The Northwestern Ontario Metis Community is proposing to erect 6 interpretive signs in Dryden.
Stacey Devlin of Know History says the signs will be scattered throughout the community at the expense of the Metis Community.
“So, the idea is that these would be sturdy, aluminum signs,” Devlin told Dryden city council during a recent deputation.
“They would have UV and graffiti resistant coatings, and this mock-up here only has just the one post, but likely we would go with the design that has two, just for some extra protection against frost-heaving.”
Devlin adds that the signs help explain the lives of the Metis people in the community.
“They all cover a different aspect of Metis history, either in the City of Dryden itself, or in the local area and they cover from the fur trade days all the way to today.”
Devlin says they want feedback from Dryden city council to make sure they can erect the signs, and suggestions on where the best places would be to place them.
They are looking at installing the signs in the Sandy Beach Park area on Wabigoon Lake, the site of a former Hudson’s Bay Company trading post.
Devlin says ideally the signs would be placed in close proximity to one another, to provide a “story walk” for visitors to view.
(Photo: a mock-up of what the signs could look like)
