Historic Tours Available in August

Have you ever been curious about the St. Augustine Mission, the Mackenzie Cairn or Twelve Foot Davis? We have a number of Historic Tours coming up in August that will satisfy your curiousity.

Tours are offered free of charge on the following dates - just show up anytime during the allotted hours:

St. Augustine Mission
Provincial Historic Site, Shaftesbury Trail, River Lot 22, Highway 685

Sunday August 10th: 2:30-4:30 pm
Sunday August 24th: 1:00-4:00 pm

Mackenzie Cairn
National Historic Site, Shaftesbury Trail, River Lot 19, Highway 684

Sunday August 10th: 11:00-1:30 pm

Twelve Foot Davis
Fairgrounds Road off Highway #2 South

Sunday August 17th: 2:00-4:00 pm
Friday August 22nd: 6:30-8:00 pm



75.624.5, St. Augustine Mission Church, c. 1930 

Our partners for this project include the Municipal District of Peace, Mighty Peace Tourism, Northern Sunrise County, Town of Peace River, Alberta Infrastructure, Peace River Correctional Centre and Young Canada Works. For more information, please feel free to contact the Museum.

Alberta Heritage Days!

This weekend across Alberta, people will be experiencing, tasting, listening and viewing the roots of Alberta's history. The Peace Country is hosting fairs, rodeos, art and museum exhibits and tours as ways to entice us to explore our heritage and our natural environment. With this in mind, our Museum is offering tours of the St. Augustine Mission Church and Cemetery between 1 and 4pm on August 3rd. Pack a picnic lunch, take a drive along the historic Shaftesbury Trail (Highway 684) and stop at the little church to learn about the early agricultural and spiritual life at the mission. Then on August 4th meet us at the Mount Pleasant Cemetery at 10:30am for a tour that will remind you of veterans from World War I, Councillors and newspaper editors of the past and firefighters who once protected our community, all in commemoration of 100 years as Peace River Crossing. Later the same afternoon, a walking tour of the downtown area, starting at the Museum at 1pm, will highlight some milestones in our 100 year history. these tours will go, rain or shine, so do come prepared. As we celebrate our 100 years as a community, we are reminded of our own role today in making Peace River a fine community to live in!

This weekend with the Museum!

Join the Peace River Museum staff this weekend for two fun events. On Saturday, we will be at the 12' Davis Gravesite for Parks Day, along with Alberta Parks and Northern Sunrise County. Bear Smart, Park Awareness and Fire Smart will all be featured, along with on site interpretation about 12 Foot Davis, family crafts, musicians and of course, cake! 

Celebrating Alberta Parks Day at this historic landscape will create greater awareness about our environment and our social history. 

On Sunday July 20th, our Heritage Interpreter Christina will be on site at the St. Augustine Mission Church, along Shaftesbury Trail, from 1 - 4 pm. Tour the church and the cemetery to learn more about the Roman Catholic Mission from 1888 to 1952.

All of these events are free and we hope to see you there!

PRMA 75.657.060  St. Augustine Mission Church 

Historic Tours start tonight!

Hi, my name is Christina Sasseville. I am a heritage interpreter here at the Peace River Museum, Archives and Mackenzie Centre. As a summer student employed through Young Canada Works, so far I have been involved with school programming, tours, and the museum gift shop. In July and August I will be offering heritage interpretation at three heritage sites: St. Augustine, Mackenzie Cairn, and Twelve Foot Davis. Tours begin on July 4, continuing until August 24. These tours will be a great opportunity for teachers, locals, or visitors to learn more about the Peace Country and the significance of each heritage site.

In total, there will be six St. Augustine tours, four Twelve Foot Davis tours, and two Mackenzie Cairn tour opportunities. I hope you to see you at one of the sites. Have a great summer!

Drop by at any time during the scheduled times below. 

St. Augustine: Provincial Historic Site, Shaftesbury Trail, River Lot 22, Highway 684. 

• Friday, July 4, 6:30 - 8 pm
• Sunday, July 13, 2:30 - 4:30 pm 
• Sunday, July 20, 1 - 4 pm 
• Sunday, August 3, 1 - 4 pm 
• Sunday, August 10, 2:30 - 4:30 pm 
• Sunday, August 24, 1 - 4 pm 

 Twelve Foot Davis: Fairgrounds Road off Highway #2 South.

• Saturday, July 5, 2 - 4 pm
• Saturday, July 19, 2 - 4 pm
• Friday, August 17, 2 - 4 pm
• Sunday, August 22, 6:30 - 8 pm 

Mackenzie Cairn: National Historic Site, Shaftesbury Trail, River Lot 19, Highway 684.

• Sunday, July 13, 11 - 1:30 pm
• Sunday, August 10, 11 - 1:30 pm

Tonight's tour takes place at St. Augustine Mission site from 6:30 - 8 pm. 

Artifact of the Week - St. Augustine Mission nativity scene

This week's featured artifact is a crèche (also known as a nativity scene) that originates from the St. Augustine Roman Catholic Mission. It was used yearly at the Mission as one of their Christmas decorations. 

