Cloyne's Newly Expanded Pioneer Museum To Open On Saturday

Jeff Green | Jun 20, 2013

It is always a busy time at the Pioneer Museum as members of the Cloyne and District Historical Society prepare for the annual museum opening in late June each year.

This year, however, it is busier than usual because the museum has almost doubled in size since it closed last fall. Thanks to a relatively modest Trillium grant of $39,000, a lot of local fund-raising and some volunteer labour, a 1400 square foot addition has been added to the building.

The addition will allow for much improved viewing of the museum's collection of local artifacts, particularly the display of tools. It also includes a gallery for displaying photographs and other artwork, space for genealogical research, a work room for restoring artifacts, and a fully accessible washroom.

The old two-seater outhouse, which has served the staff and patrons of the museum since it opened in 1982, was being carted away early this week, but it will not be gone entirely. The solid doors of the outhouse have been re-purposed as display tables for the new tool display area.

When the Pioneer Museum was opened in 1982 it was a 600 square foot log building. In 2002, a 1,200 square foot addition was added, and with this latest upgrade the museum now has 3,200 square feet of space. It has a schoolhouse section, a homestead section, church display, and a Tourism and Bon Echo display as well as the new sections that are being added in the new space.

“The tools had been jumbled together before, and now they will be properly displayed,” said long-time museum volunteer Margaret Axford on Monday, as a half dozen volunteers and three or four trades-people scurried about, putting the final touches on the renovation and preparing to set the museum up for the opening on Saturday.

Among the tools on display will be the museum's latest acquisition, a well preserved forge. But among all the tools on display there is one that Marg Axford pointed out which symbolizes the kind of life that the settlers in the region lived. It is a corn seeder with a wooden wheel covered by a thin strip of rubber salvaged from something else. It has a wooden frame. The seeds were held in an old washbasin with ¼ inch holes cut into it that was nailed to the wheel. The seeder still works as well today as it would have 50 or 100 years ago. The settlers who used the seeder had to use whatever was at hand to try to coax food out of the thin soil and granite that passed for farmland in Frontenac and Addington Counties.

It is that same spirit that enabled the Pioneer Museum committee to build a 1,400 square foot addition, with a washroom, on a $39,000 grant.

L&A County might consider talking to the museum committee about building the new ambulance base in Northbrook, which will likely cost 20 times as much to build.

The season opening/ribbon cutting celebration starts at 11am on Saturday, June 22. There will be live music as well as a BBQ. The museum is open from 10 am to 4 pm throughout the summer. It is located in Cloyne, on the east side of Hwy. 41 next to the Barrie Township Hall (across from the post office) call 613-336-8011 or go to pioneer.mazinaw.on.ca