07 17 2000 History Minutes
11
Historic Sites
and Monuments
Board of Canada
Commission des lieux
et monuments
historiques du Canada
t
Hull, Quebec
KIA OM5
July 17,2000
Mr. Tim Crawford
Chairman, The History Committee
of the Township ofOra-Medonte
425 Lakeshore Road East
Ora, Ontario
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Dear Sir:
I am writing further to your application to the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of
Canada (HSMBC) requesting the designation of the Samuel Steele Memorial Site in the
Township ofOro-Medonte as a place of national historic significance.
.
We have completed a review of your application on the basis of the policies, criteria and
guidelines employed by the HSMBC in the selection of people, places or events for consideration
as subjects of possible national historic significance. I regret to inform you that the Samuel
Steele Memorial Site does not meet these selection criteria.
A place may be designated of national historic significance by virtue of a direct
association with a nationally significant aspect of Canadian history. The Samuel Steele site is a
'memorial' site which consists of a fireplace taken from the ruins of the original Steele farm
house in the early 1950s. The site also has a large fieldstone on which plaques have been
mounted, as well as two flag poles. The site is not, however, diTeCtly r~ed:with Steele's
national significance as an early and influential Mounted Police office!: in the' West.
Also, the HSMBC does not generally consider the designation of commemorative
monuments or memorials unless those monuments are intrinsically works of art or architecture of
national historic andlor architectural significance. Samuel Steele's accomplishments have
already been acknowledged through several commemorations by the Historic Sites and
Monuments Board of Canada. He was declared a person of national significance in 1938 and is
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honoured by an HSMBC plaque at nearby Orillia. The plaque acknowledges Steele's leadership
in the Mounted Police in the West and the Yukon, and during the South African War and the
First World War. The HSMBC has also acknowledged Samuel Steele for his nationally
significant role in the establishment of Fort Steele, the first Mounted Police post in British
Columbia, which has been designated a national historic site. As well, Steele's actions have
been acknowledged in HSMBC designations of events associated with the Northwest
Rebellion/Resistance. Indeed, few Canadians have been given this level of recognition by the
HSMBc.
Thank you for bringing this matter to our attention and should you have any questions, do
not hesitate to contact me. In light of his interest in this matter, I have also sent a copy of this
letter to His Worship Ian Beard, Mayor of the Township ofOra-Medonte. Please accept my best
wishes.
Sincerely,
()ri¡lnsl Siefle4 '"
~~,.
MICHEL AUOY
Michel Audy
Executive Secretary
.
c.c.
M. Cullen, HSB
The Township of Oro-Medonte
P.O. Box 100
Oro, Ontario
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