The Barbed Wire Solution: New Travelling Exhibit at the Peace River Museum

The Peace River Museum will be hosting a travelling exhibit from the Ukrainian Canadian Research and Documentation Centre:

The Barbed Wire Solution: Ukrainians and Canada's First Internment Operations, 1914-1920

Our first exhibit for 2012 "explores the social, economic and political circumstances that led to Canada's first use of the War Measures Act. It also looks at the conditions of daily life in the camps for the prisoners and their guards and leaves the viewer with a striking reminder of a dark and relatively unknown moment in Canadian history" (from the UCRDC).

 

 

The Museum would like to also showcase local Ukrainian families and culture while we host this exhibit. We invite anyone willing to loan material culture depicting our local Ukrainian heritage, to contact the Museum(i.e. clothing, photographs, dolls, pioneering implements). We would also like to collect stories of Ukrainian Peace Country pioneers and their own experiences as early immigrants to Canada and specifically, to our area.

Christmas Hours 2011

The Peace River Museum, Archives and Mackenzie Centre will be closed between December 24th and 27th. We will reopen for regular hours (Monday to Saturday 10 am to 4:30 pm) on Wednesday, December 28th.

We wish everyone a happy and safe holiday season!

Peace River's newest Arts & Culture magazine is well worth picking up!

The Vault Magazine contains thoughtful, challenging articles about political and social issues as well as coverage of our lively, local culture and music scene. The Community Calendar is packed with events from Peace River and surrounding communities.

The Peace River Museum, Archives and Mackenzie Centre wishes to compliment the staff over at the Vault Magazine for putting together a great read every two weeks!

Christmas shopping at the Peace River Museum

We wanted to remind everyone that we have a wonderful selection of unique, Peace Country gifts available for Christmas including:

• loose leaf teas
• honey
• jewelry from local artists
• locally made massage oils and soaps
• photography and a DVD of the Northern Lights
• postcards and Christmas cards
• Art prints of archival photographs
• books about the Peace Country and historical figures such as Sir Alexander Mackenzie, Sheridan and Juey Lawrence and family, aviation history, the Edson and Grouard Trails, RCMP history and others!

Also, if you are interested in any photograph we have in our archival collection, we can give you a digital copy for $5 until the end of 2011 or we can provide a print in 4x6, 5x7 or 8x10 sizes. They make a great gift that can be chosen specifically around the historic interests of your friend or loved one! Feel free to call our Archivist, Wendy at 780-624-4261 for more information or photograph suggestions.

Happy 224th birthday Louis Daguerre!

Google's homepage doodle for November 18th celebrates Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre (1787-1851) who invented one of the earliest forms of permanent photography, which he aptly named the Daguerreotype. Daguerre had been working with a partner, Nicéphore Niépce, to find a way of affixing an image seen through a lens onto a permanent surface. Niépce died in 1933, but Daguerre continued with their experiements and finally in 1839, he presented the first photographs to the French Académie des Sciences. (from: http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/dagu/hd_dagu.htm - accessed November 18, 2011)

In celebration of this groundbreaking invention, we are posting pictures of the daguerreotypes in our Archival collection. Unfortunately, we do not know who these two people are, but the photographs have been dated to ca. 1845. For more information on caring for daguerreotypes, you can visit the Daguerreotype Research Portal.

71.413.a1

71.413.a2

Remembrance Day 2011

The Peace River Museum will be open this Remembrance Day, Friday November 11 from 11 am to 4 pm.

We invite everyone to come and view some of our local veterans uniforms as well as a collection of digitized World War I postcards on display.

Artist of the Peace: Marie Laventure

Our November Artist of the Peace is Marie Laventure. Her pieces are full of colour and beauty!
According to Marie, "When I start most paintings, I am unsure of what exactly will end up being on the canvas, but I love playing with paint and colours; for me, making art is meditative and in important part of my wellness maintenance."

We invite everyone to come and view Marie's work in November! And, as always, admission is free to see our art wall.

Happy Halloween from the Peace River Museum, Archives and Mackenzie Centre

This Halloween, we thought to share a photo from a fund-raising masquerade for the Irene Cottage Hospital in February of 1915. Have a safe and happy Halloween!


PRMA80.1137.1.55



New Gift Shop items: 8x10 Archival Prints

 

View from 12 Foot Davis Gravesite, ca. 1930s (PRMAx87.1521.57)



Our Gift Shop has printed a selection of beautiful 8x10 archival prints on fine art paper available for $15 (+gst) each. This price includes a plastic sleeve for safe keeping. These prints are perfect for gifts and for framing. Thumbnails of each print are pictured below.



