An Underappreciated Amusement: Fort Edmonton Park

I had the opportunity to join locals and tourists alike at Fort Edmonton Park this week, and wandered the recreated streets of eras past under the scorching hot sun.

Here comes the train

I usually end up at the facility once a year in a volunteer or work capacity, and I love it. It’s easy to feel like a kid again when surrounded by costumed interpreters in the “living” museum, and imagining what life would have been like at the time.

Settler

The park showcases Edmonton in four eras: 1846 (fur trade); 1885 (early settlement); 1905 (beginnings of a modern city); and 1920 (modern times). Though I’m usually most engrossed by the fort (and hearing for an umpteenth time what little could be traded for a beaver pelt), I’m most taken by the more modern streets.

At the trading post

Rowand House

Random turkeys on the boardwalk

Horse at the end of the tunnel?

 

Daly’s Drug Store (formerly my must-stop, until I discovered that they moved my beloved raspberry drops to the Midway)

Photo in Ernest Brown’s studio

Picturesque Hotel Selkirk on 1920 Street

Much to my delight (and flashbacks to the Everwood series finale), I found a new addition to the Park since my last visit. The 1920s Midway includes a restored ferris wheel built in the 1940s, a carousel, and so-billed “old fashioned” midway games.

Midway (the ferris wheel is just $2 to ride!)

Sideshow banners (they concealed a tented picnic area)

Games

The only downside to visiting the Park is the expense – it is by far the most costly City of Edmonton-run attraction, at $13.25/adult, $10/youth or senior, and $6.75/child. On the bright side, admission during the slow winter months (though limited to 1905 Street traffic only) when the park is open on the weekends in November and December is free.

My pictures are here.