Tim Leeds Havre Daily News tleeds@havredailynews.com
A marketing plan is under way to tie together the units of the Old Forts Trail, including international advertising that could bring new tourism trade to Fort Assinniboine south of Havre and to other tourist attractions in the Havre area. Gary Wilson, president of the Fort Assinniboine Preservation Association, said he believes the coordinated effort including work by at least four tourism organizations to promote the seven forts on the historic trail will attract visitors. “I am confident it will increase everybody’s tourism,” Wilson said. “If it’s ever going to be really big-time, it’s going to be from the people we have now.” The creation of the trail Wilson was the driving force behind the creation of the trail. He and Havre Area Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Debbie Vandeberg began a series of meetings in Montana and Canada to create recognition of the trail. That first led to the trail being recognized when Montana Rep. Antoinette “Toni” Hagener of Havre sponsored legislation creating the Old Forts Trail, recognizing the shipping route from Fort Benton north through Fort Assinniboine and into Canada where it ran to forts Walsh and Battleford in Saskatchewan. Rep. Bob Bergren of Havre later sponsored legislation recognizing the western portion of the trail, running from Fort Benton to Fort Whoopup, Fort Macleod and Fort Calgary in Alberta. Other Canadian forts associated with the trail include the Wood Mountain Post in Saskatchewan. During the 1800s, the trail was a busy route shipping goods and people including Canadian North West Mounted Pol ice to northern Montana, Alberta and Sasketchewan. As the highest point steamboats could ship up the Missouri River, Fort Benton was a major distribution point to areas in the region. Marketing a story With the addition of the western route, including the major tourist attraction of Fort Calgary, which typically has some 150,000 visitors a year, the trail was essentially completed. The members of the trail are now on a push to market the different sites on the trail to a multitude of visitors. “There is a big story and each of the sites represents a chapter of the big story,” said Brendan Manz, marketing coordinator for the Fort Battleford National Historic Site of Canada. The group is sharing resources to develop a new brochure and Web site that will better tell the story, and show visitors to one site what they could find at the others, Manz said. He added that the effort is unique tourist attractions generally try to draw people to the local area, not to cross state or provincial and even international lines. “I don’t think anything like this has ever been done before,” Manz said. Victor Bjornberg, travel development coordinator for Travel Montana, said part of the effort is to show potential visitors the whole picture that while the forts may be the main draw for some, they are only part of the story. The trip itself and other features in the region of the forts is also part of the story, he said. “That’s part of the experience in really understanding what the forts are about,” he said. Gayle Fisher, executive director of the Russell Country tourism promotion group for north-central Montana, said the effort is to promote other attracTions in the area of the forts as well as promoting the other forts and attractions. She said part of the effort will be to answer the questions visitors would have, like “The reason I came to Havre is Fort Assinniboine, but now that I’m here what else could I do?” The other will be to market all of the trail when someone is in Havre the marketing will tell the story of the other units, perhaps increasing trips to Alberta and Saskatchewan, while visitors to Fort Calgary and other Canadian forts would learn about Fort Benton and Fort Assinniboine, as well as the other Canadian sites. “We’re all in this together,” she said. Sharalee Smith of Fort Benton’s River & Plains Society said telling what else there is to do at a site will be a major effort each of the sites has many tourism opportunities, she said. “At Fort Battleford the whole area is beautiful and nice,” she said. “You can do the fort complex in a day but there’s a lot more to see.” Funding the new push The groups are pooling their resources to fund the marketing effort, and seeking matching funds from Travel Montana, Russel l Country, Tourism Saskatchewan and Travel Alberta. “It just kind of shows how working together benefits everyone,” Manz said. Fisher made similar comments. “Nobody has a lot of money, so if we combine resources everybody wins,” she said. Travel Montana and Russell Country have worked on promoting the Old Forts Trail before, but the new initiative has a new focus. Russell Country’s Web site includes a page about the Old Forts Trail on its Historic Trails link, and Travel Montana, the official tourism agency of the state government, has information on Fort Assinniboine and Fort Benton and links to Old Forts Trail sites. Russell Country also includes the historic trail in its travel guide. Fisher said Russell Country also has done promotion on the trail, including bringing in professional writers to do articles on the trail. One of those was a featured cover story on American Roads last spring. Bjornberg and Fisher said the new effort will ramp up their involvement. Bjornberg said one aspect is creating a new Web site for the trail, one that is more interactive and tells more of the story of the trail. The other is creating the brochure to tell the story of the trail and its sites. Smith said hiring a company to distribute the brochures could bring many new tourists to the sites on the trail. Just having the brochures available at the international airports in Great Falls and Calgary could significantly increase traffic, she said. Marketing in other areas, including other entry points in the country, also could bring many new visitors, she said. Bjornberg said the initiative fits in well with Montana’s efforts. He said tying the trail in with other trails, such as Montana’s Dinosaur Trail and the Hands of Harvest cultural trail in north-central Montana, makes it a natural fit. He added that the group working on the project is very capable. “They’re an exciting group of people with good ideas,” he said. “The group has good chemistry and, I think, if we are able to keep that flowing and put resources in the right places this will develop pretty well in the next couple of years.”