D.A. Thomas, ca. 1920s (PRMA2008.043.002)

Peace River Train Station, ca. 1920s-1930s (PRMA73.564f)

Delivering mail from Peace River to Fort Vermilion by dogsled, 1908 (PRMA80.1137.1.45)

Main Street, Peace River, 1967 (PRMAAR93.1.160)

Peace River, ca. 1920s-1930s (PRMA81.1162.1)

Peace River, ca. 1920 (PRMA2008.056.003)

Threshing Bee at Gilbert Axford's farm, 1929 (PRMA68.128a)

Peace River's train bridge, ca. 1920s (73.564d)

Artist of the Peace: Carole Gold

Our October Artist of the Peace is Carole Gold. Carole Gold is a talented quilter who designs many of her pieces. She has been sewing since she was a young girl and eventually narrowed her interests to quilting.

Her passion and artistic ability is evident in the pieces she creates!

We invite everyone to come and view Carole's art during October and read her story.

Alberta Archives Week

This week is Alberta Archives Week! The first week in October is used to celebrate and promote Archives and what they do in a community.
We participate also in a yearly archives exhibit through the Archives of Society of Alberta. This year's theme is: Archives in Living Colour! The exhibit can be viewed here: http://www.archivesalberta.org/2011exhibit/index.html

There will also be small displays up at the Museum, Kits Office Supply, the Record Gazette and the Peace River Library.

For our promotion this year, we are chatting with businesses and organizations around our area about what the Archives does for them and how to go about donating records to the Archives. Our Archivist, Wendy Dyck, will be presenting to the Peace River Rotary, Peace River & District Chamber of Commerce, Berwyn Women's Institute, Grimshaw & District Chamber of Commerce and Mighty Peace Tourism Association. If your organization or business is interested in a presentation, please contact the Archives at 624-4261 or museum@peaceriver.net. Here are some highlights:

• The Peace River Archives acquires, organizes and makes available inactive records from various businesses and organizations in Town of Peace River, MD of Northern Lights, Northern Sunrise County, Clear Hills County, MD #135 of Peace and MD# 136 of Fairview. Inactive records are those which are no longer needed for day to day operations of a business or no longer need to be kept for legal reasons. To discuss your donation, please contact our Archives.

• The Peace River Archives is able to provide the following services:
• conservation
• consultations on storage, care and records retention
• research and project help

Peace River WINS Alberta's Cultureville contest! & Alberta Arts Days

We WON! Peace River has received recognition from Albertans through CBC's Cultureville contest! Congratulations and thank you to everyone who voted for Peace River. To hear the announcement and Mayor Lorne Mann's reaction, click on this link:
http://www.cbc.ca/edmontonam/episodes/2011/09/29/peace-river-is-the-winner-in-the-cbcs-cultureville-contest/

To celebrate our victory, we encourage everyone to take part in the various workshops and performances going on this weekend as part of Alberta Arts Days. There are many different things going on!

Sept. 30: Peace River Music Teacher's Association Recital at the St. James Anglican Church, entry is $5 per person or $20 per family with all proceeds going to support musical program and awards in Peace River.

Sept. 30: Octoberfest at the Belle Petroleum Centre. Click here for a poster of events

Sept. 30: Family Performance Evening at 6:30 (free) at the Elks Hall in Grimshaw

Sept. 30-Oct. 1: Gallery of Artists, 10am - 10 pm at the Elks Hall in Grimshaw

Sept. 30: Mini-workshops at the Legion Hall in Grimshaw, 7-9 pm
            SQUARE DANCING: Come try out something new - good fun and great exercise!   
           All experience levels & ages welcome!

Oct. 1: Mini-workshops at the Legion Hall in Grimshaw, 9am-12pm
          GLASS & MIRROR ETCHING: Try a new craft! All supplies provided. Class suitable for
          ages 14 & up.

Oct. 1: Mini-workshops at the Legion Hall in Grimshaw, 1:00 - 4:00 pm
          IMPROV THEATRE: Feeling like you might have some actor in you? Try out Improv Theatre!  
          You never know what might happen!

          KEEPSAKE BOXES: Make your own keepsake box. All supplies provided.

Oct. 1: Sketching classes at the Peace River Library (free); 10-11:30 for children and 1-3 pm for adults

Oct. 1: 3rd Annual Reach for the Arts Night, 7-10 pm at the Elks Hall in Grimshaw (tickets available at Beyond 2000 in Grimshaw)

Oct. 1: Open Stage at Belle Petroleum Centre (free), doors open at 7:30, No Limits will be present

Artist of the Peace: Layton Paul Ramer

Berwyn Catholic Church

Our artist for the month of September is talented photographer, Paul Ramer. His exhibit: "Splendour of the Seasons" highlights the beauty of the Peace Country in all seasons. We invite you to come view his work this month.

Paul's work is available for purchase and he also has small cards and matted pieces for sale.

Peace River: CBC Alberta's 2011 Cultureville?

As some of you may have heard or even been involved with, Peace River has made it into the final six for this year's CBC Cultureville contest! We are so proud to be a part of this and hope everyone will go out and vote for Peace River once per day. Here is the link:
http://www.cbc.ca/alberta/features/cultureville/

New Research Resources available online!

