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.