Parks Canada’s 100th birthday will be toasted with a 100-gun salute during a special weekend event at Rocky Mountain House National Historic Site of Canada.
The park just west of the community is hosting its own Fab Forts Weekend, a national celebration, in honour of the world’s first national park service. Rocky’s special event, Bastions and Bones, will include a fundraising harvest barbecue, blacksmithing demonstrations, fur trade activities, and black powder demonstrations.
Dignitaries and music will help celebrate Canada’s history, along with a special firing of the cannon and muskets, during the Parks Canada’s Centennial 100-gun salute on Sunday at 2:30 p.m. In honour of their service, all armed forces personnel, veterans and their families will get in for free Friday (today) through Sunday.
Throughout the weekend, find out what life in the fur trade was like by accepting a fur trade identity from Parks Canada Interpreters’ Corporate Ladder.
People will have the chance to see Tim Moreland perform blacksmithing at a coal forge set up inside a Playfort, running 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.
Interpreters from the Métis Local 845 will be at the Trapper’s tents from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. working on traditional activities such as pemmican making, tanning a hide or doing beadwork.
Park visitors will also be able to sing and laugh along with two productions at the site’s preserved chimneys.
The David Thompson Puppet Show will play at 1:45 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. The Mountain WIT Variety Show, from Banff National Park, will perform at 1 p.m. and 3:15 p.m. on Saturday, and again at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. on Sunday.
A fundraising harvest barbecue will be served from noon to 3 p.m., thanks to members of the Confluence Heritage Society, who have been growing vegetables all summer long.
Musket and cannon-firing demonstrations will run at 11:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. on Saturday in preparation for the Parks Canada Centennial celebration at 2:30 p.m. on Sunday. The National Historic Site invites everyone to the ceremony which is part of the 100-gun salute sweeping across the nation. In honour of their service, all active, released, retired Canadian Forces personnel, veterans and their families receive free site entry Friday through Sunday. They are especially invited to this event.
In addition to all of these activities, The Brierley Whitewater Classic will be going on at the south end of the National Historic Site from Friday through Sunday. Site entrance fee also covers visiting the Brierley Rapids and watching the kayakers.
The entrance fees to the Rocky Mountain House National Historic Site are: $9.80 for a family, $3.90 for an adult, $3.40 for a senior, and $1.90 for a youth.
For more information, call 1-403-845-2412 or go online at http://www.pc.gc.ca\rockymountainhouse.ca www.pc.gc.carockymountainhouse.ca.
This is the National Historic Site’s last special event of the summer season.