The Peace River Archives received a grant from the Archives Society of Alberta and the National Archival Development Program to hire a student this summer. This student handled many front end duties as well as entering the archival maps into our database to increase their accessibility.
The Archivist was then able to spend her time putting 8 new sets of records (fonds) online on the Archives Network of Alberta website, which brings our total to 16.

 

New records include:

• Alberta Historic Sites Service fonds
• This fonds covers a survey done in Peace River and surrounding areas of many of our major historic buildings and sites.
• Alexander Wallace fonds
• Alexander Wallace started the Wallace Drug Company, which later became the Hanna Drug Company.
• Hanna Family fonds
• Sam & Grace Hanna bought into the Wallace Drug Company and it became the Hanna Drug Company. Their son, Jim, was a World War II veteran.
• Dora Lloyd fonds
• Dora Lloyd was an early nurse and matron of the Irene Cottage Hospital in Peace River. This fonds focus on her time here.
• Jack O'Sullivan fonds
• Jack O'Sullivan owned, with his partner Ted Stigsen, O'Sullivan and Stigsen Company which freighted up and down the river until 1949 as well as operating trading posts in the region. This fonds includes a great deal of information on Jack's career on the river as well as his family.
• "Peace River" Jim Cornwall fonds
• "Peace River" Jim was a tireless promotor of the possibilities in thenorth, MLA for this area as well as operating boats on the river and many other activities in the north. This fonds includes, amongst other records, 3 photograph albums of trips through the Peace Region.
• Pearl MacRae fonds
• A collection of photographs of early Peace River.
• Stanley Lawrence fonds
• This fonds contains information on two generations of the Lawrence family, the Sheridan & Juey Lawrence family and their son, Stanley Lawrence and his family.

We thank the Archives Society of Alberta and the Government of Canada for their funding for this project.

Reminder: Twelve Foot Davis Gravesite GRAND RE-OPENING

The Peace River Museum would like to remind everyone to come out on Thursday, Sept. 1 between 5pm and 8:30 pm for the grand re-opening of the Twelve Foot Davis Gravesite.

Updates include the return of the refurbished original headstone, landscaping with wild plants and interpretive panels.

The program will include a live performance from local band, "No Limitz" at 6pm.

We hope everyone is able to come out to the opening!

A Wonderful Family Fun Day

This past Saturday, August 20th, the Peace River Museum had its Cabinets of Curiosities Family Fun Day. The afternoon was filled with much laughter, discovery, and fun. Our visitors treasure hunted, they dressed up in many hats, sometimes more than one at a time, vests, military jackets, RCMP red coats, ceintures fléchées, and high-heeled shoes. They curated (designed, installed, and named) their own cabinets of curiosities with our education artifacts. They coloured butterflies to make butterfly cabinets and they did word games, puzzles and mazes.

Elizabeth shows off her exhibit: "Elizabeth's Bones"

Autumn and Jack show off some historic fashions!

Sydney and Autumn are styling!

Sydney's diplays her beautiful artwork and maze skills.

Overall, a wonderful day was had by all. We at the museum certainly had a great time interacting with everyone that came in and enjoyed hearing all of the stories that our Cabinets of Curiosities evoked for them.

Twelve Foot Davis Gravesite

The Peace River Museum, Archives and Mackenzie Centre’s role in the revitalization of Twelve Foot Davis Gravesite in Greene Valley Provincial Park is many-fold. Primarily, it is to provide historical information, from several sources, including Museum files, for the text and photographs used on the signs gracing the Park.

The snippets of information reveal, not only the man, but also the era, environment and culture in which Henry Fuller Davis lived, worked and died.

In addition, the Museum on whose grounds Davis’ headstone rested for a number of years, was charged with the task of seeking an artist – stonemason to bring it back to as close to its original lustre as possible. Rénald Lavoie, from Northern Sunrise Country was that artist.

The Twelve Foot Davis Gravesite is the co-operative effort of Alberta Tourism, Parks and Recreation; Northern Sunrise County; Town of Peace River and GeoTourism Canada.

BE ON TOP OF IT! Come join neighbours, visitors, entertainers and dignitaries at the newly refurbished Twelve Foot Davis Gravesite in Greene Valley Provincial Park, Thursday September 1, 5-8:30 p.m. for a party. There will be a special “hilltop” Concert in the Park performance at 6 p.m. This concludes the Concert in the Park series for this year – Featuring No Limitz.

Cabinets of Curiosity Family Fun Day

The museum’s current exhibition, Cabinets of Curiosity, was our way of finding more space during our collections inventory. Right now, we have over 3,000 objects on display; usually the number of artifacts on display is only about 150. This means 2,850 more objects to discover and stories to tell!

In the time that we’ve had this exhibit open to the public, we’ve received many wonderful comments, so we thought to spend an afternoon celebrating these new cabinets.

