THUNDER BAY — Hundreds of re-enactors from across Canada met at Fort William Historical Park for its annual Great Rendezvous this weekend.
The historic re-enactment aimed to re-create the yearly summer gathering that was held over 200 years ago at Fort William, when it acted as the inland headquarters of the North West Company.
The three-day event featured artisan workshops and demonstrations, guest speakers, a grand canoe arrival, contests and more.
“You just witnessed the grand departure, which is us all celebrating a wonderful rendezvous — everybody celebrating the departure of our re-enactors,” said Katherine Richard, one of Fort William Historical Park’s event coordinators.
“And so for three days here we spent celebrating culture, material culture, songs, food, gathering and today we just wanted to send a big farewell to our historical re-enactors and thanking them for participating over the weekend.”
While every day they welcome people to the fort, Richard said, it’s particularly special to welcome people there during rendezvous weekend.
“That’s when folks from all over the world come to celebrate our history here and this is also the time when you’ll see the most historical re-enactors,” said Richard.
“So, you’ll see on site that’s where folks get to dress up in 19th century or 18th century clothing and sleep on the historic site and tell stories, share stories around the fire and things like that. And yeah, so really rendezvous is that special time to meet people from everywhere and to say hi.”
She said it’s also only their third rendezvous that they’ve had since the pandemic.
“We’re really happy to say that we’ve seen an increase in attendance this year from last, not only in visitation daily but also our re-enactors, they kept coming back and we’re again just grateful for them to be consistently celebrating with us at rendezvous.”
One of the really big parts of their grand arrivals or departures is the auditory experience, she added.
“We always incorporate muskets or cannons, lots of singing and voyageur songs. So French singing, of course, is always here,” said Richard.
“And part of the experience of incorporating the muskets and the cannons is to really signal the big salute, the big importance of people arriving to the fort safely or departing and wishing them well on their journey.”
