Noted Author and Historian David Leonard coming to Peace River Museum

 We are very excited to be hosting David Leonard (photo courtesy of www.lieutenantgovernor.ab.ca), who has a extensive knowledge of settlement and surveying in the Peace Country.

The event begins at 1pm on Saturday, February 27th at thePeace River Museum, Archives and Mackenzie Centre (10302 99th Street).

David will be speaking specifically about surveying in the Peace River area in conjunction with our current exhibit from the Land Surveyor's Association, "Making Their Mark: The land surveyor's role in the peaceful and orderly development of Alberta"

David Leonard has authored books such as, "The Last Great West: The Agricultural Settlement of Peace River Country to 1914", "Delayed Frontier: The Peace River Country to 1909" and "The Lure of the Peace River Country, 1872-1919" (with Victoria L. Lemieux). He will be bringing a selection of his books, which will be available for purchase during the event and are also in the Museum's Gift Shop on a regular basis.

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.

Public Input for Updated 12 Foot Davis Grave Site Invited

The Government of Alberta, Northern Sunrise County and the Town of Peace River have partnered together to update the site around the 12 Foot Davis grave site including also the Dr. Greene Cairn and the Peace River Provincial Recreation Area. Tonight (January 27, 2010) there will be an Open House inviting the public to give their input on the proposed upgrades to the site. The Museum will also be on hand to pass along historical information about 12 Foot Davis, the grave site (see photograph below for original headstone) and of Dr. Greene as well.

The Open House will run for 4-8 pm at the Belle Petroleum Centre (www.bpcentre.ca/Contact.html).

Alternatively, you can go online to www.tpr.alberta.ca/parks/consult/. The link for the 12 Foot Davis park is near the bottom. Here you can view the different concepts and a map of the sites to be upgraded. There is also a online survey form where you can give your input. The deadline for giving input is set at March 26, 2010.

EDIT (January 27): Please accept my apologies for the error in this blog. The Open House was at the Provincial Building in Peace River and not the Belle Petroleum Centre.

Digitized Newspapers Available at Peace River Archives

The Peace River Museum, Archives and Mackenzie Centre has recently embarked on a project to digitize its collection of Peace River Pilot, Peace River Record, Peace River Standard, Northern Gazette and Peace River Record Gazette. The project is complete and available to researchers on-site at the Archives. The digitized collection includes the Peace River Pilot from 1910, the Peace River Record from 1914-1943, the Peace River Standard from 1917-1922, the Northern Gazette from 1932-1939 and the Peace River Record Gazette from 1943-1983.

The collection has been made into OCR (optical character recognition) pdfs which allows users to do searches by keyword or by date(s). Reproductions of specific articles for private research only are available at a cost of 35c per page.

This project will be of great benefit to all researchers allowing for easier searching and also protecting the microfilmed collection from deterioration from use. For more information, please call the Peace River Museum and Archives at (780) 624-4261 or email us at museum@peaceriver.net.

Making Their Mark

Our new travelling exhibit from the Land Surveyors Association has officially been launched! "Making Their Mark: The land surveyors role in the peaceful and orderly development of Alberta" is a wonderful exhibit which combines text, photographs and artifacts to bring to life the experiences of the early Dominion Land Surveyors all the way up to what surveying is like today. It includes a full sized tent showing the tools and supplies of an early surveyor. On display from the Museum's collection are rocks and fossils from Dr. F.H. Sutherland, an avid collector of Peace River's history.

Thank you to everyone who came out to our exhibit launch, to Ross Metcalfe for helping to host the opening event and to our local ALS members for helping to set up the display.

"Making Their Mark" will be on display until March 30, 2010

Happy Christmas and a Merry New Year!

The Peace River Museum, Archives and Mackenzie Centre would like to wish you a very happy holiday season. We also extend a huge thank you to all of our volunteers, members and donors that have helped the Museum and Archives continue to grow and preserve the history of Peace River.