What better way to celebrate the cabinets than with a family fun day! The cabinets are as they suggest, curious, so we invite you in to get involved in the exhibit and have some fun. We have a treasure hunt, words games, puzzles, and a dress-up station with historic hats, shoes, vests and much more. You even get the opportunity to be a museum curator; to do what we do and decide which objects to put in your cabinet, arrange them, help them tell a story and then name your curious cabinet.

There is fun for all ages, so bring the entire family and try out some of our activities.

The Museum Grounds

Although the inside of the Museum is filled to capacity with neat historical objects, the grounds of the Museum also have much to offer. The sternwheel of the D.A. Thomas steamship, the private cemetery of Felix Akernum Shaw, and the original headstone from H.A. George and family, and other historic pieces are available for viewing.

Recently, there have been two changes to our grounds:

This past Friday, the museum was lucky enough to play host to the artistic talents of the Ground Level Youth Centre. Tianah, Brittany, Savannah, Kaitlynn, Katelyn, and Riley were here to paint the picnic table on the museum grounds for us.

                                 

 This table is well used by both Museum staff and the public to enjoy a picnic lunch or a coffee while observing our beautiful river valley. However, we have had difficulties with graffiti on the table as well.

So, in an effort to deter graffiti from marking our table, we asked the Ground Level Youth Centre to come down and intentionally paint the table. Our table now has a beautifully painted river scene with such details as decorated tipis, meat drying on a rack, a black bear, canoes, fish, birds, cabins and a fire pit.

As well, we have opened up our Northwest Mounted Police replica cabin and have set up an exhibit for you to enjoy. A huge thank you to Jeremiah Gloor for building a grid door so that we can leave the cabin open during the day for all those who stroll by on the river walkway.

August Artist of the Peace: Rhonda Warren

August will feature a textile exhibit from Rhonda Warren. Rhonda is a homegrown Peace Country artist who says that "the natural environment of the area inspires much of her art." Though Rhonda works with various mediums, including making her own paper, this exhibit will focus on her felted art.

Felt is created using wool strands which are covered in tiny scales which when rubbed together, catch on each other and shrink into a mat. If you are interested in how felting is done, Rhonda has included information with her art on the process.

We invite everyone to come and view Rhonda's beautiful felt pieces.

The Peace River Musuem would also like to extend our gratitude to Rhonda, who has been scheduling our art wall. We appreciate her volunteer time and effort in helping our Peace River artists show off their beautiful work.

Heritage Days Cemetery Tour

Join the staff of the Peace River Museum on August 1st, 2011 for an interpretive stroll through the Mount Pleasant Cemetery. The tour, which will begin at 11 am and again 3 pm, will highlight fascinating stories of some of Peace River’s historic personalities now resting in Mount Pleasant Cemetery. The tours will run rain or shine, so please dress appropriately.

The Museum gets new storage!

It’s been a big year for the artifact collections of the Peace River Museum. In a previous blog, we brought to you the history of Cabinets of Curiosity and told you about our own versions of these cabinets which would be set up this year. This new type of exhibition is happening because we are undertaking a complete collections inventory for the year. It’s a big job but we’re up to the task.

So far, we have removed every object from the collections room and inventoried it. This cleared the room in preparation for our new rolling shelving!!! The shelving, pictured below, was obtained through a Community Facility Enhancement Program grant, monetary donations to the Museum, and help from the Town of Peace River. This wonderful new shelving has given us 50% more space in that room than we had previously, which means that all our artifacts are now going to be in a better situation where we can more easily protect and care for them.

The next stage of this inventory is to continue to clean each of the artifacts and move them onto their new shelves. Conservation projects on some of these objects have taken a great deal of time as well. We are also taking photographs of as many of the artifacts as we can.

The Peace River Museum opened in 1967 as a Canadian Centennial Project. In our 44 years of existence, we’ve amassed quite a few artifact donations. This amounts to about 8000 objects in our collection. That’s a lot of artifacts to inventory, clean, conserve, photograph and re-shelve. But, since January we’ve made great progress and we look forward to continuing with this worthwhile project.

The Cabinets of Curiosity exhibit will be up for the 2011 year. Keep an eye on our blog and website for an upcoming Family Fun Day!

Artist of the Peace: 4-H Multi Club

This month's Artists of the Peace are sponsored by Peace of Art (formerly the Peace River Art Club) and they are the Peace River 4-H Multi Club. These enthusiastic youth have brought their art to show off and it is lovely. Much of the art is a reflection of the different modules they have held over the past year. We invite everyone to come view their work.

Some of our local 4-H Multi Club members

Here is a little history, as written by the 4-H Club:
"The Peace River 4-H Multi Club has been run in Peace River since 1998 and has had a range of projects from horse to foods and paintball and crafts. We have had a range from 9 to over 30 members."

If you are interested in more information on the 4-H Club please contact Jill Wood at 780-624-5270

And remember that admission to the Art Wall is FREE (admission to the Museum is $2 per person).

Meet the Authors evening

The Museum will be hosting three local authors this Friday, July 8th from 6:30-8pm. At 7 pm, each of the authors will read from their books.

