Greetings all,

I hope you all got the chance to listen to the CJOB broadcast today, it was a great session. One of my favourite lines sums up the goal of the FUFG, as I see it: “Not just saving, but building on the site.”

For those of you interested to help the Fort, a website has been set up to collect donations. $3.5 million is needed by the end of March! Anything is appreciated by the organization - $5, $15, $20, whatever you can. You can get to the site at http://www.upperfortgarry.com/. Anything that you give will go a long way, and will be appreciated. Its not that often that the lovers of history get such an excellent chance to save a piece of heritage, important not just to Winnipeg, but to Canada, North America, and even European colonial history.

I would also like to repost the link to the petition started by Site O Canada, which has received tremendous support. http://siteocanada.start-a-petition.com. Please visit the petition and add your voice if you haven’t yet.

Best wishes!

– JGM

Hello all, things with the Fort Garry mission have been going very well. On Thursday, 28 February 2008 all morning from 9:00 till noon (CST) we will be holding a live CJOB radio showat the UFG site, to promote the project with various guests etc. I encourage you all to listen in and show your support! For those of you who do not reside in Winnipeg, can listen to the broadcast off of CJOB’s website: http://www.cjob.com/. The option for the online radio is near the top. Listen in!

– JGM

It has been reported today that the Manitoba Provincial government will be putting $1.5 million to the Friends of Upper Fort Garry to help them in their campaign to raise the money needed to purchase the lot of land that currently holds the Upper Fort Garry gate. This is only fitting, as the Fort saw the birthplace of the provincial government in 1870 with its occupation by Louis Riel for his provisional provincial government.

To read the brief story, visit http://www.winnipegsun.com/News/Manitoba/2008/02/05/4828474.html

– JGM

The membership list has been updated, with a new member added and member #456’s contact information changed.

I have become aware of an upcoming conference in Rocky Mountain House, Alberta, hosted by the Centre for Rupert’s Land Studies, situated at the University of Winnipeg, from May 14-16. While this does not deal exclusively with fortifications, it will be about the Canadian fur trade and will no doubt touch on fur trade forts and posts. If you would like some information you can either contact me (malekjon@shaw.ca) or check the web page out for yourself at http://www.uwinnipeg.ca/academic/ic/rupert/collo2008.html. There is also a tour planned of Rocky Mountain House Historic Site by an archaeologist on May 16th (which is incidentally one day before it is planned to be open to the public for the season). This may be an excellent opportunity for some Site O members to meet in person at an academic conference. If you are interested in such a possibility, please contact me.

A final note for this post regards the social bookmarking website called Del.icio.us (located at http://del.icio.us). I created an account for Site O Canada a while ago, but there seems to have been no response to it, quite possibly because of a failure on my part to explain it adequately. The steps being taken recently to make the internet a strong social networking tool (the best example being Myspace.com or Facebook) has produced great possibilities. The idea behind Del.icio.us is to create an online forum for individuals to place their internet bookmarks. The many benefits of this, as opposed to simply making a bookmark on your computer’s web browser, is that you can access it anywhere as the bookmarks (or, more accurately, TAGS) are stored online, not on your hard drive. As well, you are able to share (or not share) your tags with others on the internet, most importantly friends and family, as well as suggesting websites you feel they may wish to tag themselves. The site for Site O Canada’s links is available here http://del.icio.us/siteocanada. I’m always trying to make Site O Canada more interactive for members world wide and I believe this web tool would be a great method of linking members together, with each other and with this site. I encourage you to sign up (yes, it is free!) and start sharing your Site O related links with us. For those who already have an account and would like to start sending links to Site O, you need to enter “for:siteocanada” into the TAG text-box. If you want more information on Del.icio.us and how it works, you can visit their site at http://del.icio.us. I encourage you all, not just those members within Canada, to sign up for an account, or at least peruse through the links that I have added so far.

Best wishes to you all,

– JGM

Greetings all and a happy New Year. I hope it was safe and fun for all!

On the first day of the year I made a trip out to the two forts that remain in Winnipeg, Fort Gibraltar and Upper Fort Garry (gate). It was a bright and crisp day and the forts were very beautiful in the snow. I think with the developments regarding Upper Fort Garry over the past year, a bright new round of pictures of the old Fort, looking so revitalized in the fresh snow and air, would be a good start to the year and the efforts of the Friends of Upper Fort Garry as they begin the daunting task of raising money. It is important to remember what we are standing up for, and the best reminder sometimes is a simple picture.  You can access the pictures here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jonmalek/sets/72157603604378542/

Best wishes to you all in the new year.

– JGM