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

Artist of the month: Peggy Smith

The Peace River Museum is pleased to host our current artist: Peggy Smith. Peggy does custom airbrush work on anything from ski-doos to clothing and has an incredible eye for detail and colour. We invite everyone to come view her work during the month of July.

For more information on Peggy and her art, visit the Record Gazette website here:
http://www.prrecordgazette.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=3594898

Thank you to our community!

The Town of Peace River's Heritage Places Committee and the Peace River Museum would like to thank everyone who came out to the pancake breakfast this past Saturday. Through your support, we were able to raise over $1500 towards the preservation of heritage sites in Peace River. We would also very much like to thank the AUPE (Alberta Union of Provincial Employees) who contributed the remaining monies to make our fundraising total $2000! Through the matching funds with the Municipal Heritage Partnership Program, this translates into $4000!

To view some of the already studied historic sites, please visit: http://www.peaceriver.net/images/stories/Museum/2012_02_22_museum.pdf (Note: This is a large pdf and may require some time to download.)

If you know of a historically significant building or site in Peace River, please let us know using this survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/9NTHZRJ

If you have any other questions regarding this program and the work being done by the Town of Peace River, please contact the Museum at 780-624-4261 or email us at museum@peaceriver.net.

We truly appreciate the support of our community in preserving and sharing Peace River's rich history!

Pancake Flipping at Peace Fest!

The Town of Peace River and the community representatives for the Heritage Places Committee are working hard to promote and protect heritage buildings and sites within the town.
We are pleased to have been asked to participate in this years annual PeaceFest pancake breakfast at the Peace Country Co-op on Saturday, July 14th from 8:30 - 11 am. Our Heritage Places Committee will be grilling and flipping and serving up a storm and would greatly appreciate your support!
The funds earned will help the committee and Town of Peace River to inventory significant heritage places within the town.

Canada Day!

In just a few days, on Sunday, July 1st, the Peace River Museum and the Town of Peace River are set to celebrate Canada Day! The festivities start at the Museum at 11:30 am with bag-piper Josh Craigen, "O Canada" will be sung by Tenille Brennan, the flag will be raised by the RCMP in their official Red Serge with Air Cadet Squadron #124,  Mackenzie Moose will be out to play and of course there will be inspirational speeches. Come and join us for the opening ceremonies decked out in your red and white and bring your decorated bikes and strollers.

The Museum is offering FREE admission on Sunday from 12 - 4 pm in honour of Canada Day! Come and see our exhibits about paddling through time, the fur trade, and rocks and fossils.

After the opening ceremonies, the biking and walking parade will head over to Riverfront Park for entertainment, games, and food (for purchase). All of this fun happens from 12 - 3 pm at Riverfront Park. The Town is still looking for volunteers to help out at the park, if you have some time to give and want to have some fun, contact Community Services at (780)624-1000.

Don't forget the fireworks display, thanks to the Town of Peace River and Northern Sunrise County, at 11:59 pm on Sunday evening.

HAVE A FANTASTIC CANADA DAY AND WE WILL SEE YOU AT THE MUSEUM!

Heritage Run 2012 a huge success!

Sending an armful of thank you’s to this year’s Heritage Run volunteers and participants!


The Peace River Museum, Archives and Mackenzie Centre extends a huge THANK YOU to the Peace River Running Club and all the runners and walkers who participated in another very successful Heritage Run on June 10! This annual event draws runners and walkers from the whole region and this year was no exception. In the crowd of 116 participants, communities represented were Grande Prairie, Dawson Creek, Fairview,St. Isidore, Manning, Grovedale, High Prairie, Dixonville, McLennan, Calgary, Spruce Grove, Donnelly, Berwyn, Grimshaw and Peace River.

The course of 5km, 10km and 13.1km takes place each year along the historic banks of the Peace River, beginning and ending at the Museum. Sponsors generously contributed to the fabulous door prizes for volunteers and competitors and healthy snacks for everyone at the end of the run. Those sponsors include Penn West Energy Trust, Mathieu Hryniuk Barristers and Solicitors, Invision Chartered Acountants, Dr. David Blench Smiles Design, Caribou Cresting. Weaver Welding Ltd., Peace Country Cycle and Fitness on the Go Ltd!

Each year, the Museum is the beneficiary of the efforts of the Club and all the participants. Last year, the benefits were doubled in a Community Facility Enhancement Grant for new compact shelving for the Diane Gayton Collections Room. This year, the benefits will also be doubled with a Municipal Heritage Partnership Grant for the Town’s Heritage Places preservation initiative.

The annual Heritage Run preserves the community’s health and its heritage!

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!