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Greetings! Your eagle eye, intrepid spirit, and trusty smartphone have led you to some bonus information this holiday season! We’ve hidden ten QR Codes throughout the site, each one linking to a different holiday-related anecdote. Now you can thrill your friends and family with amazing factoids of how of Christmas and New Year's Day were celebrated at Fort Vancouver in the past!
Factoid 6 Outdoor leisure activities were popular with the fort’s upper class, especially shooting, hunting and riding – when weather and health permitted. On one occasion, Thomas Lowe had “rather a dull time of it” when rain foiled his plans to be outside on Christmas morning. On another, he explained that a measles outbreak caused “so much sickness in the fort, [that] we had no amusement during the day.” The fort’s working class also indulged in the outdoors. “Some were engaged in gambling,” American pioneer Joel Palmer noted, “some singing, some running horses, many promenading on the river shore, and others on the large green prairie above the fort.” Source: Gregory P. Shine, “A General Time of Indulgence and Festivity”: Early Winter Holiday Celebrations at the Vancouver National Historic Reserve. |
Last updated: March 31, 2012