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The west is alive and well at Fort Whoop-Up.
Now, as history buffs come through the gates of the fort established in 1869 as a base for trade with the Indians, the visit is as much of a tracing of the family tree as it is a history lesson for some visitors.
“We’re starting to learn more and more about families that were here and it’s really interesting because we’re getting more and more visitors through the site that say ‘My great-grandfather was here (or) my great-great-grandfather was here,’” said Fort Whoop-Up executive director Doran Degenstein. “We’re starting to see all kinds of connections. We had a visitor earlier this month and their great-great-grandmother was a Sioux woman and one of her first mixed-blood children were born here in Fort Whoop-Up. There’s more and more of that stuff starting to come out and now it’s common knowledge that most of the traders here not only had a white wife at home, but they also had a prairie wife or a Blackfoot wife.”
In the old days, that subject was frowned upon, said Degenstein.
Nowadays, it’s essential.
“Those were significant contributions to the family,” said Degenstein. “Now all of a sudden there are descendents of those half-brothers and sisters that are interested in knowing who their relatives are. That’s one of the tasks that we’re looking at possibly having to address.”
In the meantime, Fort Whoop-Up continues to serve up a history lesson about southern Alberta back in the late 1800s, bloodlines or not.
“It’s a significant part of Lethbridge’s history. Even before Lethbridge, Whoop-Up was known as a community,” said Degenstein. “It was even referred to, in some of the Montana publications, as Whoop-Up City. It was more than just a fort. We’re learning more and more as time goes on and finding more historical connections. We started out with Fort Hamilton and then Fort Whoop-Up was built less than six months later and Fort Hamilton and Fort Whoop-Up continued to operate simultaneously next door to each other, within 300 feet of each other, until sometime around 1872 or 1873.”
The public feedback has been strong.
“I think we statistically meet or exceed visitors’ expectations 98 per cent of the time. It’s just going through the site and getting that experience. That’s the experience we want to portray,” said Degenstein. “We’re trying to maintain that theme. You get into all of your sensory perceptions, it’s the sights, it’s the sounds. It’s to give you a feel of the place. So we focus on that in the period rooms.”
The Thunderchief gallery pays tribute to the fort’s trade partners, largely the Blackfoot.
“There’s a variety there,” said Degenstein. “Then it’s ‘How did people live and what did they use?’ To that end we have a firearms collection that has become quite popular. There’s lots to do and think about, that’s what people are thriving on.”
Fort Whoop-Up’s open atmosphere also caters to the tourist.
“There are not very many things under glass. I think it’s that openness that helps achieve that feeling as well,” said Degenstein.
Fort Whoop-Up will celebrate the 50th anniversary of its reconstruction in 2017 and its 150th anniversary in 2019.
“It’s one of the oldest communities in the south,” said Degenstein. “Your fur trade communities were certainly the oldest. Clearly, there were a lot of things that had gone on and happened at Fort Whoop-Up even before the Narrow Gate railway in Lethbridge was a thought.”
At any given time during the fort’s heyday, there could be up to 80 people on site, said Degenstein.
“Fort Whoop-Up was the granddaddy. It was the Costco and Walmart of all the whisky trades. It had the best selection and the best prices. It was not only supplying the Blackfoot trade, it was supplying a little bit of white trade as far as settlement. There was a lot of what they refer to as blanket traders that would get their goods here. And at any given time there would be at least 10 to 15 competitors operating in the neighbourhood. Between 1869 and 1874 we had 43 whisky ports that operated for some time between Fort Macleod and Lethbridge.”
Those visiting Fort Whoop-Up nowadays can expect to be time travelled back to the whisky-selling, gun-slinging times of the old west.
“Every Saturday up until the end of the summer we have some activities here. I have different re-enactments,“ said senior site host David Gabert.
On Aug. 20 will be the Heritage Weekend re-enactment day running from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The following week will feature a re-enactment of the shooting of Dave Akers, the last owner of Fort Whoop-Up.
“It’s a 45-minute show where we have a lot of firing and the wild west experience,” said Gabert. “It’s a gun fight in (the fort) and then we take it outside and we have a battle with the cannons on both sides of the field fighting it out to see who will take control of the fort in the end. That one is loosely based on historical records from 1893 and the shooting of Dave Akers. We have about 10 guys come out and light the place up with their guns.”
Then there’s the daily firing of the cannon, using a replica of the original one.
“The original one is on display. We don’t like to fire it anymore,” said Gabert. “The original one sits in the armoury. It was built just about 180 years ago. It would have travelled to Fort Benton along the Missouri River. Once it got to Fort Benton it would have been shipped up along the Whoop-Up Trail to Fort Whoop-Up. There were three cannons here at fort. One sitting in the fort pointing at the gate so if anybody tried to break into the fort, historically speaking, they’d have a cannon there. It was mostly an intimidation tactic.”
Fort Whoop-Up was designed with self-defence in mind, said Gabert.
“If anybody broke into the main area of the fort they could still get to all the rooms without being in danger by the men inside. It’s the same reason they have the windows up so high. People can’t shoot in, but they can climb to those windows and shoot out. It’s all built thinking defensively.
“We get a lot of people coming down and saying ‘Well, you’re so close to the cliffs. You can be shot at from up there.’” That’s true, but I’d like to see somebody with accuracy at that range. Especially someone with a musket or a bow and arrow.”
However, the current Fort Whoop Up isn’t the original location of the fort.
“The original fort was three miles south where the St. Mary’s joins the Oldman River,” said Gabert. “It was a lot farther away from the coulees than we are now. (But) the dimensions of the fort right now are exactly the same as the original.”
Those looking for more information on Fort Whoop-Up can visit fortwhoopup.com or visit them on Facebook and Twitter.
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