On Common Ground. Richard D. Merritt

century of erosion had reduced the earthworks to little more than five or six feet above the overall level of the site. In some places they were barely discernible at all … The survey … went slowly due to the almost impenetrable growth of brush and thorns which again covered the earthworks.[31]

      Work began on Navy Hall in August 1937. A few weeks later a Michigan Central freight train came puffing and hissing down the King Street tracks carrying heavy excavating equipment. Such was the announcement to the sleepy little town that work was soon to start on Fort George as well. The initial restoration and reshaping of the earthworks using bulldozers took several months.[32] Only the two northern bastions had retained any semblance of their original configuration. The military hospital, mess hall, kitchens, and one caretaker’s cottage were relocated to the edge of Paradise Grove. The original 1796 stone powder magazine, particularly its interior brick lining, was in very poor shape but was eventually completely restored. The small officers’ quarters (1814) was moved to a new location[33] and restored to its presumed original appearance. All the timber for the fortifications was pressure creosoted for longevity. They lasted until 2010.

      As previously described, much of the long-neglected site had become overgrown with trees of various sizes, all of which were cut down with one exception: a giant sycamore (buttonwood) tree some eighty feet tall standing as if on guard on the edge of the northeast (Brock) bastion. There was great public concern for this beautiful and impressive “Lonely Sycamore” that had become part of local lore, a favorite venue for family picnics, and praised both in prose and poetry.[34] An heroic and monumental effort[35] was made to move this landmark, which weighed an estimated one hundred tons, under the supervision of students at the Niagara Parks Commission’s School of Horticulture. In May 1939 the tree was replanted in a new location just outside the northwest bastion. The tree seemed to be viable at first, but with each succeeding spring it sprouted fewer and fewer leaves, and finally the Lonely Sycamore succumbed. A small rise in the turf near the bastion marks it final spot.

      In the spring of 1939 the second phase of Fort George’s phoenix-like rise began. After the stone foundations had been completed, the fort’s lost buildings were reconstructed based on the research available at that time. All the timber used came from a first-growth white pine forest in northern Ontario.[36] Many of the logs were so immense that they had to be hand-cut by whipsaw on the site. The pit used for this laborious work remains evident inside the fort today. All exposed wood surfaces were fashioned using early hand tools. Soon, all the present buildings on the site were erected. The massive front gates were the last to be completed. A log “Trading Post” was built as a reception centre well outside the fort’s reconstructed perimeter.

      The first official visitors to the fort never stepped inside. In June 1939, Niagara-on-the-Lake was included in the Royal Visit by King George VI[37] and his consort Queen Elizabeth.[38] As the Royal cavalcade proceeded along the road skirting the western flank of the fort, three thousand excited school children cheered and waved their flags. Even the recently transplanted Lonely Sycamore bravely showed its leaves.

      With the work finally completed, plans were underway for a gala opening party. The restored Fort Niagara across the river had enjoyed a grand celebration in 1934, as had Fort Erie in 1939. But Canada was now in the midst of another world war and the NPC decided that such a party was not appropriate. The gates quietly opened to the public on July 1, 1940. There was even concern that the Department of National Defence might exercise its right to reclaim the fort site for military purposes. Much to the relief of local officials, the fort itself was not needed as part of the war effort. In fact, for the tens of thousands of service men and women training on the Commons at Camp Niagara, the fort became a gentle reminder of their rich military heritage.

      St. George’s Lonely Sycamore at Fort George Heights, Niagara, photo, circa 1890. The eighty-foot tall Lonely Sycamore stood proudly near Brock’s Bastion. A favourite picnic spot, it inspired patriotic prose and poetry. Courtesy of the Toronto Public Library, Toronto Reference Library, T 13478.

      Moving the Lonely Sycamore, photo, 1938. This was the largest known tree removal of such a mature tree attempted at that time. The huge root was balled and burlapped. Under the careful supervision of students from the newly inaugurated Niagara Parks School of Horticulture, the tree was pulled through a timber-lined trench to its new site outside the fort.

       Courtesy of the Niagara Parks Commission Archives.

      Finally, in June 1950 the official opening and dedication of Fort George was held in the presence of ten thousand spectators with marching bands and a cross-border exchange of cannon salutes. Festivities were capped off with a very twentieth-century phenomenon — a stirring fly-past by American and Canadian Air Forces. Initially Fort George was operated as a passive museum with displays of military artifacts in the blockhouses. A custodian lived on the premises (the site of the garrison hospital in the original 1799 fort). In 1969 the ninety-nine-year lease was broken and the NPC officially transferred ownership of the site to the federal Parks Canada. Navy Hall and Fort George were named a “National Historic Park.” Reflecting changing attitudes about museums, Fort George became a “living history” site with emphasis on interpreting the garrison on the eve of the War of 1812 with live demonstrations of various aspects of garrison life, including the soldiers and camp-followers.

      Bird’s-eye view of Fort George, 1950, artist Tiffany Merritt, graphite on paper, 2011. Although not exactly as it was originally built, the restored Fort George captures the essence of the original fort as a living museum.

       Drawing based on conjectural drawings in an unpublished report. Gouhar Shemdin, David Bouse, “A Report on Fort George” (Ottawa: Department of Indian and Northern Affairs, 1975). With permission of Parks Canada.

      To accommodate increased visitation, a larger parking lot was carved out of the Commons to the west and north of the fort site, partially camouflaged with berms and a newly planted small forest of native trees. Part of the American earthworks and campsite (1813) and possibly an American soldiers’ burial site may lie under the northeast edge of the parking lot, the bush, and the grassy fields beyond, along Byron Street.