Plan aims to bond visitors with Niagara history
Innovative ideas to create interest are key, says Parks Canada supervisor
Two-hundred-year-old forts and monuments to generals who died two centuries ago can seem like pretty dry stuff to some people.
Those are the minds that Parks Canada staff wants to change.
A new 10-year management plan for Niagara’s national historic sites aims to blow the dust off the history books and connect visitors to Canada’s past.
“You have to be innovative, and that’s pretty much what we’re doing in the new plan,” said Lisa Ladd Curtis, superintendent of national historic sites in southern Ontario.
One example, she said, is the skating rink opened in the parking lot at Fort George in partnership with Vintage Hotels. First, you get the people out to the rink. Then you hit them with the history.
“We take some of the history from within the fort, and we come out to the rink and we do fireside chats,” she said.
“We talk about history so you’re learning about it in a different way and doing it in a fun environment, so maybe it will give you a taste and make you want to come into the fort at another time.”
Talking about 10-year management plans won’t turn anyone on to local history. It’s the direction that’s in the plan that staff hope does the trick.
The last one was aimed at increasing awareness of the Niagara sites, which include Fort George, Fort Mississauga, Butler’s Barracks, Navy Island, Queenston Heights, Mississauga Point Lighthouse and the battlefield at Fort George.
The fact the 200th anniversary of the War of 1812 and Canada’s 150th birthday fell in that period helped a lot.
For the next 10 years, the direction is to brand those spots as premier heritage destinations.
“Being able to create a sense of welcome when you come,” said Ladd Curtis, describing the intent. “Doing it so you know you’re coming into a historic town and here’s a historic site. Just building (the history) into the fabric of the community.”
That involves advertising and signage to create the brand. When you get crowds out to Butler’s Barracks and The Common nearby for a concert, the key is to find a way to remind people they are standing on hallowed, historic land.
Much research and many public meetings and surveys went into discovering what the public wanted out of its historic sites.
“Now we can get together and say, what stories do you want to tell? And how do you want to tell them?” Ladd Curtis said.
“Are there any events you want to do? We’re opening those doors.”
Few communities have such standing in Canadian history as Niagara-on-the-Lake and all of Niagara. Ladd Curtis said the bond with locals already exists.
“You have a very strong core community that cares about the site,” she said, using Fort George as an example. “I mean, look at the Friends of Fort George and how strong they are and how they support Parks Canada, and what’s happening at Niagara historic sites.”
Sometimes with history, the selling is in the telling.
Capitalizing on NOTL’s promotion of itself as the most haunted community in Canada, organizing ghost tours at the old fort might be seen as disrespectful by some people. But, she said, if you can educate the crowds on what happened at the fort 200 years ago while you’re trying to spook them, maybe they’ll return in the daylight to learn more about the true history.
It helps that of the seven sites in Niagara, only one — Fort George, which attracts 80,000 visitors a year — carries an admission price, though a small fee is charged for anyone who wants to climb to the top of Brock’s Monument at Queenston Heights.
One area that has been part of every 10-year plan and continues to be is maintenance. Brock’s Monument is more than 150 years old, and the others are all about 200 years old.
“Oh major, major stuff,” Ladd Curtis said with a laugh. “Fort Mississauga, for example, we’re restabilizing the actual structure. It’s a project that’s been going on for a couple of years now.”