Pioneer Museum set to open on Monday

Jeff Green | Jul 08, 2020

The Cloyne and District Historical Society (CDHS) held a board meeting this week (July 6) and after weeks of preparations and plans that have been changing over the last month, the board felt comfortable deciding to open the museum for the summer.

Starting next week, it will be open 7 days a week from 10am - 3:30pm. There will be an 11 person at a time capacity in the building (staff included) with mask wearing and social distancing in place and a no touch policy for all of the artifacts on display.

The museum will be staffed by 3 summer students, who have been working since early June in the museum archives and helping the board develop protocols for opening.

Carolyn McCullough of the CDHS Board said that the board and staff have “worked very hard to create a safe environment for our visitors and for our staff. We started with a boilerplate document about what we needed to do and it quickly became a living document, ever changing. Certainly when the mask order was announced it made us change our plans again. We had to make a decision whether to open at all this summer and we feel confident we have made the right decision. We are excited to open our doors.”

There are a couple of new features in the museum this summer. One is a set of original pen and ink drawings of historic local features by artist Carla Miedema. The other is a display of two pieces of furniture made in 1925 by a member of the Bay family. John Baptiste (Atewennarikhon) Bay was born in 1850 was known as Johnnie Bay. He married Anne Tekakwen and moved to Mazinaw Lake from Oka, as land was offered to 4 Mohawk families. Their’s was the only one that stayed. The Tyendinaga based poet Laura Shwager is their descendant.

The museum will also be collecting names and email addresses from people entering the premises, so if there are any COVID-19 cases who can trace their whereabouts to the museum, KFL&A Public Health will have an easier time doing contract tracing.

“This is something that we heard about through our museum association. Even though our museum has no entry fee, we can collect this information, in case it is needed,” said Carolyn McCullough.

The museum traditionally opens on the last weekend of June, with a picnic on the grounds, live music and a ceremony. While this year won’t be like that, the CDHS is hoping that by opening the museum it will give families one more option for summer entertainment in a year when so many other summer activities have been canceled outright.