#Metis Crossing camping Alberta

[edmontontouris]

Who among you is unaware that there were Forts along the North Saskatchewan river other than Fort Edmonton. Show of hands, please. I knew I couldn’t be the only one. When you go to Fort Edmonton, they talk about the york boats heading towards Hudson Bay. No one told me about Fort Victoria, Fort Pitt or Fort Carlton. I knew about Fort Garry because when in Winnepeg that’s what you do, you visit Fort Garry, see Louis Reil statues and eat a Manitoba Weiner. But there were other Forts??

When the hubs and I visited Smoky Lake for the Pumpkin Festival, we saw a sign for Victoria Provincial Historic Park. The hubs has been researching his family history (it is rich with Metis culture) and he mentioned Victoria being a Metis settlement. I suggested we stop by on our way back to the city.

Since it is a provincial historic site, I am counting it as a provincial park. It is supported and maintained by Alberta Parks so I think it counts towards my project. You can see all the Alberta Provincial Parks I have written about in the sidebar.

As we drove towards the area, I was trying to recall if I had been along the North Saskatchewan River east of Edmonton. I’ve been to Prince Albert, Sask. where the rivers merge about 40km east but honestly other than Battleford, Saskatchewan, I don’t think I have seen it other than the headwaters in the Rockies. Plus I’ve paddled it from Nordegg to Devon. I love our muddy river and it feels like home to me. Seeing it east of Edmonton was a wonderful experience for me. It looks the same. The valley feels the same. It’s my river so I felt like I was home.

We turned east on Victoria Trail east of highway 855. All along the river were Metis river lots. You could tell the boundaries by the trees dividing the lots or they were fenced off.

ᐄᓃᐤ (ÎNÎW) River Lots circa 1878∞, pronounced (EE-NU) River Lot. ᐄᓃᐤ (ÎNÎW) is a Cree word meaning “I am of the Earth”. The Victoria Settlement is situated on ancestral lands of the Indigenous peoples whose descendants entered into Treaty with the British Crown resulting in the territory opening for settlement. It was home to temporary camps built by the Cree. The Hudson’s Bay Company trading post and an influx of Métis settlers arrived a few years later and Methodist Mission established by George McDougall.

The Victoria Settlement and Metis Crossing were closed for the season, but still accessible to visitors. The interpretive programs were closed. Archeologists have found evidence of Cree peoples six thousand years ago. Think about that. Canada is a country that is 152 years old. We are hardly the founders, just people laying claim to a land that didn’t belong to us.

We stopped first at Metis Crossing. Métis Crossing is the first major Métis cultural interpretive center in Alberta.

The area along the river was divided into river lots showing how the settlement emerged from Cree lands. It’s easy to see why indigenous people lived here. Easy access to the river, hills to the north proving shelter from the harsh winter. Plus a natural animal corridor for hunting. Eventually, it was farmed and now the surrounding area is all farmland. In the summer months, the Metis Crossing Interpretive Centre offers voyageur canoe tours of the river. If you have never experienced a paddle down the river, I highly recommend it. The perspective changes the way you think about the land.

After we looked around the crossing a bit, we went back on Victoria Trail and headed east towards Victoria Settlement.

It is an easy loop walking tour beginning with the methodist church established in 1878. Apparently, George McDougall was instrumental in negotiating Treaty 6 for the Indigenous peoples. Whether that was good or not, it’s hard to know. They did receive a better deal than Treaty 4 but John A McDonald was not about fairness.

The timbers layout the fort boundaries, The Hudson’s Bay Company opened Fort Victoria in 1864 to serve as a post for the eastern trade out of Fort Edmonton. This is the Clerk’s Quarters. By 1890 the Fort had been reduced to five buildings and a rail fence. The Clerk’s Quarters is apparently the oldest original building on its original site in Alberta.

Cree Cheif James Seenum, also known as Chef Pakan signed Treaty Six at Fort Pitt in 1976 and obtained reserves for his people at Whitefish Lake and at Saddle Lake. Before the treaty was accepted there was a debate, negotiation and some foreboding. Chiefs Seenum and Big Bear pressed for a single large Cree reserve of over 2500 square km (1000 square miles), which could support peoples’ hunting and trapping. For many years after the signing, Seenum believed that his people had been promised this much larger reserve. As late as 1882 Seenum travelled with Peter Erasmus to Regina to see the Indian Commissioner to press his claim for a central reserve. During the 1885 Rebellion, he counselled his people against joining Big Bear’s band in the conflict but also refused to let his people aid the Canadian military. * Source Victoria Settlement.

Treelines and fence lines show the delineation of the river lots still visible today.

