Cows, Canonballs, and Bonnets, Oh my!

This is the second installment in the series of posts that I like to call "What made Jenna want to study history?" Today, we will be looking at my favourite pioneer villages.

Kings Landing Historical Settlement

This pioneer village wants to take you back to New Brunswick in the 1800s. The first, and so far only, time I went here was with my family in the mid 1990s on our tour of Eastern Canada. What attracted me to this village was it's vastness and how populated the village was. There was enough volunteers in the structures and wandering around to give it that distinct historical flavour. The volunteers also came from a wide age range. In one house there was actually a baby in historical costume sleeping in a basket from the 19th century. I also remember the printer's apprentice was quite attractive...

Unfortunately, any illusion I had as a preteen that pioneer villages were authentic were dashed when one house my mother and I visited were making Kraft Dinner for lunch. My mom was visibly perturbed. Nevertheless, I highly recommend a trip to King's Landing if you're ever in New Brunswick, you can only go up Magnetic Hill so much, and what else is there to do in Canada's only official bi-lingual province?

Fortress Louisbourg

This site was another stop on the Leifso family tour of the East Coast. My favourite element of the Fortress had to be the volunteers wandering around dressed as 18th century soldiers. There were also plenty of buildings to explore in this fortified town. Some houses were extravagantly decorated, while others represented how poorer French citizens lived. Canons were fired at certain times during the day and in the dining hall you have to wear a napkin around your neck. I would definitely recommend planning to spend a day here if you find yourself Cape Breton and unwilling to conquer the Cabot Trail.

Fort Mackinac

This site takes us north of border to Michigan. To be completely honest, I cannot remember why my family came here in the 1990's, but I do remember having a good time. Why? Because people shot rifles and you could dress up a soldier. Being able to dress-up scores big points with me. This site has probably changed a lot since I was a kid, and it would be interesting to go back one day to see if it would still make this list.


This list is obviously biased towards the pioneer villages that I have visited and how I remember them. There is probably some terrific heritage sites on Canada's west coast and around the world, but I just have not had the opportunity to visit them yet.

I am also aware that pioneer villages do not accurately represent history. They tend to focus on the good, ignoring the bad, for example: sewage is not floating down the streets, no one is in the gutters dying of small pox, and there is indoor plumbing. However, most villages are fairly successful at showing how differently people dressed, that people had vegetable gardens, and sometimes you had to share a room with 5 of your brothers and sisters. In many cases, these villages give some people their first chance to get close-up to animals like horses, cows, pigs, and sheep. What pioneer villages did for me was to get me interested in what Canada was like before Confederation. I could follow up these visits by reading more books on the subject and asking questions.

Pioneer Villages do not mirror the past, but they are a great way to spend a day outside, walking in the fresh air.

*Photographs courtesy of King's Landing, Fortress Louisbourg, and Fort Mackinac