Move over Upper. Take a seat Lower. There’s a new Garry in town looking to claim the “Middle” ground.
While most locals know of the region’s two most famous circa 1830s-40s Garry forts –– those being Lower Fort Garry (located north of Winnipeg) and Upper Fort Garry (located south of the Lower, on what’s now Main Street in Winnipeg), a Winnipegger believes that she has uncovered a third Garry fort located in Armstrong’s Point, a neighbourhood full of historic homes that occupies an oxbow on the Assiniboine River. Middle Gate resident Roberta Lucille has dubbed her new discovery Middle Fort Garry.
Spanning 3 metres by 3 metres in length, with stone walls approximately 1.5 meters tall covered by a shingled wood roof, Middle Fort Garry isn’t nearly the size of the other Garrys. But it may have been equally as important due to the reason it was built, which was to house salt, the most important ingredient before the advent of refrigeration.
“We were originally surprised by how well this stone fort was preserved, as I assume it hadn’t seen the light of day since it was covered in the mid 19th-century” said Lucille, who has paid to have the structure’s roof radiocarbon dated, revealing a construction period of around 1840.
“But then, once we hit the stone and dirt floor, it became apparent that this was a salt storage facility, as there were gains of salt everywhere. No wonder it is so well preserved!”
What hasn’t been preserved is this Middle Fort Garry’s status in the history books. After scouring primary source materials in the region on the time period, Lucille has only found a passing reference to, “a middle child fort in the Red River Colony, and a salty little one at that” attributed to Alexander Ross (Letters 1844), along with one drawing of the fort. 
Undeterred, Lucille plans to re-open this “Middle Fort Garry” (an alternate name being floated is the “Assiniboine Salt Shack”) as a tourist attraction this summer in her backyard.
So far, she has applied for the fort’s heritage status and has plans, should the application go through, to provide an experiential visitor experience.
On select weekends, costumed interpreters will be onsite showcasing how the salt was stored once unloaded from the nearby Assiniboine River, all after it was made and transported from the historic Monkman Salt Mine on near Lake Winnipegosis.
For opening weekend in June, Lucille is also planning to host an evening event titled the “Salt Shack Shaker” in hopes to attract a younger clientele to the site.
Admissions will be free, with a suggested donation to ensure Middle Fort Garry provides a well-seasoned experience.
For more on the history of salt in Manitoba, check out the Manitoba Historical Society Archives’ “Manitoba History: Salt-Making in Manitoba”
