Fort Steele, British Columbia, flourished in the 1890s, and then began to decline when the railroad by-passed the town in 1898. Today Fort Steele is a Heritage Village in which visitors can experience what life was like in the 1890s. The Heritage Village includes restored buildings, replica buildings, and buildings which are allowed to decay naturally.
One of the buildings in the Fort Steele Heritage Village is the Blacksmith Shop. According to the display:
“Almost everyone relied on the blacksmith for something: tradesmen for their iron/steel tools to work their trade, farmers for their tools and shoes for their horses, townsfolk for general commodities and fittings for wagons, and of course everyone used nails for something somewhere. A blacksmith was always important, for the world was built on iron, and they are the ones who shape it.”