the aid of a draft horse drag it away. That would save the main living quarters from imminent destruction. 

Betsy did a little geocaching on a local trail through the bush. Along the way we disturbed some big animal that went crashing through the trees. Unfortunately we were unable to get a look at it. Could have been a bear or moose as bears scat and moose tracks were both visible nearby. 

We ended the day camped at Riverside Park in Vanderhoof. A busy little park. 

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