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“Christmas in October”

Clayton McLain Memorial Museum

Our Culture Day on Saturday, Oct 1st was a great success.

Christmas is one time of the year when there is a focus on family and culture. Whether one is Christian or not, or from an aboriginal or immigrant background, the season brings a feeling of good will.

Religious holidays, food, music, dress, and ceremonies create a rich link to other parts of the world. We wanted to celebrate Cut Knife’s founding cultures through the magic of Christmas.

Thanks to Roger and Colin Emberley for their wonderful ethnic music, the Ukrainian culture presenters (Mary Ramsay, Jean Carlton, Bill Rak, and Ethel Rak), the Italian presenter (Emily Hardy), the Norwegian presenter (Catherine Hewson), and the French presenters (Joan Veikle and Gisele Brackenbury).

The atmosphere in the Duvall House was truly full of the Christmas spirit. Visitors enjoyed sampling wonderful ethnic dishes, listening to soothing Christmas music, and seeing the displays of museum Christmas artifacts. And no one missed the snow.
Now what cultures should we highlight next year?

Our thanks to SaskCulture for their support of our Culture Day.

~ Lucille B.

Our Stories

Sites Mapping Adventure

Clayton McLain Memorial Museum
empty cuppola on former one-room-schoolhouse
Former one-room school house

One of my projects for the upcoming Cut Knife Centennial Celebration in 2012 is a map and GPS locations of the one room school sites and other landmarks in the area.

The day before yesterday, Bonnie Ramsay, Noreen Bullerwell and I went on a 200 mile journey armed with history books, maps, camera, a Garmin, and a little patience.

We headed to Rockhaven first, such a pretty little village. From there we headed east, north, west, south, and then back north and east again. 36 sites later, interspersed with lunch paid by a nephew (who called us ‘the old girls’- not funny), a coffee stop in the Baldwinton area (because our union insists upon coffee breaks), a ‘gopher’ job for our harvesters (who mistakenly thought that we were were bringing liquid refreshments – sorry!), and a couple of encounters with dogs, we arrived back in Cut Knife, tired but satisfied with the day’s efforts. There are several more sites to finish the project off but they won’t take too long to do, if someone can tell us exactly where Madawaska school was located.

Now I will add old photos and the new ones that I took and we will have identified these sites for those who can read a map or a GPS device.

There were a few times when we were almost stumped but Bonnie said to look for the caragana trees and sure enough, there was the site. Most school sites had caraganas planted around the yard.

We also had to backtrack from a northerly trail as it changed from a trail to a track through tall grass out in the Baldwinton hills.

Great adventure!

Will post the file on the website when I am finished.

~ Lucille B.

October 2, 2011 update to this blog: Don Paziuk helped me find the Triple Lakes School site to add to our list. That was a long trek past Atton’s Lake, through the community pasture, and even further. There is only a foundation left to mark the spot. The signage was vandalized a few years ago.

Archives

Tomahawk Visitors

Clayton McLain Memorial Museum
visiting archivists at the tomahawk

The tomahawk attracts many visitors and usually a photo. Yesterday visiting archivists were no different. However, my Blackberry’s camera does not take good photos. Yes, it really is them!

Jane Dalley (Dalley-Froggatt Heritage Conservation Services, Winnipeg) and Cameron Hart (Sask Archives and Archivists Advisor) were visiting our archives and museum.

We are very fortunate to have had both professionals here to advise us on establishing our archives so we can make our special collections more accessible to everyone.

Thanks, Jane and Cam!

~ Lucille B.

Museum

Summer, Beautiful Summer

Clayton McLain Memorial Museum

The summer has been a lovely one. Early mornings are bright with sunshine and promise of warm enticing afternoons.

The museum is humming along with a hired manager this year. It is so nice to have someone look after the everyday running of it. Our two student staff members have also been very busy re-finishing hardwood floors in our buildings. The buildings look great! And it helps to freshen up the smell in them too.

Time gets eaten up at the museum.

Every time I go to the museum to try and get a project completed, something else presents itself that needs immediate attention.

Yesterday was no exception. I was going to put up the curtains in the living room of the Duvall House, but needed an innovative fix for the period curtain rod that I wanted to use. I went looking in all the nooks and crannies that things hide there and made a hair-raising discovery that had nothing to do with hanging window coverings. Exciting, hair-raising discovery.

Very significant, historical tapes that I had no idea were on the museum site.

More on this later. Suffice it to say that the past keeps popping up in Clayton’s Collection. What insight he had in the research that he did 40 to 50 years ago.

Now back to the curtains that need some sewing adjustments for length and I still don’t have a fix for the rod. Gonna have to work on my sewing and carpentry skills. Or better yet, volunteer recruitment?

~ Lucille B.