A nativity scene is the depiction of the birth of Jesus as described in the gospels of Matthew and Luke. Nativity scenes are created worldwide at Christmas and are shown in such places as churches, schools, museums and shopping malls. This tradition dates back to 1223 when St. Francis of Assisi allegedly created the first nativity scene in a cave near Greccio, Italy. He created a live depiction of the Biblical story using humans and animals. 

St. Francis' scene was so popular that his idea was copied by many throughout the Catholic world. In fact, a mere 100 years later, all churches in Italy were expected to display a nativity scene at Christmas. By this time, statues and figurines had replaced live humans and animals and the scenes were far more intricate. 

By the 1800s, the tradition of depicting the birth of Jesus had spread past the Catholic world and was gaining popularity in the wider Christian community. The scenes were beginning to be marketed in various forms for public sale, and were made of wood, terracotta, paper, wax and ivory. 

In celebration of the Christmas season, the Museum has created a Christmas exhibit. We've put the nativity scene on display along with a decorated tree and a roaring fireplace complete with stockings and toys. 

Come by and visit us over the holidays. We are open until December 24th, and reopen again on December 27th. We will be closed on January 1st, 2014.  

Several figures from PRMA 77.822. 

Museum Summer Events

June Artist                     The artists for the month of June are carver and painter Dave Matilpi and metal sculptor David Wilson. Both artists derive inspiration from the natural world with bold imagery. This is an exceptional exhibit!

June – October              Roots of the Peace – a bountiful harvest, is the latest exhibit at the Museum depicting the early story of mixed farming in the Peace as well as featuring a contemporary look at local organic producers and gardeners. Watch for announcements of speakers during the summer – bee keepers, gardeners, organic farmers.

July 1st                          The Museum is open on Canada Day and we have free admission!

July 12th-13th             The Heritage Places Committee and the Peace River Museum will be hosting an Open House during PeaceFest to inform the public about Peace River's Municipal Heritage Buildings Program. Learn about what buildings qualify for designation, the benefits to designating your home as a Municipal Heritage home and the process for designation. We will also have information on the heritage buildings in our town.

July – August                 Our Artists of the Month are Sherri Beaton for July and May Brown for August. Come enjoy the great talent of local artists at our monthly exhibit!

                                        Keep an eye out for Heritage days coming up August 3-5th. The Museum will be doing historic walking tours. More details to come.

                                        The Museum will be offering heritage interpretive tours this July and August at the NAR Station, Twelve Foot Davis Gravesite, Mackenzie Cairn and St. Augustine Mission Church. Our partners in this new heritage tourism project include the Municipal District of Peace, Northern Sunrise County, Alberta Infrastructure, Peace River Correction Centre and Young Canada Works. The tours begin July 4th and run until August 22rd - please see schedule below:

 

 

From left to right: Mackenzie Cairn, St. Augustine Mission Church, NAR Station, Davis Gravesite

 

St. Augustine Mission (Shaftesbury Trail, River Lot 22, Highway 684): Sundays 11am - 3pm and Thursdays 10 am - 1 pm

 

Northern Alberta Railways Station (9409 - 100 St Peace River): Mondays 1pm - 4pm

 

Mackenzie Cairn (Shaftesbury Trail, River Lot 19, Highway 684): Thursdays 2pm - 4pm

 

Twelve Foot Davis Gravesite (Fairgrounds Road off Highway 2 south) Fridays 1pm - 4pm

 

Celebrate Heritage Days at St. Augustine Mission Church

The St. Augustine Church Restoration committee, with members from Alberta Culture, Historic Sites, Infrastructure Alberta, Peace River Correctional Centre, Peace River Museum, Archives and Mackenzie Centre staff and board, MD of Peace, Sir Alexander Mackenzie Historical Society and Peace River Genealogy Society, have collaboratively been working to make the site of the St. Augustine Church available for special public events.

The work is still in progress, but the first opportunity to tour the site is coming!

Celebrate Heritage Days on August 6^th with a drive along the historic Shaftesbury Trail. Stop for a tour of the St. Augustine Mission Church between 11am and 3pm. The Museum will be there to interpret the site’s history. For more information call 780-624-4261 or email museum@peaceriver.net.

For more information on this and other Alberta Historic Sites, please visit the Alberta Register of Historic Places: https://hermis.alberta.ca/ARHP/Details.aspx?DeptID=1&ObjectID=4665-0430

We're online!

In September 2009, the Peace River Museum, Archives and Mackenzie Centre received a grant from the Archives Society of Alberta to help our Archives advance to a new phase. Canadian archives have a standard for describing their records known as RAD (Rules of Archival Description). As we continually striving to increase our level of service as a research facility, the move towards RAD is an important one. It gives us the ability to share our records with the rest of the country!

And as of February 1, 2010 six sets of records from our Archives are officially online with the Archives Society of Alberta's database and can be viewed at: Archives Network of Alberta!

The database contains descriptions of these six records and the Archives will continue to update new descriptions as they are completed. Let us know your impressions!

The Archives Network of Alberta is eventually uploaded to CAIN (Canadian Archival Information Network) which gives us a national presence! We are very excited to have started this new process in making our records available online.