Historic Sites Of The Nation

As is the case on the nearby Plaza Bridge, each year thematic panels are placed on the terrace linking the bridge to Major's Hill Park, a terrace that passes by the Chateau Laurier and looms over the east side of the Rideau Canal. There were a series of panels this year highlighting National Historic Sites, at least one in each province and territory, with panels at each end marking an extra one. Our National Historic Sites are managed by Parks Canada, and protect places of historic or cultural value. This first panel features Rocky Mountain House, a reconstructed trading post, in Alberta.

Also in Alberta, this is the Bar U Ranch.

Fort Anne is a National Historic site found in Nova Scotia.

The Northwest Territories is home to Saoyu-?ehdaco National Historic Site, a sacred place for the Sahtu First Nation. 

This one is a mere few minutes walk away. The Rideau Canal is both a National Historic Site and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. This photograph features it just upstream from the Ottawa Locks, with the Ottawa Convention Centre in the background.

Dawson Historical Complex is a designated historic site in the Yukon's Dawson City, where among other things, Robert Service's cabin is preserved in the frontier town. He was a poet who evoked the days of the Gold Rush in his writings.

Prince Edward Island is represented here by Charlottetown's Great George Street Historic District, where statues of the Fathers of Confederation can be found here in the town where much of Canada's Confederation was shaped.

Fort Beausejour-Fort Cumberland National Historic Site can be found in New Brunswick, and is the site of two separate forts, one French and the second one British, from the pre-Confederation era.

Grosse-Ile and the Irish Memorial N.H.S. can be found in Quebec. Millions of immigrants were quarantined here for a time in the 19th and early 20th centuries before passage into Canada, a good number of them Irish. Thousands of them died of diseases before they could begin a new life in the country. This place has been preserved for posterity.

Fort Battleford is in Saskatchewan, and was founded in the 19th century as an outpost for the Northwest Mounted Police, the predecessor to the RCMP.

British Columbia features something different. The Gulf of Georgia Cannery preserves a former fish processing plant for posterity, allowing contemporary visitors to step back in time, while also providing  a different kind of locale for local artisans.

Cape Spear Lighthouse is in Newfoundland & Labrador. It is the most easterly point in North America, so this lighthouse greets the dawn first each day.

The underwater sites of the wrecks of the Franklin Expedition, the H.M.S. Erebus and H.M.S. Terror, have been set aside as National Historic Sites since their discovery some years ago in the waters of Nunavut.

Prince Of Wales Fort is to be found in Manitoba, and was originally founded as a fur trading fort.

I finish with the far end of these, which features Signal Hill in St. John's, Newfoundland, where the guns are fired at noon.