St. Andrews Blockhouse National Historic Site

Fab Forts Weekend Celebrated

© Parks Canada

Saint Andrews, New Brunswick, August 23, 2011 – Parks Canada, in collaboration with the Town of Saint Andrews, hosted a fun-filled community barbecue to celebrate Fab Forts weekend on Saturday, August 20th, 2011 at the St. Andrews Blockhouse National Historic Site.

Tours of the Blockhouse were provided to visitors to explore how it played a substantial role in the history and growth of Canada. In addition to tasty barbequed hotdogs, the public was also treated to cold lemonade and delicious wild blueberry dessert kindly donated by Granite Town Farms.

This year Canada marks the 100th anniversary of the Dominion Parks Branch, the world’s first national parks service, which came into being on May 19, 1911. Today this agency, now known as Parks Canada, protects 167 national historic sites, 42 national parks and 4 national marine conservation areas. These sites comprise one of the world’s largest networks of heritage sites. Canadians can be proud of efforts invested for more than a century to create and preserve our natural heritage – an extraordinary legacy to present and future generations.

Among the highlights of the “Fab Forts Weekend” was a coast-to-coast Parks Canada centennial 100-gun salute which rippled across the country from coast to coast on Sunday afternoon, at 2:30 pm.