Fort St James

Re-posting with pictures

Fort St James is just 38 miles north of Vanderhoof, we are here May 24 & 25,
day 6 & 7. 
This is a small northern community located at the foot of the Omenica Mountain Range, surrounded by thousands of lakes. 
Fort St James National Historic Site of Canada is a heritage village on the shores of Stuart Lake recreating the lifestyle and conditions experienced by the First Nation people and the early pioneers back in the late 1800's.  The historic village is a great opportunity to enjoy a self guided tour at your own leisure visiting among First Nation and European pioneer actors, we explored the many buildings including the Fish Cache, General Warehouse, accommodations and a General Store.  This is also used as a B & B staying is the historic house and having the meals cooked on a wood burning stove/oven.

Displays inside the visitor center of Fort James Historical Site

 Beaver pelt, they were all round like this one

 I couldn't resist, I remember my grandmother had something like this and us kids always like to pet it.  Now I would never think of wearing this especially to church.

 They had beautiful displays of blankets

 Stuart Lake

 The yellow are dandelion flowers, they are in all the fields and along side of the roads.  When the bears come out of hibernation this is one of their favorite foods.

 This is the store house

 Next pictures are inside the store house

 This is sort of hard to see but this is a press.  The pelts were stacked on top of a burlap type of material and then this press came down on them squeezing all the air out, they then sewed the material around the pelts which you can see in the next picture

 These bundles are full of pelts and they they could be shipped

There was a Men's House.  If you were important you got a room to yourself otherwise you slept upstairs.

 Men had their favorite pin-ups

 Look at this real close it was their version of the recliner.

These pictures are almost too busy, but this is the General Store where you could purchase your needed items.

 Where the books were kept.

 Gardening

Dead battery so no more pictures today.

If you are ever in the area this is a must see/visit.
A little to the north of the historic village is Cottonwood Park where on display is a German Junker W34 Float Plane and the Tom Creek Steam Shovel.  A short walk along the back we came across Our Lady of Good Hope Catholic Church, est. 1873 and of course the Church Graveyard next to the church.

We had a busy 2 day stay.  Next day traveled to Burns Lake and Francois Lake