Want to learn the art of turn of the century dressmaking? Come to Fort Steele.
Want to learn blacksmithing? Come to Fort Steele.
Want to learn the trade of tin smithing? Come to Fort Steele.
Want to learn the art of leather making? Come to Fort Steele.
Want to learn how to pan gold? Come to Fort Steele.
Want to ride on an early 20th century steam train? Come to Fort Steele.
Yes, this is a very hands on heritage town, with all the turn of the century tradesmen - those above as well as farriers and farmers, furriers and miners - and all of the turn of the century trappings. The exhibits are extensive, and eclectic - from a recreation of the original Fort Steele Police barracks to the Wasa Hotel Museum, from operating farms to an operating steam powered railroad.
They have over 60 heritage buildings, some recreations, most restorations, antique tractors and farm equipment, a restored water wheel from one of the local mines, antique vehicles, and just antiquities of all manner. Fort Steele is a complete community, with a school, church, houses, drug store, black smith, livery stable, hotel, pool hall, theatre, police detachment, telegraph, dry goods store, clothing store, gardens, a farm, and more.
During summer months, you will be entertained by "Street Theatre" throughout the day. As well, plays are enacted in the theatre several times a day through the summer.
How did Fort Steele get its name, you ask? It was named after Major General Sir Samuel Benfield Steele, CB, KCMG, MVO. Born on January 5, 1848, he died on January 30 1919 and cut a wide swath during his lifetime. Born into a military family, he was a military and police man all his life. After a few years in the military, in 1873, Steele was the third officer sworn in to the newly formed North-West Mounted Police (NWMP).
In 1877, he was assigned to meet with Sitting Bull, who had moved with his people into Canada after his defeat of General Custer, in a futile attempt to convince him to return to the US. Most notably, Steele was in charge of the Yukon detachment of the NWMP during the Klondike Gold Rush. His cool and sensible handling of the gold rush quite possibly saved the NWMP from dissolution, as the subject was being debated in parliament at the time. A very interesting read, Steele's complete history can be found
here.
As for Fort Steele itself, it was a gold rush boom town originally named Galbraith's Ferry, founded in 1864 when gold was discovered on nearby Wild Horse Creek. This creek continues to produce gold to this day.
Fort Steele Heritage Town
DESCRIPTION OF HISTORIC PLACE
Fort Steele Heritage Town, located at the site of the former Galbraith's Ferry crossing, is comprised of a North West Mounted Police post and a late nineteenth century town. It is located in the Rocky Mountain Trench, on the bench land of the Kootenay River, and is bisected by Highway 93/95.
HERITAGE VALUE
Fort Steele Heritage Town is significant as a time capsule of white settlement and the changing fortunes of a pioneer community in nineteenth century British Columbia. The value of this place lies in the remaining physical evidence of the four distinct stages of settlement which occurred here: the Galbraith's Ferry era established in 1864-65, the Kootenay Post era of the late 1880s, the Fort Steele era of the 1890s, and the period of decline which began in 1898.
The physical geography of this part of the Kootenay River is significant, as it prompted the establishment of John Galbraith's lucrative ferry business here in 1864. The narrow point of this part of the river was ideal for the transportation of thousands of miners who sought their fortunes at the nearby Wild Horse Creek gold rush. Galbraith's Ferry Office is valued as the only surviving evidence of the small settlement of Galbraith's Ferry, the first permanent non-native settlement in the area and the original antecedent of the town of Fort Steele.
The Officers' Quarters of Kootenay Post - established here in 1887 by Superintendent Samuel Steele and Division 'D' of the North West Mounted Police (NWMP) - survives as a lone testament to the need for regulation and order which arose in response to conflicts between the burgeoning non-native population and the local Ktunaxa people. The influence of the NWMP on this place was significant; it secured subsequent white settlement and growth, and inspired its renaming to Fort Steele in 1888, in honour of the commander of this, the first North West Mounted Police post west of the Rocky Mountains.
Evidence of Fort Steele's heyday - which began with construction of the Crow's Nest Railway, the discovery of rich silver-lead deposits, and the advent of large-scale mining in the area in the early 1890s - lies in the significant collection of stores, hotels, administrative buildings, and houses which remain within the historic town site. The variety of forms and uses of the late nineteenth century wooden structures attest to Fort Steele's prosperity as the former commercial and administrative center of the East Kootenay region.
Bypassed by the Canadian Pacific Railway in favour of nearby Cranbrook in 1898, it was the subsequent general abandonment of the town which preserved it as an example of its time period. Purchased for use as a historic site by the provincial government in 1961, Fort Steele Heritage Town survives as a notable reminder of the evolution of white settlement in nineteenth century British Columbia.
From Historic Places Canada