This historic park is located in such a beautiful area of the province, nestled alongside the banks of the North Saskatchewan. I recommend a visit here during the summer and check out the different programs offered to visitors. then head over to Metis Crossing for a paddle on the river.

  Edmonton Tourist: Fort Victoria Provincial Historic Park Who among you is unaware that there were Forts along the North Saskatchewan river other than Fort Edmonton.

[travelinglifeshighways]

Glacier National Park & Livingston, Montana

Glacier National Park

& Livingston, Montana

Saturday - Sunday, August 11 -12, 2018

Smoky, 82°

 “Before Alaska came along and ruined everything, one of every twenty-five square miles in America was Montanan.  This much space has nurtured a healthy Cult of Place in which people find perfection, even divinity in the landscape.” (Ellen Meloy)

 Saturday - Before leaving the Golf Course RV Park, laundry was done, oil added to the RV and in about an hour we would be at the border crossing on Highway 93 in Roosville, Montana.  Border crossings can be fun or a little annoying depending on how crowded or the moods of the border patrol officers working at the time.

This little back road entry into the United States was not crowded but watching the vehicle in front go through the passport procedure gave a little hint as what was to come.  The couple in the car in front of the RV, after giving their passports to the patrol officer, was asked to get out of their vehicle and go inside for further examination.  After several minutes, the man came out and moved his vehicle so we could pass through.

 The patrol officer asked the usual questions, “How long have you been in Canada?”  “Do you have more than ten thousand dollars in the vehicle?”  Are you carrying any fruits, vegetables, or other agricultural products?”  The answers were, “about a week, I wish I had ten grand, and no.”  The officer explained that the couple in front was pulled inside for a random inspection but since they had other issues the random inspection would go to the RV instead.

 He took the passports; off inside we went and after about 10 minutes another officer came over and would go out to the RV to inspect it.  I had put a bundle of firewood in the shower to keep it dry and looking at the border crossing from Alaska into Canada there was about a cord of fire wood in “camping bundles” off to the side so I figured this time the firewood would be grabbed up by the officer.  He came aboard, looked into the refrigerator and found two and a half lemons there.  This was forbidden fruit, even though it was purchased in Alaska, he had to confiscate it.  Oh no, contraband being brought in the United States.  They were bought to help my throat irritation from all the fire smoke.  Lemon and honey plus maybe some Jim Beam to help soothe that crappy feeling over the last several months was what the hot toddy was going to be used for.

 After the identity check and confiscation of the wayward fruit we were allowed to enter the USA! 

Welcome to the USA Sign - Simple but True

 It was about time after this forty five minute pause in the drive.  Down the road a way was the beautiful little community of Whitefish.  There were several deer grazing in people’s yards and the road through town was filled with people doing their Saturday chores.  The town has a rustic feel to it, much like Jackson, Wyoming, with its old style buildings.  There was a fire truck with firemen collecting money for the Muscular Dystrophy Association for the upcoming Labor Day drive.  This would be another beautiful place to live with a population of only about 6,500 people.

 We were heading to Glacier National Park to Apgar campground, a first come, first served facility which fills up quickly each morning.  Arriving just at eleven o’clock the board at the Park’s entrance still showed campsites available. 

 Glacier National Park Sign

 It took only a couple minutes to drive into the campground but the camp host said that the last spot was just taken minutes ago so there was no room anywhere in Glacier National Park to spend the night.  The smoke was really bad and we could only see Lake McDonald through a fuzzy bluish-white haze.  The mountains with the glaciers were not visible and were covered by the smoke that drifted everywhere.  It was lunch time so a picnic by the lake was in order.  After lunch, a drive along the lake revealed a black bear and several deer wandering the campground.

 Deer in Campground

 It would have been nice to spend the night but it was time to head toward the next bucket list place and cut down on some of that drive tomorrow.  Heading out from Glacier was Flathead Lake where I wanted to drive along the west side on a major highway south.  Missing a turn somewhere, we ended up on a small country road on the east side of the lake.  This whole area was filled with cherry groves and small roadside stands selling fresh, off the tree cherries.  Another unexpected find and the cherries were great, large Rainier cherries.

 South on highway 93 was the National Bison Range, it was debated whether to turn down an old dirt road to see if there were any bison but decided not to as there were still many miles to go.  Where the highway hits the town of Ravalli, coming over the hill and down a long incline were several herds of bison off to the west. 

 Bison off the roadway

It was another pretty amazing sight, seeing these ancient animals grazing or waddling in the dirt.  It would be several more hours before stopping for the night in a small town called Deer Lodge, Montana.

