Representing the Fort Pelly-Livingstone Museum in Pelly at the Seneca Root Regional Museum Association meeting in Sturgis on October 21, Donna Abrahamson told representatives of eight district museums of the fire that had destroyed their museum.
Attending were also representatives of the Power House Museum in Kamsack, the National Doukhobor Heritage Village in Veregin, the Canora Ukrainian Heritage Museum, the Canora Visitors’ Centre Station House Museum, the Melville Heritage Museum, the Preeceville and District Heritage Museum and the Sturgis Station House Museum.
The only member of the Seneca Root association not represented at the meeting, which was held at Grace United Church, was the Saltcoats museum.
“Much to our horror, in June someone set fire to the boxcar and this spread to the wooden window frames in the main building and then to the rest of the building,” Abrahamson said of the museum fire.
“Someone broke a window and got in and got the front door open and started to bring out museum items,” she said. “Only a few items from the Fort Pelly room that were right by the door were saved as that was the first room the fire got access to.
“More things were salvaged from the Fort Livingstone room but soon the smoke forced the rescuers out of there. Nothing from the upstairs was saved.
“We had wanted to go in and find metal and stone items after the fire cooled, but the department of environment has rules about that so the town had to forbid us going in as there could have been pollutants in there. Just at our last meeting we were given the go ahead to go into the train station and to use the bake oven. We still cannot enter the museum main building basement.”
Abrahamson said that a support meeting was attended by more than 100 people and a belated annual meeting had generated a lot of interest and resulted in new faces on the board.
“The community got together and helped us with our annual fall supper,” she said, adding that they had served over 420 meals and raised over $6,000.
She said that the board had formed several committees all working on different angles towards the construction of a new museum.
“It won’t be tomorrow, but the first museum also took time to come together.”
Reviewing other matters, Abrahamson said that the museum’s first public activity was a display at the Pelly Trade Show where a history guessing game was held. The answer was a cable from a 1920 Chevrolet, but for the first time in the game’s history, no one had guessed what it was.
The second event was the annual Mother’s Day tea and bake sale, she said, adding that the museum had opened for the season at the end of May with an open house, brunch and a variety of activities and music. A highlight was a demonstration of a newly-acquired 1920s Fresno pulled by four horses which was used in the garden area to demonstrate how dirt had been moved to construct dams.
“We want to thank all of you for your moral support and offers of duplicates and other avenues of help,” she said. “Without this help it would have been much harder for us to progress to a new museum. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts.”
Delivering the report from the National Doukhobor Heritage Village in Veregin, Tannis Negrave said that the facility began 2015 having to restructure its board because of the death of Keith Tarasoff, its chair and “bread chef.”
Much repair to various roofs on the site was necessary as soon as raccoons awoke from their hibernation, Negrave said. The first tour came at the end of April with exchange students from Ottawa who were at Sacred Heart school in Yorkton. They were accompanied by families from Yorkton with whom they had been billeted. Doukhobor pastries were served at the end of the tour.
She said representatives of the Veregin museum had teamed up with representatives of the Power House Museum in Kamsack for the Museum in a Suitcase program and visited the Kamsack nursing home and Eaglestone Lodge, where they were well received and were asked to come back.
The museum’s three annual events are: the opening day or Museum Day, the first Sunday in June; Peter’s Day on June 29, and Heritage Day, the third Sunday in July.
All three days were well attended, she said, adding that the museum hosted two tours: challenged adults from Yorkton and a CN tour in August.
In 2017, Canada will be observing its 150th anniversary and the Doukhobor Prayer Home will be 100 years old, she said. “Hopefully, there will be some federal money available for the celebration.
“All our buildings are old and need much refurbishing; that’s the biggest project,” Negrave said.
Representing the Power House Museum with Lydia Cherkas, its president, were Connie McKay and Darlene Brown, the board’s networker.
In her report, Cherkas said that the season had opened with the annual Museum Day on May 17 with a pancake breakfast, draws, a book signing by Gerald Benneke and a display of miniature tractors by Bernie Brandt.
Members attended the Museums of Saskatchewan annual meeting in Regina in May and two members attended the Community Engagement Animateurs workshop in Yorkton on June 8. Victoria School Grade 3 students visited on June 17 when they were shown how to scrub socks and towels on scrub boards and shook cream in jars to make butter and Tannis Negrave had taught 20-minute classes in the one-room school house.
The CN tour from Winnipeg visited in August and a 30th anniversary of the museum was observed on September 6.
During the year, blinds were installed in the school house, a fire inspection was conducted and six fire extinguishers were placed in strategic points, she said. The railway caboose had exterior windows installed and the summer kitchen was painted. A new stove and fridge were purchased for the events building and six sets of 50 post cards each, depicting six scenes from the museum were printed and are being sold for $2 per post card. The Town of Kamsack donated a John Deere tractor from the early 1950s.
