A visit to Fort Steele

Saturday, June 16, 2007

GOLDEN, BC — It was another quick getaway morning, as we didn’t unhitch from the truck overnight in Fernie. We headed west on Highway 3 and then north along Highway 93 toward Fort Steele, always with the Elk River on our left, flowing wide and swiftly in the same direction as we were going. I watched the banks closely for a lot of the time, hoping to spot a mountain sheep or an elk or even a grizzly bear stopping for a drink, but they all watched us and waited till we were out of sight before coming out in droves.
It’s hard, when faced with calendar-quality vistas of snow-capped mountains at every turn of the road, not to replay great sweeping music in your mind like the French horn soundtrack of Dances with Wolves, or the overture to The Sound of Music, or even America the Beautiful despite our Canadian venue! Anyone who hasn’t been here yet MUST put this on their list of places to go before you die.
As we journeyed north, we arrived at Fort Steele, a replica of the fort named after one of the North West Mounted Police greats, Sam Steele. The staff are all dressed in period costume (1890s) and the village is laid out with blacksmith, hotel, schoolhouse, bakery, harness-maker, barber, dry good store and three little churches. We took a tour around the village on a bright red cart hauled by two massive Clydesdales, John and William, who plodded patiently along and paused in the right places so that Mr. Geary, the blacksmith a.k.a. cart driver, could tell us a bit about what we were seeing. Then we set off on foot to look more closely and go inside the buildings.
Much of the village was restored or carefully replicated, but there were one or two vintage buildings that had stood the test of time. One was a lovely wooden house with dovetail joints at the corners, built in the Finnish style and furnished inside with sturdy tables, braided rugs and vases of fresh flowers. We were still early in the season so some things hadn’t opened up yet, but it meant we didn’t have to contend with huge crowds either. The spot where you could try panning for gold would have been open but the person who runs it was gone for the weekend to give demonstrations in Cranbrook where every year they celebrate Sam Steele Days at this time. The heritage of the North West Mounted is greatly cherished and celebrated in these parts.
We had lunch in the village hotel, ordering buffalo stew with bannock and corn bread. They also had huge home-made oatmeal cookies for dessert. Between the two of us, we fished out five small pieces of buffalo meat in our stew bowls, but aside from that it was a tasty meal!
On we went toward our final destination of Golden. We passed a number of growing communities where houses and condos were being built, all carefully oriented so that residents could enjoy the spectacular view as they washed their cars or peeled potatoes for supper. I wonder if they ever forget to look.
We are staying tonight at the Whispering Spruce campground just east of Golden on Highway 1, and it is a beautiful location. The spruce trees tower above the trailer, and a few feet away the height of land drops away and you overlook Golden and the mountains beyond. There is a camper van in the next row between us and this amazing view, and this afternoon when we pulled in, the two campers were sitting in lawn chairs gazing at it, while between us and them they dried their laundry. It consisted entirely of brassieres and panties, all neatly pinned on the line like the pennants at a car dealership! It made for a rather incongruous display!