Pioneer_museum

Jeff Green | Apr 20, 2006

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Spring at the Pioneer Museum inCloyne

by Karyl Waldie Steinpatz

It’s a recognized fact that things and people do lie dormant, or the equivalent of dormant, during the months of ice and snow, but stirrings around the Pioneer Museum were being felt as early as last month, when the Cloyne and District Historical Society surfaced with its spectacular line-up of events for the coming warm season. Well, on second thought, maybe I misspoke when I employed the word “dormant”. I think the fundraising and entertainment committee kept itself awake throughout the winter months by formulating its intriguing summer line-up. More about that…

Under the tender ministrations of its dedicated volunteers, the Pioneer Museum will soon be opened up, aired out after its winter hibernation, and all gussied up in anticipation of the hordes of tourists and us local folk who will visit throughout the season. Artifacts which have been lovingly wrapped and stored during the winter months will be proudly placed on display, and on June 24, beginning at 11am, the C&DHS will celebrate the season’s opening with guided tours, a barbecue, and a speaker of note. Watch Northern Happenings and other advertising space in this journal for more details. Or borrow a copy of The Pioneer Times (April 2006 issue) newsletter from any member of the Cloyne and District Historical Society and check page 11 for times and places of all upcoming events. During the summer, the newsletter is available, gratis, in the Pioneer Museum .

Every month (except July and August), third Monday, the Historical Society meets in the Barrie Township hall in Cloyne, and every meeting produces a super-interesting speaker. As I write this, I am still marveling at the expertise of Master Gardener Nancy Newman, who yesterday gave a most erudite and interesting talk on Heritage Gardens. Ever since we added the new and big and airy extension to the original Pioneer Museum, we have been working at beautifying the lawns around it with flora, some which were already growing wild here hundreds of years ago, and other species brought in since 1800 by pioneers and now almost extinct in our area. To some degree we have already succeeded, but Nancy gave us a list, and described, many more plants we can hope to find and grow in our gardens and we eagerly look forward to adding at least some of them over the next few years.

The Financial Report in the April 2006 issue of The Pioneer Times tells the immediate world that “during the year 2005 the Cloyne and District Historical Society turned an important corner in its development”…”in only six years, the Society has emerged from debt and ended last year with a very respectable bank balance”… in the black. And even after building the large extension to the museum, and populating it with even more artifacts, it is very much in the black, mostly because of the unflagging work of its volunteers.

Some great upcoming events, to which the public will be most heartily welcomed, include a field trip to the Eganville museum, a Blueberry Brunch in Cloyne, an annual Heritage Bus Tour (what you’ll see is a well-kept secret even as you board the bus in Cloyne AND along the route) and the Third Annual Toonie Christmas Party, to name just a few. So come and enjoy.

The Cloyne and District Historical Society encompasses a good chunk of territory, from Kaladar to Griffith and Flinton to Plevna and Ompah, but its beloved baby is the Pioneer Museum in Cloyne, the repository of artifacts and genealogical information of the area. Plans are in the works to open the museum to the public earlier this season, on weekends beginning with the Long May Weekend (as it is known), then every day from June 24 throughout the season, so watch this newspaper for more details.

Spring has already sprung. Summer is almost upon us. This season do make it a plan to come visit the outstanding, quiet and lovely Pioneer Museum in Cloyne and absorb pioneer history, and perhaps your family’s roots.