Carmel Ellis
Many have already enjoyed Carm's book: Barns of the North Peace. On July 8th Carm will be bringing his new and updated version as well as promoting his second book: Wilderness Park - Reflections 2010 which is a great book for anyone who loves the flora and fauna of the North.

Dollye Cooper
Dollye's memoirs: Looking Back with Dollye Cooper, is filled with wonderful memories of her life:
"When I came up to Grimshaw and he[Basil] asked me to marry him, we stayed at the Nickersons'. After supper the two of us went for a walk. The sidewalks were just boards and had many large cracks in them. Basil went to put the ring on my finger, but it fell down in the snow between the boards! Both of us were down on our knees, frantically searching in the snow. We must have been a sight, laughing so hard. Needless to say, we found it. Our children and grandchildren love to hear and relate this tale to anyone who will listen."

David McLaughlin
Stories I Love to Tell by David McLaughlin is also filled with great memories growing up in Alberta and eventually reaching the Peace River area: "In yet another life changing passage, I resigned from my teaching career of thirteen years with its steady paychecks and solid pension plan. We sold our mobile home; borrowed as much money as Farm Credit would lend us; borrowed additional funds from my mother; loaded up the family and all our belongings on two pickups and a trailer and headed for the Peace country and a career in full time farming. Most people, including our families, thought we were crazy and maybe we were. The years that followed were filled with hard work, disappointing crops, falling grain prices, rising costs and isolation from our families and friends. On the plus side, we raised our family in an excellent environment away from the problems of an urban life style and, in the end, inflated real estate prices set the basis from our eventual financial freedom."

Anyone interested in self-publishing, genealogy and local history would very much enjoy chatting with any of our local talents that will be present at this event. The local Peace River & District Genealogy Society will also have information available.

Happy Canada Day!

As is tradition, this year's Canada Day festivities will begin at the Museum with a flag raising ceremony at 11:30 am. Bring your decorated bikes and strollers and participate in the walking parade from the Museum to the Riverfront Park along the scenic river trail. At Riverfront Park, the festivities will continue with performances and family activities until 3 pm. (For more information, please call Community Services at (780) 624-1000 or you can view their poster here.) And don't forget the fireworks that will take place July 1st at 11:59 pm!


The Museum will also be open from 12-4 pm and admission is FREE all afternoon. Come and see our Cabinets of Curiosities including our excellent rock and fossil collection and explore the Sir Alexander Mackenzie gallery where you can see a beaver, brown bear and many other northern furs and learn more about Sir Alexander Mackenzie's historic voyage across Canada.

Fun at the Fossil Road Show

Dinosaurs, rocks, fossils and minerals are certainly interesting subjects, and the residents of Peace River seem to agree. More than 240 people, including 117 students visited Athabasca Hall last Thursday to learn about Northwest Alberta Palaeontology from Grande Prairie Regional College palaeontologists Katalin Ormay and Robin Sissons.

There were slide shows of photographs and interesting facts, a floor puzzle, colouring sheets, crosswords, rocks and minerals to identify, and dinosaur bones to touch. In the photograph to the left, the Winters boys, Noah (7), Jabin (5) and Jude (8) show us the floor puzzle they completed and Noah also shows us a dinosaur he coloured and put together with moveable arms and legs.

The museum was delighted to host this event so that we too could learn more about palaeontology. Following the Road Show on Thursday, Katalin and Robin were at the museum on Friday, to help us identify all of the pieces in our collection. This project took all day and was fun for both the museum and the palaeontologists. They tell us that we have quite a wonderful collection!

This Road Show as well as the identification of the museum’s pieces stem from Robin’s first visit to Peace River to find out what sorts of palaeontology artifacts we have in our collection. They were quite impressed and offered to come up again to help us identify all of the pieces. There just wasn’t time in her first visit to identify it all.

We invite you all down to come and see this collection! It was unknown to us until last Friday, but we have another Albertosaurus tooth and another dinosaur bone in our collection. We can also boast that most of the bison bones in our collection are from the Ice Age, so they are at least 10,000 years old.

The museum would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to Katalin and Robin as well as everyone that attended our event.

Artist of the Peace: Ground Level Youth Group

The Peace River Museum, Archives and Mackenzie Centre is pleased to host the art of the Ground Level Centre Youth Group. The group was run by Rhonda Warren and features a number of different kinds of projects. We hope many are able to come out and view the hard work of these young people.
Note that there is no fee to view the art wall. There is a $2 admission fee to see the Museum.
Please see below for some more information on the Youth Group, which is open to all young people, or come to the Museum to get a brochure and a calendar of events!

From the Youth Centre: "The Ground Level Youth Centre Project provides youth with opportunities, through programs and activities to connect with positive caring and supporting adult role models who are available to assist youth to build on their strengths, identify their weaknesses, and thus encourage them to be the best that they can be.
All programs, services and activities are structured in a manner so that youth are empowered to address the challenges they face and determine their own future with a sense of pride in a safe, secure and culturally sensitive environment.
Youth are actively involved in the project design, development and delivery at all levels within the project through their attendance and participation at regularly scheduled Youth Council meetings and daily interaction with project staff members.

