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A Powerhouse Working Group

(L) Mike Sterling, Patrick Folkes, Chris Irvine, Ken Cassavoy, Stan McClellan & John Weichel [absent is Don Wilkes]

Up and down the Great Lakes, communities have begun making plans to celebrate one of the most decisive moments in history for Canada and the United States - the War of 1812.

It is the year-long 200th anniversary, beginning in 2012, and Bruce County Museum and Cultural Centre located in Southampton, is planning to launch one of its most ambitious undertakings to-date.

The Museum and a Working Group of experts have begun work on a five-year plan that will begin with the anniversary celebration of the War of 1812 and that will create a museum of maritime history second to none in the world.

Given the area's maritime history and, with one of the most important shipwrecks ever discovered on the Great Lakes, the H.M.S. General Hunter recently found buried beneath the sand on Southampton Beach in Saugeen Shores on Lake Huron, the Museum is going to become a major harbinger of that history.

The General Hunter at Fort Miegs

by artist Peter Rindlisbacher

As part of the concept, the discovery of the General Hunter and her role in the war, will tie it all together for Bruce County and Lake Huron.  Built in Amherstburg, Ontario by shipbuilder, William Bell, the General Hunter originally was a brig that was outfitted with at least ten cannon, sailing the Great Lakes as part of the British Royal Navy. 

Bruce County is fortunate to have in its midst, world-class experts in their fields of history, archeology, museum design and technology and they will make up the core Working Group/Organizing Committee, headed up by renowned Marine Archeologist, Ken Cassavoy

Cassavoy and Museum Director, Barbara Ribey. recently gave a presentation of the overall plan to Bruce County Council, and the excitement is beginning to build. 

To understand the importance of the plan and the role that Bruce County Museum will play beginning in the next year however, one has to understand the importance of the rare discovery of the General Hunter.

In the 1800s, it was not only a time when the lakes were the highways, where supplies for every facet of pioneer life reached their destinations by ship, it was also a time of war.  Countries fought each other over everything from sovereignty to land expansion and North America was no exception.  In fact, one of the most famous conflicts in North America was the War of 1812 between the Americans and the British Empire.

The Americans declared war in 1812 for several reasons.  They wanted to expand into the far north, they resented trade restrictions created by the war between Britain and France at the time, conscription of American sailors into the British Royal Navy and the British support given to American First Nations tribes against proposed American land expansion.

After suffering several land-battle defeats, the Americans took another tact of taking the war on to the Great Lakes.  They started building ships and, in 1813, launched a naval battle on Lake Erie.  They won the decisive battle and, as a result, the General Hunter, along with several others, was seized.

Following the infamous Battle of Lake Erie and her capture, the Hunter was put into service as an American supply ship on the Great Lakes until being shipwrecked on the coast of Southampton.  Rather than risk the ship being taken over however, the Americans burned it and left it lying on the sands of Southampton Beach where it was claimed by the sand and water.

It lay buried for 200 years until recently discovered and meticulously uncovered by a dedicated corps of volunteers, not once but twice, working under the direction of Cassavoy.  "This is one of the most important and rare archeological findings on the Great Lakes," says Cassavoy, "and the Hunter comes from a crucial deciding time in Canadian and American history."

If the concept of the Group and the Museum go ahead as planned, a major marine exhibit will be created to be housed permanently in the Bruce County Museum, with the possibility of a traveling exhibit to other museums. 

It will feature a section of the ship life-sized where visitors can view first-hand, inside and out, a warship from the 1800s, in addition to the treasure trove of artifacts that were found - buttons from three military entities - American, British and a Newfoundland regiment, pottery chards, musket balls, a cannon ball and, even more astoundingly, an intact cannon that has  been carefully restored.  It will also include an expanded pioneer agricultural section and the considerable involvement of the First Nations peoples in the war

While cost of the project is being worked on in detail, Government funding has already been applied for from a fund established to commemorate the historically important War of 1812.

Today, the General Hunter remains protected after being re-buried under the sand with only an interpretive sign to explain her location.

For more on the H.M.S. General Hunter  Click here

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Monday, January 10, 2011