Artifact of the Week - Bone Flesher

This week's featured artifact is a flesher, donated by Tom Rumball in 1973. This artifact
would have been used to de-flesh animal skins when preparing hides.

As people who utilized and lived with the environment around them, First Nations Peoples fashioned their tools out of bones and rocks.  In this case, a leg bone from a deer was fashioned into a tool used to scrape flesh from hides. The First Nations people would also eat deer meat, tan and use the hide for clothing and shelter, and use deer sinew for sewing. The First Nations people used every part of an animal, wasting nothing.

While bone tools were used for working meat and hide, rocks were fashioned into arrowheads and spear points to hunt animals.

Our featured artifact this week coincides with next week's presentation by Dr. David Welch. Dr. Welch will be speaking about his collection of stone and bone tools and the fascinating stories associated with them.

Dr. Welch will be speaking at the Museum on Wednesday, June 4, 2014 at 7 pm. Everyone is invited to this free presentation.

PRMA 73.540 Bone Flesher. 

Stone tools presentation by Dr. David Welch - June 4th at 7 pm

On Wednesday, June 4, 2014, at 7 pm, Dr. David Welch will be joining us at the Peace River Museum, Archives and Mackenzie Centre, to talk about his pre-historic stone and bone tools. After a lifetime's worth of collecting, researching and examining stone tools, he is a great source of information and stories.

This presentation complements our current exhibit "A Sense of the Land and its People: A Personal Collection" which showcases a variety of Northwest Coast and Plains First Nations Artifacts from Dr. Welch's collection.

The artifacts in the exhibit are representative of the environments that the Northwest Coast and Plains First Nations lived within and how those environments influenced their food, clothing, lodgings, hunting practices, artistic expression and ceremonies.

Please join us for this free event as we learn more about stone and bone tools, as well as hear Dr. Welch's stories and experiences collecting them.

For more information, please contact the Museum.

Artifact of the Week - Dr. Sutherland's coffee pot

This coffeepot belonged to Dr. Frederick Henry Sutherland who worked as a physician in Peace River for many years. He was also mayor of the town for 16 years and served with the Canadian Medical Corps in World War I. Dr. Sutherland is the namesake of Sutherland Nursing Home/Continuing Care Centre and most recently Sutherland Place. He was considered by many to be a great man.

This aluminum coffeepot was donated by his daughter Alma Richardson. According to Alma, Dr. Sutherland enjoyed his coffee immensely and this pot was his pride and joy. At the time, the 1950s-1960s, aluminum was thought to cause Alzheimer’s disease, an idea that Dr. Sutherland rejected, so much so that he used this aluminum coffeepot every morning for many years.

PRMA 2013.009.002 - The coffee pot that Dr. Sutherland used every day. 

Artists of the Month - Holy Family School in Grimshaw

The Museum art wall is pleased to host its annual May Student Art Feature. This year we welcome the amazing and impressive work of Holy Family School's First Nations, Metis and Inuit (FNMI) option class from Grimshaw.

First, each student chose a First Nations, Metis or Inuit artist they wanted to learn more about. From there, the students created a painting that was inspired by the artist that they had chosen. Each student thoughtfully created their piece, bearing in mind the spirituality and emotion that goes into the creation of a piece of artwork.

The student artists, Holy Family School, and especially the FNMI coordinator, Tanys Oxman, are very proud of what has been created. We at the Peace River Museum, Archives and Mackenzie Centre are certainly impressed.

Thank you to the Peace of Art Art Club for sponsoring the Art Wall. Please come out and support the creativity of our local students.

Holy Family School FNMI Coordinator Tanys Oxman, after installing the students work at the Museum. 

1937 Peace River Fire Department



PRMA AR89.29.1, Gift of Charlie Briscoe

The 1937 Peace River Fire Department is seen here, posed with new equipment. Charles Briscoe, Ray Lahey, and Earl Lahey are the last three men in the back row (from centre to right). Earl Boyd is third on the left in the bottom row. The identity of the remaining men is unknown.

One of the inaugural steps taken by the newly minted Council for Peace River Crossing in October of 1914 was to establish a volunteer Fire Department. Armed with lanterns, buckets, ropes, axes, ladders and two chemical cylinders, the twenty-five volunteers who stepped forward to fill firemen’s boots defended the town from the very real threat of flames. Fires have ravaged Peace River several times over the years, including large blazes in 1915, 1932 and most significantly in 1962.

This year, the Peace River Fire Department celebrates their Centennial Year (1914-2014). Come learn more about the Fire Department and other historic centenaries in the Peace River History Gallery at the Peace River Museum, Archives and Mackenzie Centre.

The Waters Rise Again

Since Peace River Crossing was given village status in 1914, floods have been a frequent visitor. Coincidentally, Tuesday night’s flood occurred exactly one hundred years after Pat’s Creek flooded in 1914, killing a team of bay horses in the process. In addition to the floods of the 2000s, Peace River also flooded several times throughout the 20th Century. The following photos, from the archives, illustrate some of those occasions when Peace River has found itself under the rising waters.