Program Mission Statement:
"All youth are valued, supported and provided with opportunities to realize their individual and collective potential."

The mission statement is inclusive of all youth in our community and allows us to develop new programs, or revise to strengthen current programs and activities so that the ever changing needs of the youth are being met."

Results of Heritage Run

The Peace River Museum would like to sincerely thank the Peace River Running Club for organizing the 2011 Heritage Run and also to thank the individuals who participated. It was a great success with approximately 80 runners and walkers from all over the Peace Country and as far away as Edmonton!
Here are the top three times from each category (note that these are not organized by age group).

5k Run

John Mark Earle at 22:22
Mathieu Breker  at 23:44
Kevin Breker at 24:25

5k Walk

Ken Bonertz at 36:37
Danielle Murray at 49:19
Kayleigh Goy, Michelle Duval & Tracy Goy at 52:46

10k Run
Neil Martin at 47:13
Yves Lavoie at 48:22
Laurene Willox at 48:27

Half Marathon
Ken Wurst at 1:28:18
Bart-Jan Jorna at 1:38:01
Nicole Steffelaar at 1:49:50

Here are our runners coming in around the corner. As you can see, those of all ages participated in the run and we hope everyone had a wonderful time!

Dinosaurs Roaming the Peace

Big! Awesome! Scary! Cool!

These are all words that are often used to describe dinosaurs. Who doesn’t love the idea that over 65 million years ago, there were dinosaurs running around in our very own province? We even have a dinosaur named after our province, the Albertosaurus. We, at the museum, certainly think it’s cool. We didn’t know until just a few short months ago, that in our collection is a partial tooth from an Albertosaurus.

Also in our collection are a vertebra of a hadrosaur tail (backbone), two ichthyosaur vertebrae (marine reptile backbones), ammonites, baculites, coral, brachiopod shells, bison bones, a mammoth molar, and many more.

To help us learn more about the exciting field of paleontology, Grande Prairie Regional College (GPRC) is coming up to Peace River on Thursday, June 16th, 2011 for a Fossil Roadshow, complete with school presentations, public drop-in times, and a public presentation.

Come and join the museum in learning about dinosaurs and fossils from Katalin Ormay and Robin Sissons, paleontologists from GPRC on Thursday, June 16th, 2011 at the Athabasca Hall. Public drop-in sessions are from 11:45 AM – 12:45 PM and from 3:00 – 6:00 PM. At 7:30 PM is the public presentation.

16th Annual Aboriginal Gathering and Pow Wow

This weekend (June 11th and 12th) is the 16th Annual Aboriginal Gathering and Pow Wow at the Peace River Ag Grounds (NOTE: new location from previous years). For more information, please see the Aboriginal Interagency Committee website for more schedules, directions, etiquette information and other details.

Heritage on the run – a way to perpetuate our past

Fourteen years ago this June, the Peace River Running Club changed the name and the beneficiary of its annual race.

Routes, running surfaces and people have changed. One thing has not – the running club’s commitment to a healthy fund-raising endeavour to benefit our community. In 1997, the Museum and the Peace River Running Club teamed to present the Peace River Heritage Run, the successor to the previous summer’s Run in Peace 10K. As race director Patrick Mackenzie said in a 1997 news release – “[It] will not only provide a recreational and competitive opportunity for runners from near and far, it will also raise money for, and awareness of, the Museum. The Peace River Heritage Run brings together two important aspects of life.”

Museum Director Laura Gloor knows first-hand the value of the Heritage Run. “The museum has been a most appreciative annual beneficiary of the physical and financial efforts of the PRRC organizers and the runners and walkers since 1997. These sizeable donations have purchased exhibit cases, Ken Ayre of Ayre Loom wooden furniture, a research table and most recently, contributed almost $3,000 towards our new, compact, mobile shelving in the Diane Gayton Collections Room. Combining Heritage and Health is beneficial in so many ways.”

The Heritage Run, Sunday, June 12, this year is comprised of a half marathon, 10km individual run, 5km individual run, 5X2km relay and 5km walk. Start times are not quite as early as in previous years to allow out-of-town participants an opportunity to attend. “We hope this allows for an increase in the number of participants,” says Frits Dijk, race director. The half marathon begins at 9:30 a.m., while other distances commence at 10 a.m. – all from just south of the Museum. Entry forms may be obtained by going to the Peace River Running Club’s Heritage Run website or from Marian Craig: sunshine@wispernet.com or Ken Wurst: Ken.Wurst@hotmail.com

Dijk urges race-day entrants to arrive in plenty of time to register.

York Boat arrives on the Peace Once Again!

It is an historic event! For the first time in over a century, a York boat will be navigating the Peace River!