The city is perhaps best known as the home of the Montana State Prison, a major local employer.  The Montana State Hospital in Warm Springs, and former state tuberculosis sanitarium in nearby Galen are the result of the power the western part of the state held over Montana at statehood due to the copper and mineral wealth in that area.  Deer Lodge was also once an important railroad town, serving as a division headquarters for the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad ("the Milwaukee Road") before the railroad's local abandonment in 1980.

The current Montana State Prison occupies a campus 3.5 miles west of town.  The former prison site, at the south end of Deer Lodge's Main Street, is now the Old Prison Museum.  In addition to a former cell-block building, the museum complex includes a theater, antique and automobile museums, and a former Milwaukee Road "Little Joe" electric locomotive.

 Deer Lodge is also the location of Grant-Kohrs Ranch National Historic Site, dedicated to the interpretation of the frontier cattle ranching era.  This site was the home of Conrad Kohrs, one of the famous "Cattle Kings" of Montana whose land holdings once stretched over a million acres of Montana, Wyoming, and Alberta, Canada.  The Grant-Kohrs ranch was built in 1862 by Johnny Grant, a Scottish/French/Metis fur-trader and trapper who encouraged his people to settle in Deer Lodge because of its pleasant climate and large areas of bunch grass prairie, ideal for raising cattle and horses.  The city's name derives from a geological formation known as Warm Springs Mound which contained natural saline that made for a natural salt lick for the local deer population; the protected valley in which Deer Lodge is located was where most of the local wildlife would winter as the temperatures lowered in the high country. (Wikipedia)

We pulled into the small KOA campground as the sun was setting.  It cast a warm, red glow on the western horizon toward Warm Springs Mound.  The other campers were sitting by their fires but after the long day of driving, it was time for dinner and off for some much needed sleep.

Sunday – It would be another long day driving across Montana.   As I was doing my routine of disconnecting the water, power, and sewer, I saw that the thread was showing on the driver side front tire.  This was not good as there have been over 18,000 miles on this trip and whatever was on the tires when the RV was purchased.  It is Sunday morning, in the middle of nowhere USA, and all of the tire stores are closed today.   

It was only about fifty or sixty miles to Butte, so hopefully, we could find something open on a Sunday and replace the tire.  It was a slow careful drive into Butte and hopefully, this Montana town would have something open.  There was a large Walmart with an automotive section that was open so we spent the day there getting two new front tires.  The young guy helping check me in looked at the tires, said the rig was out of alignment causing the excessive ware on one side of the tires.  He had replacement tires but thought he would have to put the new tires on the rear of the RV and swap out the rear ones to the front.  After checking, he decided to put the new ones on the front since the rear wheels have dual tires on each side.

It was going to take several hours to get to the RV ready so it gave us an opportunity to buy groceries, get a pedicure, and hang out for lunch while the vehicle was being readied.  One stop shopping for all your needs at Walmart.  There were even a couple of overnight campers Boondocking in the parking lot.  It was about four in the afternoon when the tire change was finished.  Finally, it was time to hit the highway towards Bozeman and another “hot springs” campground. 

Calling ahead, we found the campground was full so it was time to adapt, overcome the obstacle and find another campground for the night.  On a previous trip, I remembered another KOA campground just past Livingston, Montana on the way to the north entrance to Yellowstone National Park.  So, it was time to drive there for the night.

While driving towards Livingston, I remembered a dream from the night before.  It was weird and funny and came to me out of nowhere.  I was checking into a camp ground and the camp host was “Jerry Lewis”.  He was the airline pilot, “Captain Eddie” from “The Family Jewels” complete with the funny looking mustache.  After getting set up at the campsite another “Jerry” came by to show me how to start a campfire.  This one was “Skylock”, the Sherlock Holmes style detective with glasses and bushy mustache.  He went around placing kindling and haphazardly threw logs in the fire pit.  Once that was done, he threw gasoline all over the logs and lit it causing a huge explosion and fire.  His eyebrows and mustache were singed off as he excitedly said what a great fire he started.  I’m not sure what brought this dream on but could only figure that driving through Whitefish, seeing the fireman with the MDA boot must have triggered something from long ago.

 We checked in just before sundown.  While taking a walk, I started up a conversation with another veteran staying there.  He and his wife were staying in one of the “Kamping Kabins®” that KOA offers.  They were with another couple riding their motorcycles through Yellowstone and that part of Montana.  Each year, they pick a place and do a road trip.  They camp in the cabins and ride each day to see what the area has to offer.  A walk down to the Yellowstone River as the sun was setting was a nice way to end another day on the road while Traveling Life’s Highways.