This cache is not at the posted coordinates.
This series highlights Canada's stunning parks and sites that protect the environment and showcases the various historic aspects of our country. Parks Canada protects and administers 37 national parks, 10 national park reserves, 171 (out of 1004) national historic sites, 5 national marine conservation areas, and one national urban park (as of 2023).
Built between 1731 and 1771 by the Hudson’s Bay Company during times of English/French conflict, Prince of Wales Fort NHS (northern Manitoba) includes the nearby Cape Merry Battery and the winter harbour of Sloop Cove. It commemorates the role of the fort in the 18th-century French/English rivalry for control of the territory and resources around Hudson Bay. The second version of the fort took more than 40 years to build. The popular European 'star' shape construction with four protruding bastions was selected but its massive size and small construction crew made for slow progress. Its outer walls were 6.5 m high, 11 m thick and divided from the inner wall by an earthen rampart. Forty cannons were mounted within the embrasures along the parapet and commanded every approach to the fort, hence the name 'flanker fort'. The main gate was protected from direct attack by a stone structure called a ravelin. For the people who worked there, the extreme cold, the smoky quarters, incessant bugs and random violence that passed for discipline were day-to-day realities. Despite the awful conditions, the employees would readily renew their contracts to stay on with the Hudson Bay Company, as life at a post offered a chance for advancement, a place to live with fairly decent food, and a dependable wage that was much preferable to the uncertain future and hardship back home in Europe.
Archaeological excavations in the 2000s have recovered a huge amount of artifacts. The preservation of wood, textile, animal fur and hide is a result of unique environmental conditions and pristine deposits at the fort. The items offer a view of everyday life of the men who worked there and the people who visited, the types of implements used by the tradesman, style of clothing worn, types of containers for shipping and receiving goods, and items from trade.
Enjoy the puzzle of one of the chiselled inscriptions by a fort employee that will reveal the coordinates.
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