Our river was a major route for Canada’s fur trade from the late 1700s to the late 1800s. Trade goods, furs and people plied the water of the Peace in canoes and flat bottomed scows until the arrival of the York boat. The design was commonly associated with the fur trade empire of the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC). It came with the rugged Scottish men of the Orkney Islands who brought their seafaring hardiness, along with the boat design, to the HBC. At 3000 pounds and 33 feet long, the freighting capacity of the Hudson’s Bay Company was greatly improved, thus providing a competitive edge to their intense rivalry with the North West Company.

GeoTourism comissioned this historic watercraft to be rebuilt and with Flow North Paddling is recreating a trip from Ft. Dunvegan to Ft. Vermilion. To see photographs of the building of the boat, please visit the GeoTourism website. The York boat was blessed by Dave Cummings of Fairview and given a grand send off from Fort Dunvegan Park on June 1st. To follow its progress, visit the GeoTourism facebook page.
The boat is scheduled to overnight at Strong Creek Campground June 3rd and to arrive at Riverfront Park at midday June 4th.

There will be a pancake breakfast at Strong Creek Campground at 9 am, June 4th. Everyone is welcome to enjoy some delicious pancakes by Grimshaw High School and witness the launch of the York boat.

At around 1 pm, the Town of Peace River will give a hearty welcome to the boat and the crew at Riverfront Park. Enjoy the performances that will highlight the cultures of the First Nations, Métis Scottish and Francophone people who inhabited the land along the river one hundred years ago. Dress in your best Twelve Foot Davis outfit or your best trapper gear for prizes to summer events like Peacefest and the North Peace Stampede!

Following the departure of the York boat, the band C.Alice will take to the stage to launch the first of the summer Concert in the Park Series, sponsored by the Town of Peace River and Northern Sunrise County.

We would also like to let our community know that it is a weekend full of events and we hope you will be out taking in as much as you can. Along with the York boat's arrival, the Peace River Art Club and The Social are hosting the "Arts in the Hall" event all weekend with art, concert and workshops.

Dinosaurs at Peace River Museum

Let’s compare teeth … Yup, teeth!

Take a look at the picture below and take a guess as to which is a dinosaur tooth and which is a mammoth tooth.

If you guessed dinosaur for the small tooth and mammoth for the large tooth, you’re right!

The small, partial tooth is from an Albertosaurus, a meat-eater that looked a lot like a Tyrannosaurus rex, just a bit smaller and lived during the cretaceous period. Albertosaurus was about 8-9 metres long, 3 metres tall at the hip and weighed up to 3 tonnes. It had short arms with two-fingered hands and long powerful back legs with three-toed feet for speed and agility. The “Alberta Lizard” was first discovered in 1884 by J.B. Tyrrell along the Red Deer River in Alberta.

This Albertosaurus tooth may look small but it would have been razor-sharp 75 million years ago, perfect for tearing flesh.

Contrary to the “Alberta Lizard”, the mammoth was a grazing plant-eater that fed mostly on grasses. They were ancestors to but larger than the modern Asian elephant. They lived during the Pleistocene era, also known as the American Ice Age and died out at the end of the Ice Age, about 10,000 years ago. They were about 5 metres long, up to 4 metres tall at the shoulder and weighed up to 3 tonnes. Their pointed, curved tusks could be up to 5 metres long, though they usually ranged from 3-3.7metres long.

With how large the mammoths were, they would have spent up to 20 hours a day grazing for food. In that case, it’s fortunate that the mammoths teeth were composed of layers of compressed enamel plates, held together with cementum. This composition made them very strong and resistant to wear, since eating grass is a hard thing to do and really wears at the teeth.

Come and join us to learn more about palaeontology, the study of fossils from past ages, on Thursday, June 16th, 2011. Robin Sissons and Katalin Ormay, palaeontologists from Grande Prairie Regional College will be with us at Athabasca Hall from 12 noon – 1 PM and 3 – 6 PM for public drop in sessions and again at 7:30 PM for a public presentation on Northwest Alberta Palaeontology.

An Afternoon of Chinese Tea event

Thank you to all who attended the Afternoon of Chinese Tea. It was a lovely event filled with a great variety of teas, not only from China, but from a few from Korea and Japan as well. Thank you also to Wend Wagner, of ZenSpa, for bringing her knowledge about the history and culture of tea and her tasty teas.
Here are some photographs from the event:

Wend Wagner, our hostess, demonstrating the proper way to sip tea.

Sonia Rosychuck tests dungulaecha, a Korean tea, which was served cold and used to refresh our palettes in between teas.

The tea table!

A few of our attendees learning about teas.



We also want to remind everyone that our feature exhibit "Chop Suey on the Prairies: A Reflection on Chinese Restaurants in Alberta" will only be up until May 28th! However, it will also be available to view at Lac Cardinal Pioneer Museum in Grimshaw for the month of June.



