Council approves plan to promote and preserve historical sites

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Council has approved legislation governing how the municipality preserves and promotes historical sites within the Fort McMurray Wood Buffalo region.

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The Heritage Resources Management Plan (HRMP) is the first historical survey of the region since the 1970s and 1980s. That survey identified 450 locations deemed important to local history. As a sample, the researchers examined 194 of those sites and found only 62 still existed.

This is a loss-rate of 68 per cent. To compare, the national level for urban areas is 23 per cent and 21 per cent for rural areas. Michael Dougherty, a historical consultant who authored the report, said many of these sites were destroyed by development and natural disasters.

“Stories are vital to heritage resource management. A place is just a place until it has a story. It’s just a pile of sticks and bricks until it has a story. Once it has the story, then it hits the heart,” said Dougherty.

While Dougherty praised the region’s potential for heritage preservation and promotion, he lamented the loss of so many historical sites.

The report was authored before Fort Chipewyan’s Catholic church and its rectory burned down last year. The train stations in Janvier and Waterways were also mentioned as heritage sites that were gone. Dougherty was struck by how much of Waterways was destroyed in the 2016 Horse River wildfire after reviewing pre-wildfire images on Google Maps.

“Those places that remain now have so much greater importance to us because we’ve lost so much,” he said.

The report, which was co-authored by researchers Janais Turuk and John Cole, proposes five priorities towards promoting and preserving historical sites. This includes ongoing historical management, community partnerships, working with Indigenous communities, educational campaigns, and finding ways to celebrate local stories and culture.

Dougherty added communities have had success with steps such as walking tours, plaques, festivals and campaigns. Public engagement also found local enthusiasm for these ideas.

Local author and historian Blair Jean, who moderates the Facebook page “A History of Fort McMurray and North Eastern Alberta,” urged the municipality to take an active role in preserving local history.

“There’s so much history that’s being lost every day. Every time an old timer dies, we lose a whole library of information,” said Jean.

The municipality began surveying public attitudes towards preserving local history in late 2021. Initial engagement surveyed 138 people online and met with 30 people during in-person and online meetings, the leaders of four First Nations and three Métis communities.

People identified dozens of locations as places of interest. The survey found overwhelming support for identifying Fort McMurray Heritage Village and Heritage shipyard as important cultural sites, as well as Fort Chipewyan’s Bicentennial Museum.

Other places included Bitumount, Mitchell’s Cafe, Catholic and Anglican missions, the sites of the former railway station and salt plant in Waterways, and the waterfronts of Fort McMurray and Fort Chipewyan.

vmcdermott@postmedia.com