Cloyne Pioneer Museum opens for visitors

Jun 26, 2014

Those interested in looking into the lives and times of local pioneers in and around the Cloyne area will be happy to know that the Cloyne Pioneer Museum and Archives is now open for visitors. The museum, which was expanded last year, held their official season opening on June 21 and guests were treated to a barbeque lunch and old time musical favorites courtesy of a local band, Pickled Chicken.

J.J (Red) Emond, president of the Cloyne and District Historical Society (CDHS), highlighted the society’s many accomplishments this past year, which included hiring new staff at the museum, placing two new museum signs on Highway 41, the completion of the new 2015 calendars that are available for sale at $15 a piece, the installation of new display cases in the museum, and the posting of photographs from the museum and society on the photo-sharing site Flickr.

He spoke of the success of the recent bus tour to War Museum in Ottawa Red, thanked all of the board members and volunteers for their ongoing work, and congratulated CDHS member Ian Brumell for being honored with the June Callwood Outstanding Achievement Award for Voluntarism earlier this year.

Emond also highlighted the society’s goals for this year, which include increasing membership, completing the landscaping around the museum grounds, completing more interviews with locals in the area, and planning for the society’s annual events such as the Robbie Burns Supper, the historical bus tour and the annual toonie party.

Marg Axford, the curator and archivist at the museum, mingled with the guests as they perused the many new displays. These include a special World War 1 section with photos of young men from the area, many of whom fought and were killed in the war, plus a number of WW 1 artifacts including a tin hat, a bayonet and newspaper clippings. Other new displays include the paintings by the late local artist, Wini Gutsell, and a new display highlighting a portion of Skootamatta Lake that was settled by the Obornes, a local family. Other permanent displays include various artifacts and documents from the 1850s onwards that focus on settlement, mining, logging, tourism and other local history in the CDHS catchment area, which runs along the Highway 41 corridor south to Kaladar, north Denbigh, west to Flinton and east to Harlowe.

For those who have yet to visit the Cloyne Pioneer Museum and Archives, it is well worth a trip. The museum is open daily until September 2 and is located at 14235 Highway 41 in Cloyne. Regular monthly meetings of the CDHS take place at the Barrie Hall in Cloyne at 1pm on every third Monday beginning again in September.