Fort Carlton turns 200

The explosion of long guns from the guards on the fort’s ramparts announced the arrival of the band of pony-mounted Cree riding slowly into the valley.

The deafening blasts also provided a signal for a few hundred digital cameras to burst into action, as visitors tried to capture the best angles of the colourful reenactment process choreographed to take them back two centuries.

It was all part of Fort Carlton’s 200th birthday — celebrated during the August long weekend — when descendants of Fort Carlton’s founder and first fur trader, John Peter Pruden, came back to the fort for a family reunion.

For Hal Pruden, who had travelled from his home in Ottawa to reconnect with family, friends and a long line of history, it was a moving moment.

"Fort Carlton is really the cradle of the Pruden family in Canada," he says, thinking back to when his distant ancestor took on the role as first factor at the fledgling Hudson’s Bay Company fort, near the present community of Duck Lake.

The signature event of the weekend’s fur trade festivities was Sunday’s trade ceremony reenactment, featuring well-known Canadian actor Gordon Tootoosis, who portrayed the historical Cree Chief Black Powder, and Cameron Nicolle, who took on the role of Chief Trader, John Peter Pruden.

Out at Fort Carlton Provincial Park, 26 kilometers west of Duck Lake, it was an opportunity for Pruden’s descendants and other visitors to travel back in time to the mid-1800s, when red river carts ruled the roads, buffalo ranged the prairies and fur was the king of commerce.

When it was established in 1810, Fort Carlton’s excellent location ensured its commercial viability.

Built on a well-used Indian trail between the north and south branches of the Saskatchewan River, the fort was on a route that was named the Carlton Trail which stretched from Fort Garry (Winnipeg) to Fort Edmonton.

A trail from Fort Carlton also gave access to the Churchill River system while the North Saskatchewan River was just a few hundred metres from the fort’s walls. The trails and river routes provided vital links for the fur trade of the region.

Sunday’s re-enactment was a mirror that reflected that era, a chance to use a little imagination to conjure up past cultural traditions and the characters who lived them.