We went to the Fort William Historical Park on the outskirts of town and enjoyed the afternoon in a 1815 recreation of a Great Northern Company fur trading post; one of many that stretched across Canada to supply England with beaver for the hat business. Jo-Anne checking the quality of a wolf pelt. At the time beaver was the standard at one pelt for one pound stirling; all others being measured against it.
There is also the memorial for the favorite son Terry Fox, the runner who ran from the east coast to here with one artificial leg and garnered a lot of support for cancer research.
While Thunder Bay is a big city of 110000 folks, it appears to be well past its heyday of ore and lumber shipping. Other than a new mall, it seems to be frozen in 1950. The cities of Fort William and Port Arthur were combined several years ago into this one. There is a really nice marina and park area in what used to be the Port Arthur area butthe waterfront is really dominated by many huge grain elevators and industrial areas that have been abandoned.
Right now the plan is to break camp in Thunder Bay on Saturday, tomorrow morning, the 1st aiming for Dryden, then a night in Kenora, then the 3rd and 4th in Selkirk, MB, and off to Moose Jay, SK on the 6th. We will see how all that plays out, especially on this holiday weekend.
