THUNDER BAY – Hundreds of guests made their way to Fort William Historical Park on Saturday to watch the Great Rendezvous reenactment.
The reenactment featured a canoe flotilla of over 10 canoes and 200 reenactors from across North America who were brought together this week to recreate the annual summer gathering held at Fort William over 200 years ago.
Saturday's activities featured the much-anticipated grand rendezvous arrival and visitors were able to catch a glimpse of what Fort William would have looked like back in the 1800s and learn all about what the great rendezvous was.
Reenactor Mitchell Seguin said that their new motto, “bringing life to history” is an important message for them.
“Not only do we want to show and prove what life in 1815 would have been like, we pride ourselves on giving a very authentic, immersive hands-on experience that you really can't get at a lot of other places,” he said.
“But at the same time, we want to teach, educate, enlighten people, doing what we can for truth and reconciliation, creating and preserving bonds.”
The event had a number of dignitaries participate who all spoke about the impact including special guest Elizabeth Dowdeswell, the Lieutenant Governor of Ontario, who said the story of the Fort is an important one.
“It's a story of identity, a story of resilience, a story about the great things we can do when we work together. Most importantly, it's a story that is emblematic of the Great Northern Ontario spirit,” she said.
“This place has always been significant to the history of Ontario as a province, and indeed Canada as it bridged the East and the West.”
Thousands of people have made their way out to the park over the week-long Rendezvous celebrations according to General manager Patrick Morash who said that it's been exciting being able to host the great rendezvous celebration again after 12 years.
“The place is full of life,” he said. “There are reenactors throughout the park, there are people who have been here multiple times, there are people who have never been here before, there are lots and lots of kids running around and playing and doing all sorts of fun things, it's just really, really encouraging to see the response.”
