A thunderstorm did not stop people from turning out on Saturday for the opening of the military fort in Niagara-on-the-Lake that has overlooked the waters of the Niagara River for 210 years.<\/p>\n
Fort Mississauga National Historic Site opened to visitors for the first time in years on May 16, after undergoing seven years of restoration work to return it, as best as can be done, to its former glory.<\/p>\n
Alongside hosting the opening of Fort Mississauga, the Friends of Fort George raised more than $200 through an antiques evaluation event at Navy Hall.<\/p>\n
Ongoing repairs to Brock\u2019s Monument have cut the Friends\u2019 on-site revenue since the monument shut down last fall, pushing the group to open new sites and new fundraisers to cover more than $100,000 in annual student wages.<\/p>\n
Fort Mississauga, inside the NOTL Golf Club property, will remain open Saturdays and Sundays from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. until June 28, with interior tours at $5 per person.<\/p>\n
Nearly 750 people visited the fort across the opening weekend, including a bonus Victoria Day Monday.<\/p>\n
Tony Chisholm, president of the Friends of Fort George, said all money raised through events like the Navy Hall antiques session goes directly toward hiring summer students trained by Parks Canada.<\/p>\n
\u201cContributing money to the Friends of Fort George helps us hire more students for the fort so that when tourists come to town, they\u2019ve got a bigger squad and there\u2019s more people to greet them,\u201d said Chisholm.<\/p>\n
The fort was built in the wake of the War of 1812 to secure British forces in the Niagara Peninsula from the American navy controlling Lake Ontario. Construction started in 1814 and completed in 1816. It was left in a state of disrepair since it was last used as a training site for Canadian soldiers during the Second World War.<\/p>\n
Starting in 2019, however, Parks Canada began to restore the site, re-establishing earthworks, cleaning up debris inside, replacing the roof, stabilizing its central tower, constructing a new pedestrian boardwalk to the front gate and other restoration efforts.<\/p>\n