For immediate release

Lethbridge—Fort Whoop-Up will once again open its gates to visitors on June 30, 2020, albeit, in a socially distanced, COVID-19 conscious fashion.

“We are absolutely thrilled to welcome visitors back to Fort Whoop-Up,” says CEO/Executive Director Darrin Martens. “Reopening the Galt Museum & Archives has given us a lot of experience on how to reopen safely. We have hired our summer staff, and our whole team has been carefully planning how to ensure that the fort is as safe as possible.”

As with admission to the Galt, the fort has implemented ticketed admission. The tickets are the price of a regular adult admission, and visitors should purchase them on the fort’s website before arriving. The cost of admission includes a guided tour of the fort and a horse-drawn wagon ride through the river valley.

“Our online ticketing uses the same award-winning system that we launched earlier in the year for our school class bookings,” says Martens. “Each time slot has ten tickets available, and those will be available on a first-come, first-served basis.”

Tickets are available for time slots between 10 am to 5 pm on Tuesday through Saturday and between 1 pm to 5 pm on Sundays. The fort will be closed to the public on Mondays for a more thorough cleaning. The fort will maintain a capacity of only ten visitors per time slot to ensure that visitors have an extraordinary experience and follow social distancing guidelines. Guests must explore the fort as part of their personal guided group tour and they can hop on a wagon ride through the valley after the tour through the fort.

“We will be offering food, beverages and ice cream to walk-up visitors through our service window just inside the Fort’s main gates,” says Site Coordinator Natasha Gray. “We are asking customers and visitors to use cashless payment systems whenever possible to minimize physical interaction with our staff. Because the store area of the fort has relatively little space, we will be limiting visitors to the store to only six individuals to help maintain social distancing.”

“2020 is the 150th year since the original construction of Fort Whoop-Up. We had many plans to commemorate that anniversary with the community and reflect on the impact the fort has had on Indigenous communities and traditional ways of life in southern Alberta,” says Martens. “We are committed to sharing the rich history of our communities in southern Alberta, and we will announce further plans for special events at the Fort over July and August.”

Tickets to the fort can be purchased at fort.galtmuseum.com/visit.

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This media release can be found at www.galtmuseum.com/news.

Media Contacts

Graham Ruttan (he/him)
Marketing and Communications Officer
graham.ruttan@galtmuseum.com
403.320.4009