History along the North Saskatchewan River.

Metis Crossing (2 stars)

Lee soaked up a lot of history today, all in about 15 kilometers on the Victoria Trail. At Victoria Settlement, where Fort Victoria once stood, we saw the oldest building in Alberta still on its original foundation. That is the Clerk's quarters. How they raised eight children in that house is amazing.

Later on, we stopped at a RNWMP monument dedicated to the first group of police to traverse the area on their way to Fort Edmonton. They were led by the famous RNWMP member with badge number one - Colonel Sam Steele. He was a very instrumental man as his name has come up in a few other places across Western Canada.

Today started with a bit of maintenance on the floor of the Schooner - a few gouges we didn't anticipate but are now taken care of.

We took over 100 photographs at the Victoria Settlement which was a fur trapping post in the late 19th century. It was absolutely quiet at Victoria Settlement today. We were the only people to actually visit all the buildings, read all the information boards and watched a very informative video. Jack, our guide, was able to explain so much about the history of the Settlement. We also wandered to the place where a ferry crossed the people and vehicles across the North Sask river until a bridge was built in 1972. Then off we went with Chuck the pickup and found the "House in the Middle of the Road".

There is SO much history here - a land that was home to the aboriginals possibly 10,000 (YES) years ago according to archeological diggings.

A spectacular sunset lit up the clouded west tonight. A grande ending to the day.