FORT GEORGE DRUMS UP SOME FUN
NIAGARA-ON-THE-LAKE, Canada - Seeing re-enactors dressed in costumes of a previous era and inhabiting a historical site always allows me to happily drop back in time for a taste of life in an earlier period, if only for an afternoon.
At Fort George, at the entrance to Niagara-on-the-Lake in Canada, my wife Carla and I were greeted by a re-enactor dressed in a red wool coat and white pants on a warm July day. When we asked him how he stood the heat, he said that after 27 years, he found it comfortable and didn’t understand why we risked skin cancer in T-shirts and shorts.
Fort George has been reconstructed to resemble its appearance at the beginning of the Revolutionary War, with upright logs for walls and great reliance on ditches for protection. The system didn’t work well, and the fort was rather easily destroyed by the attacking American revolutionary forces.
We found the fort to be well staffed by costumed actors placed in each building to answer questions and relate the history of the area. We had noticed that all explanatory signs were in French and English. One of the costumed women informed us that speaking both languages is a requirement for being hired. Many of the attendants looked young, and I suspect they were mostly students employed for the summer.
Two demonstrations are given at regular times during the day, one by a drum and fife corps and one by a group of musketeers. The leader of the drum and fife corps said he had been with the fort for eight years, but the rest of the group looked to be in their teens and were mostly girls. Nevertheless, it was an excellent demonstration of the orders conveyed to the troops by drum and fife, and we heard some popular melodies of the day.
I had seen the musket demonstration a few years earlier, so we skipped that, but my memory is of the visiting boys being enthralled watching old flint muskets being loaded and fired. In the officers’ kitchen, an older lady and a mother and her 8- or 9-year-old daughter were demonstrating cooking on an open-hearth log fire.
The marked differences in treatment were great between enlisted men and the officers, who often came from rich families and bought their commissions. This was shown in punishment, housing and food. The guardhouse had small, dark cells; outside was the punishment triangle, to which the man to be punished was tied and whipped with the cat-o’-nine-tails. An officer’s offense, which would lead to dismissal from the army, would be one for which an enlisted man could be executed.
Original equipment from the time is displayed throughout; the re-enactors are well-versed in knowledge about the artifacts.
Not content with a daylight tour, Carla and I went back that evening for the Phantoms of Fort George Ghost Tour. At the beginning, our guide noted that Niagara-on-the-Lake had more ghosts for its population than any other city in Canada. Most ghosts seemed to hang out in taverns.
Thirty-five of us were led by a cloaked guide with only a candle in a glass box. When he led us into darkened buildings, this did lead to eerie sensations and an overreaction to strange sounds.
Our guide had us looking for a 7-year-old, barefoot, blond girl to join our group, ghost hands on our shoulders when we went through a 60-foot-long, pitch black tunnel, and a face in the window of block house No. 1 as we passed it. We were not disappointed when none of the apparitions appeared.
The strangest and most frequently reported ghost was one that arrived in a fancy mirror. On occasion, visitors looking through the window to the officers’ quarters could see an upper-class woman in the mirror brushing her hair. The guide suspected the woman had died shortly after her arrival. More recently, the viewers who can see her report she is standing outside of the mirror rather than just being reflected in the mirror.
Even though none of us saw any spirits on this trip, I found the visit to their haunts exciting, and, given the storytelling power of our guide, I got my fair share of chills down my spine.
The drum and fife corps in Fort George at Niagara-on-the-Lake in Canada put on frequent demonstrations of orders conveyed to troops by drum and fife.
NIAGARA-ON-THE-LAKE, Canada - Seeing re-enactors dressed in costumes of a previous era and inhabiting a historical site always allows me to happily drop back in time for a taste of life in an earlier period, if only for an afternoon.
At Fort George, at the entrance to Niagara-on-the-Lake in Canada, my wife Carla and I were greeted by a re-enactor dressed in a red wool coat and white pants on a warm July day. When we asked him how he stood the heat, he said that after 27 years, he found it comfortable and didn’t understand why we risked skin cancer in T-shirts and shorts.
Fort George has been reconstructed to resemble its appearance at the beginning of the Revolutionary War, with upright logs for walls and great reliance on ditches for protection. The system didn’t work well, and the fort was rather easily destroyed by the attacking American revolutionary forces.
We found the fort to be well staffed by costumed actors placed in each building to answer questions and relate the history of the area. We had noticed that all explanatory signs were in French and English. One of the costumed women informed us that speaking both languages is a requirement for being hired. Many of the attendants looked young, and I suspect they were mostly students employed for the summer.
Costumed re-enactors demonstrate cooking techniques of the period.
Two demonstrations are given at regular times during the day, one by a drum and fife corps and one by a group of musketeers. The leader of the drum and fife corps said he had been with the fort for eight years, but the rest of the group looked to be in their teens and were mostly girls. Nevertheless, it was an excellent demonstration of the orders conveyed to the troops by drum and fife, and we heard some popular melodies of the day.
I had seen the musket demonstration a few years earlier, so we skipped that, but my memory is of the visiting boys being enthralled watching old flint muskets being loaded and fired. In the officers’ kitchen, an older lady and a mother and her 8- or 9-year-old daughter were demonstrating cooking on an open-hearth log fire.
Compared to enlisted men, the officers lived comfortably.
The marked differences in treatment were great between enlisted men and the officers, who often came from rich families and bought their commissions. This was shown in punishment, housing and food. The guardhouse had small, dark cells; outside was the punishment triangle, to which the man to be punished was tied and whipped with the cat-o’-nine-tails. An officer’s offense, which would lead to dismissal from the army, would be one for which an enlisted man could be executed.
Original equipment from the time is displayed throughout; the re-enactors are well-versed in knowledge about the artifacts.
Not content with a daylight tour, Carla and I went back that evening for the Phantoms of Fort George Ghost Tour. At the beginning, our guide noted that Niagara-on-the-Lake had more ghosts for its population than any other city in Canada. Most ghosts seemed to hang out in taverns.
Thirty-five of us were led by a cloaked guide with only a candle in a glass box. When he led us into darkened buildings, this did lead to eerie sensations and an overreaction to strange sounds.
Our guide had us looking for a 7-year-old, barefoot, blond girl to join our group, ghost hands on our shoulders when we went through a 60-foot-long, pitch black tunnel, and a face in the window of block house No. 1 as we passed it. We were not disappointed when none of the apparitions appeared.
The strangest and most frequently reported ghost was one that arrived in a fancy mirror. On occasion, visitors looking through the window to the officers’ quarters could see an upper-class woman in the mirror brushing her hair. The guide suspected the woman had died shortly after her arrival. More recently, the viewers who can see her report she is standing outside of the mirror rather than just being reflected in the mirror.
Even though none of us saw any spirits on this trip, I found the visit to their haunts exciting, and, given the storytelling power of our guide, I got my fair share of chills down my spine.
Explosives were kept some distance from the other building in the fort.