Our Christmas hours are:
Dec. 26 - Open (10 - 4:30 pm)

Dec. 27 - Closed

Dec. 28-31 - Open (10 - 4:30 pm)

Jan. 1 - Closed

Jan. 2 - back to regular hours (Monday - Saturday, 10 am - 4:30 pm)

Happy 90th Birthday Peace River!

On December 1st, 1919, Peace River became a town. Here we are 90 years later celebrating the contributions made by so many people even before the inauguration of our township. Along with the wonderful work Beth Wilkins has been doing in the newspaper and on CKYL, here are some of the highlights of Peace River's history:

1792-93 - Sir Alexander Mackenzie winters at Fort Fork

1877 - After moving their post up and down the rivers near

the junction of Peace and Smoky, the Hudson's Bay

Company moves their post where the Town of Peace River

now stands.

1886 - The Anglican Church sets up the first mission on

Shaftesbury Trail

1888 - The Roman Catholic Church sets up St. Augustine

mission on Shaftesbury Trail

1898 - The North West Mounted Police make a permanent

post at Peace River Crossing
1903 - The St. Charles is the first steamboat on the Peace

1906 - Allie Brick becomes Peace River's first MLA

1909 - Peace River's townsite is surveyed

1912 - Peace River's first public school opens

1911 - Peace River holds its first agricultural show

1914 - First meeting of the Village council

1914 - Peace River's first hospital, the Irene Cottage Hospital,

opens

1916 - Railway trestle over the Heart River is completed

1917 - The Peace River Women's Institute is organized

1918 - Railway bridge is completed

1919 - Peace River is incorporated as a town

1926 - Constable Burstall and Louis Bourass complete a census

of the area

1930 - The Peace River Municipal Hospital opens

1932 - Peace River holds its first Stampede and Rodeo

1935 - Pat's Creek floods it's banks

1942 - The U.S. Army moves into Peace River in preperation

for builing the Canol Pipeline

1954 - CKYL opens

1958 - Peace River floods

1965 - The Peace River Auxiliary Hospital opens

1967 - The Peace River Centennial Museum opens

1968 - Peace River's traffic bridge is completed

1968 - Peace River Correctional Centre opens

1972 - Peace River floods

1992-93 - The bicentennial anniversary of Sir Alexander

Mackenize's journey is celebrated

1997 - Peace River floods

2004 - Peace River hosts the Alberta Summer Games

2009 - Peace River celebrates its 90th Anniversary

Peace River Remembers, Book 2 - Submission Deadline Extended!

As many of you have probably heard, the Sir Alexander Mackenzie Historical Society is publishing "Peace River Remembers" Book 2 and is inviting anyone who has called Peace River home to submit their stories for publication. The society is also looking for those who would be willing to write stories for the various businesses, social clubs, schools, religious organizations and sports groups in Peace River. Please see http://www.peacerivermuseum.com/ for more information on what stories are needed, ideas to get you started writing your story and how to submit it once it is finished.

The original deadline for submissions of November 30, 2009 has been extended to January 15, 2010!

Remembering Our Veterans

This past Remembrance Day, the Museum created an archival exhibit to honour the veterans of our town who served. The exhibit includes copies of newspaper clippings from the wars with various details, mainly from the the World Wars. Also as part of the exhibit we have digitzed a series of World War I postcards and put together an album of these. They depict various scenes from the rubble of destroyed buildings, the exodus of civilians from threatened cities and burying of soldiers on the front lines. The postcards show in vivid detail the reality of war and its effects on our land and peoples.

One of the important projects that the Museum and Archives has been working on over the past year or so in concert with the Legion is to create a comprehensive list of the veterans from this area, past and present. We have a copy of our current list in this exhibit and would welcome additions to the list. If you have information regarding veterans or those currently serving in our forces, please contact the Museum at (780) 624-4261 or email us at museum@peaceriver.net.