An Afternoon of Chinese Tea

In conjunction with our current exhibit, "Chop Suey on the Prairies: A Reflection of Chinese Restaurants in Alberta", we will be hosting An Afternoon of Chinese Tea. On Saturday, May 14th, from 3:30 to 5:30 pm, Wend Wagner, from ZenSpa, will be at the Peace River Museum, Archives and Mackenzie Centre to speak to the art of drinking and serving tea in China. She will offer taste testing of teas from China, as well as Korea and Japan.
The Chop Suey on the Prairies exhibit will run only until the end of May, but will be on display at Lac Cardinal Regional Pioneer Museum for the month of June.

The International Year of the Forest reflected in Art

For the month of May, in honour of  International Year of the Forest and Alberta Forestry Week (May 1 - 7), the Museum's art wall is a dedicated our boreal forest. Contributing artists are: Sonia Rosychuck, Wend Wagner, Rhonda Warren, Trudy Plaizier, Diane Spirig and Marie Laventure.

And just a reminder, there is no admission to see the Peace River Museum Art Wall, and general admission to the Museum is $2 per person.

Results of the Unchaga Run

The Fourth Annual Unchaga Run took place on Shaftesbury Trail on May 1st. There were 154 runners. The top three winners each division were:

5K:

1. Zachary Billard, 22:21.67

2. Andrea Taylor, 25:48.14

3. Liam McCracken, 28:02.28

10k:
1. Brandon Duvall, 39:40.89

2. Ken Wurst, 42:02.14

3. Tammy Burrows, 42:14.05

20k:

1. Joe Larsback, 1:37:30.25

2. Laverna Hards, 1:51:51.08

3. Toni Craig, 1:55:28.09

And here are our runners, preparing to set off!

 An estimated $2500 dollars was raised for the Peace Regional Outreach Campus. Seen below is Stacy Parsons (left), the organizer of the Unchaga Run, presenting a cheque to Outreach staff: Dave Matilpi and Carol vanSlyke and Peace River School Division #10 trustee, Louise Woroniuk.

 

The following volunteers are sincerely appreciated for their help in this event: Lorri, Kevin, Kayla, Ed, Mike, Stacy and Cal. Also, a special thank you goes out to Dave Matilpi for the Blessing.

Sponsors for the event were: InVision Chartered Accountants, Grande Prairie Run and Walk Club, Peace River Running Club, River Rock Restaurant, Peace Safety and Environment Training Ltd., Town of Peace River, Tim Horton's and Wolves Athletic Club.

The Fourth Annual Unchaga: Run in Peace, May 1, 2011

Unchaga is the Cree word for Peace. Unchaga: Run in Peace, begins at the Shaftesbury Ferry and follows the scenic and historic Shaftesbury Trail along the Peace River. The history of the Trail begins with the Beaver and Cree Nations and continues through Alexander Mackenzie on to settlement in more recent times.


As with past races, a First Nations blessing will be received prior to the race/walk.

All distances are out and back and hills are involved. The 5K turns at the bottom of the first hill. The 10K turns at the Brick’s Hill turn-off. The 20K proceeds up (and down) a 600-foot gain over 3.5K. This makes this choice a challenge. Those who completed the 20K indicate it rivals many of the tough and technical half marathons in Alberta. The payback for climbing Brick’s Hill is turning around to a downhill run where one has a great view of the Mighty Peace.

Awards consist of participant medallion dog tags: Gold for completing the 20K; Silver for the 10K; and Bronze for the 5K. Other awards will depend on donations.

Profits, if any, will be donated to the Peace Regional Outreach Campus.
Past groups to have received donations were: Grimshaw and District Agricultural Society (2008); the Weekend to End Breast Cancer (2009); and the Peace River Women’s Shelter (2010).

Registration Fee: $25/runner, payable to: Wolves Athletic Club

Contacts: whyteOf@telus.net 780-332 -1102 or stacy.p@telus.net 780- 263-2667

Information from the Fourth Annual Unchaga: Run in Peace brochure (used with permission).

Happy Easter!

The Peace River Museum, Archives and Mackenzie Centre is open for Easter. Here are our hours:

Friday, April 22: closed
Saturday, April 23: 10 am - 4:30 pm (If you wear a hat to the Museum on April 23rd and get in FREE admission!)
Sunday, April 24: closed
Monday, April 25: 11 am - 5 pm


And you can also join us April 23rd between 1-3 pm to make Easter Bonnets.

We hope everyone has a lovely Easter weekend.

Peace River Genealogy Society presentation: Liliane Maisonneuve Lavoie

The Peace River & District Genealogy Society will be hosting Lilian Maisonneuve Lavoie tonight, Thursday, April 21st at 7 pm to talk about her experiences researching her French Canadian and Métis roots. Liliane will be speaking at the the Peace River Library's temporary location (the Industrial Arts building next to Peace River High School) and will be of great interest to anyone who is looking for help in or is doing their own research into French Canadian and Métis backgrounds.

We hope to see you there!