1914

A Bay Team
 Pat's Creek Flood

x87.1521.35 : Gift of the Alexander [Mackenzie?] Historical Society

 

1923

Eric Piggott's Family
Possible Heart River Flood 

79.1075.19 : Gift of Barbara Crawford

1935

The Filling Station, Near Current CKYL Building
Pat's Creek Flood

77.801.56 : Gift of William Plaizier

1958

Building a Sandbag Barrier on Main Street
Pat's Creek Flood

87.1536.6 : Gift of the Peace River Record Gazette

1972

West Peace River Home in Flood Waters
Peace River Flood

72.482.f : Gift of Mrs. J. Mitchell

Artifact of the Week - HBC Fur Press

Our featured artifact this week is the Hudson's Bay Company fur press, used in Peace River until 1955. After that, Leonard McArthur, a former fur buyer for the Hudson's Bay Company, kept it on his farm. When Bruce McPhail bought the McArthur farm, he decided to donate the press to the Peace River Museum and Archives.

This fur press was made in the 1880s in England and sent to Canada for use in the Peace River Hudson's Bay Company Store. It was used to press fur from various animals into bundles (sometimes called 'packs') that were sent out of the Peace Country and all the way to England. Someone would have to climb up on top of the press and turn the top bar of the screw mechanism. Turning that top bar pushed a plate down on top of the furs, compressing them into 90 pound bails. 

In the 80 years that the furs were transported out of this area, 47 million pelts made their way from the Peace Country to England. Beaver was the most desirable of the pelts, though fox and marten were also trapped. Beaver pelts were made into fashionable hats in England, while fox and marten furs were made into fashion accessories. 

PRMA 68.11 - The fur press set up with furs in the Mackenzie Gallery.  

The fur press is on display in the Mackenzie Gallery at the Peace River Museum and Archives. Near the fur press lurk several animals that trappers would have been keen to capture during the days of the fur trade.

Artist of the Month - Rhonda-Lynne Lanctot

Featured this month on our art wall is Rhonda-Lynne Lanctot. She has installed a photography exhibition, specifically featuring close-ups and macro shots of flowers.

While Rhonda-Lynne's favourite subject for photography is flowers, she also enjoys photographing her children, her dog and horses, wildlife and landscapes. Photography was always an interest of Rhonda-Lynne's but it became a serious love in 2009 when she received her first DSLR camera for Christmas. Since then she has completed 3 years worth of 365 day photo challenges on the internet and is currently embarking on a professional course offered through The New York Institute of Photography.

Before getting into photography, Rhonda-Lynne was known for the teddy bears she designed under the name "Lanctot's Loveables Teddy Bears". Those bears can now be found in many magazines, books, homes and museums, world-wide.

Although Rhonda-Lynne was born and raised in Calgary, she and her husband Rob decided to settle in Peace River to raise their family.

This exhibit sets us up perfectly to welcome Spring and the flowers it will bring.

Rhonda-Lynne's work will be on display until April 30th and is free to view.

Thank you to our speakers!

The Museum hosted three stimulating local speakers in March, who presented on topics relevant to our current exhibit, "A Sense of the Land and its People: A Personal Collection".

Archbishop John Clarke spoke of growing up in Moose Factory, James Bay, Ontario and the 18 years he spent as a clergyman in the diocese of Moosonee. He worked with the community to develop education and training  opportunities for residents in this northern region. He brought cultural objects from these early years and fondly spoke of the people who created them. Some were given as gifts or, like the pair of Inuit dolls, gifted to his father in much earlier times.

Archbishop Clarke shows the audience some of the First Nations artifacts he has from his years in Ontario. 

Lyle Fullerton, of Environment and Sustainable Resource Development, began with an historical overview of the buffalo in northern Alberta. He then described the current status of the population in and around Wood Buffalo National Park. His work monitoring the health and the habitat of these herds over the past 22 years makes him a most informative and engaging speaker. He even brought a leg bone from a buffalo recently killed by a wolf to demonstrate the shear size of these animals. Lyle has been asked to return for an update presentation this fall.

Lyle Fullerton speaks about buffalo herds with YL, the Museum's buffalo head, in the background. 

Roger spoke to an appreciative crowd, mainly artists themselves, about how his Cree culture influences the imagery he uses in his paintings. His years of work includes designing the current Northern Lakes College logo, 12 murals in the town of McLennan and works regularly featured in Alberta Native News. You can still see a selection of Roger's paintings at the Museum until April 17th, 2014. He calls the exhibit "My Cree People - the Sacred Circle". These works are for sale.

Roger Noskiye speaking about his art. Photo courtesy of Sharon Krushel. 

The Museum extends a very big thank you to all of our speakers and all those who attended the presentations.

Please stay tuned to our blog for information about our upcoming Speakers Series in May. We are in the process of firming up plans now and will bring that information to you soon!