WOODLANDS COUNTY - The Fort Assiniboine Bicentennial celebrations last spring and summer had a lasting impact on the hamlet, and the organizing committee hopes that a pair of legacy projects will continue to have an impact well after its 200th celebrations took place.
In December the Fort Assiniboine Bicentennial Planning Committee, represented by chairperson Dale Kluin, asked Woodlands County council for permission to keep the remnants of a $75,000 grant the municipality gave the organizing committee to stage the event. His request was granted.
Kluin did not state how much was left of the grant, nor was it stated in the public agenda package, but reeve Dave Kusch said the amount was a little over $12,000.
"Our committee worked hard to create an event that the local community and the county could be proud of. And I think we accomplished that," he said.
Kluin noted that the 200th celebrations started in June with Pioneer Days, when over 300 children from area schools visited the hamlet and participated in hands-on displays and demonstrations designed to show participants how the pioneers survived.
However, the showcase event for the celebrations, he said, happened on the July 7-9 weekend when over 2,000 people visited the hamlet. Most of those visitors came on the second day of the event, which was highlighted by the arrival of several 25-foot voyageur replica canoes as part of the Athabasca River Brigade.
Accompanied by close 200 paddlers and support staff, a free community dinner was hosted at the serving inside the hamlet's hockey arena for more than 1,400 people and a concert featuring western fiddlers and the Colin Vollrath band.
The Athabasca River Brigade is a non-profit organization that promotes fitness and community cooperation and educates residents along river communities about the historical importance of the voyageur canoe and Canada's rivers in creating the nation.
To mark Canada's 150th, in 2017, the brigade undertook a six-day voyageur canoe trip on the Athabasca River, starting in Jasper and ending in Fort Assiniboine. The organization to commemorate Fort Assiniboine's bicentennial, the brigade launched a shorter trip, beginning from Whitecourt, making stops in Blue Ridge, Fort Assiniboine, Vega, Chisholm (staying in Smith), the Athabasca Riverbend Lodge and ending in Athabasca.
Kluin said as the voyageurs and the Athabasca River are such a large part of the community's history, the bicentennial planning committee felt a fitting legacy project would be to take one of the 25-foot voyageur canoes that were part of the two journeys and make it available for rental to other groups throughout the province.
During the meeting, Kluin said they would purchase the canoe from the Athabasca River Brigade and then donate it to the Fort Assiniboine Friendship Museum. But in a letter included in the agenda package, Kluin states that the brigade would donate the item, with the bicentennial planning committee being responsible for purchasing a vehicle trailer (large enough for two canoes) to transport the canoe and all the other ancillary items such as paddles and lifejackets.
The canoe would be painted to showcase both Fort Assiniboine and Woodlands County.
Kluin said the other legacy project the committee hopes to do with the funds is to create an online archive with photos and two videos that were commissioned to celebrate the hamlet's bicentennial.
Goose Lake/Freeman River Coun. Peter Kuelken said he supported the request, saying that the hamlet's bicentennial and all the work leading up to it helped the county establish contacts throughout the region that will pay dividends as they attempt to grow tourism.
"A lot of things happened from the celebrations that we did not anticipate that really helped put Woodlands County on the map and see us in a totally different way, and I see this project as a way to continue that," he said.
