Fort William, Thunder Bay, Ontario

Thursday, August 1st, 2013

On his way to empty our trash early Thursday morning before we set off for Canada, Bill encountered a unique bear trap. This is not the spring loaded claw type that grabs their legs but rather an ingenious design that traps the bear in a trailer with a built in cage. The trap is a steel barrow with a large piece of meat handing from the trigger. When the bear enters to get the meat the door closes and he’s ready for transport with no damage done to him. I didn’t realize we were camping so near the bears.

We drove for 36 miles today and entered Canada at the Pigeon River control point. It surprised us that we lost sight of Lake Superior as we drove to Thunder Bay, Ontario. We are spending two nights at Fort William Historical Park. The park is humungous. RV parking is really spacious and the view is unbelievable. We took a tour of the reenactment of the conflict between Hudson Bay Company and Northwest Company which took place at this very site. The guide and all the shop keepers were in period customs. We met Lord Selkirk’s soldiers and saw the skirmish on the farm (two sides fighting each other with muskets and cannon). Thomas Douglas, the Earl of Selkirk, and prominent shareholder in the Hudson’s Bay Company had taken control of Fort William, the inland headquarters of the Northwest Company. His arrival was in retaliation for the destruction of his colony in the west. It was an interpretation of life in 1816. It was really well done and if you asked any of the participants a question they answered as if it was still 1816. One of the Indians asked Bill where we were from and when he said Nevada, he responded with “which river is that on?”