Voting begins for the History Fair projects

Rourke Whalen and Kye Walton, who competed with their history fair project on the assassination of Thomas D'Arcy McGee, at the local level at Good Shepherd School in Peace River and then the regional level in Grande Prairie, have now completed their video and it is up for voting.

The students of 200 projects across Canada were selected for Young Citizens. These students were given video cameras and asked to make a 3-4 minute video which the public will now vote on. Voting runs from June to August, and at the end 30 finalists are selected. From those 30, 6 will be selected by a panel of judges to visit Ottawa, Ontario, to attend the Governor General's History Awards and the National History Forum.

TJ Flynn, Communications Coordinator for the Town of Peace River and Megan Purcell, Collections Technician with the Museum, served as experts on Rourke and Kye's video. TJ, the expert on the Irish Fenian movement, and Megan, the expert on Thomas D'Arcy McGee and his assassination.

Rourke and Kye, as well as TJ, Megan and the rest of the staff at the Museum invite you all to visit the site and vote for this wonderful video. Congratulations Rourke and Kye !http://www.canadashistory.ca/Kids/YoungCitizens/Profiles/2012/Rourke-W.aspx

The Second Annual York Boat Voyage comes to Riverfront Park

This Sunday, June 3rd, the second annual York Boat Voyage will be docking at Riverfront Park in Peace River. This ten metre long, historic replica York boat was built in 2011 by GeoTourism Canada for the inaugural expedition along the Peace River. It is back in the water this year with some veteran paddlers and some new crew members to do the voyage all over again.
The crew plans to have the York boat docked at the Park around 4:30 pm. They invite everyone down to Riverfront Park to see the boat and talk to the crew.
http://www.geotourismcanada.com/yorkboat2012/default.aspx

The Museum helps narrate the story of the assassination of Thomas D'Arcy McGee

Tuesday afternoon, the museum was honoured to be asked by Rourke Whalen and Kye Walton, two grade 6 students from Good Shepherd School, to help with their Heritage Fair project. Rourke and Kye participated in the local Heritage Fair, held in Peace River at Good Shepherd School on April 26. From there they went on to the Regional Fair held in Grande Prairie on May 4 at the Montrose Cultural Centre. Their project, along with 199 more, from across the country, have been chosen to move on to the next level. These students were given a video camera and asked to make a 3-4 minute video which the public will then be asked to vote on.

Rourke (far right) and Kye (far left), along with TJ Flynn (middle left), the Communications Coordinator from the Town of Peace River, and Megan Purcell (middle right), the Collections Technician from the Peace River museum, narrate the story of the assassination of Thomas D’Arcy McGee.

Information on the Heritage Fair can be found at http://www.canadashistory.ca/Kids/Heritage.aspx.

Congratulations Rourke and Kye on getting to the next level of the Canadian Heritage Fair and thank you for including the museum in this exciting project!

Paddling Through Time Exhibit Opening

      Paddling Through Time is the Peace River Museum’s new exhibit and it features the stories of several impressive canoe trips along the Mighty Peace River. From explorers Alexander Mackenzie and David Thompson to a unique 1967 Centennial trip to Montreal. The exhibit opening June 2^nd from 6:30 to 8pm  will be an opportunity to meet some of the crew from the second annual York Boat Voyage which will be launching  from Dunvegan May 31^st.

The Alberta Quilt Project

The art of quilting has changed in many ways since the time of our grandmothers and great-grandmothers. The Alberta Quilt Project has been documenting quilters, rural and urban, to capture current craft production trends. Discover what makes Alberta Quilters distinctive in this talk by Lucie Heins, the Assistant Curator of Western Canadian History at the Royal Alberta Museum.

Speaker: Lucie Heins
Place: Peace River Municipal Library 9807-97 Avenue, Peace River
Host: Peace River Museum, Archives and Mackenzie Centre
Date: Monday, June 4th, 2012
Time: 7:00 pm
Admission: FREE

For more information contact the Museum at museum@peaceriver.net of 780-624-4261.

Artists of the Month!

For mid-May and June we will be hosting a mix of art from the students at the Dixonville school. A variety of works from students from grades 2 through 9 have filled up our art wall and we invite and encourage our community to come and admire the budding talent of these enthusiastic students!

Paddling Through Time: 220 Years of Canoeing on the Peace

We are embarking on a new exhibit at the Peace River Museum: "Paddling Through Time: 220 Years of Canoeing on the Peace"
The exhibit follows the early explorers, Sir Alexander Mackenzie and David Thompson on their early travels on the Peace River. It meanders on in time to early settlers finding a new home and politicians and boosters promoting to those searching settlers.
Flowing forwards, we come to the Canada's Centennial in 1967 and a brave group of voyageurs who retrace Sir Alexander Mackenzie's historic voyage across Canada (minus the detour to the Arctic Ocean!).
We will bring it forward in time to current uses of the river with kayaks and canoes and supply some fun games for children while exploring our Peace River!
The exhibit begins on May 21st with an official opening on Saturday, June 2nd (stay tuned for more details) and will run until September of this year.

Heritage Buildings Open House

This Thursday, May 10th, the Museum will be hosting an Open House about the town's Municipal Heritage Places program which is in development.

The Town’s Heritage Places Committee will be in attendance, along with heritage professionals who will explain municipal heritage designation and review a draft of the application process that the Town will eventually administer.

We are also asking residents to stop by to make their suggestions about historic places in Peace River that are significant to our history. If you know of a historic site or building within Peace River and are unable to attend, we have an online survey that can be filled out and submitted to us here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/9NTHZRJ

Peace River is a town rich with history and we encourage everyone to come out this Thursday, May 10th between 4 and 7 pm to help us preserve and manage these unqiue sites!

Last week to see "Barbed Wire Solution"

A reminder that this is the last week for our current, travelling exhibit, "The Barbed Wire Solution: Ukrainians and Canada's First Internment Operations, 1914-1920".

This is also the last week to register for the genealogy workshop on Saturday, May 12th, "Open the Trunk: Beginning the Search for your Eastern European Ancestors." with the president of the Edmonton Branch of the Alberta Genealogy Society, John Althouse. The workshop will be from 10am - 4 pm (lunch provided) at the Peace River Library. The cost is $15. Please email (museum@peaceriver.net) or call us (780-624-4261) to register! Also with your registration, you receive free admission to our current exhibit.