“Spanning over five decades, Mel Sawatzky has had a long and distinguished record of service to the community and district of Cut Knife, Saskatchewan.
Rivers West District for Sport, Culture and Recreation
Mayor Gwenn Kaye (left) presenting Mel Sawatzky (right) with the Over-All Volunteer of the Year Award
In 1971, Mel became the first Chairman of the newly created Clayton McLain Memorial Museum. For several years prior to this, in the late 1960s, Mel, in his capacity as Noble Grand of the local Oddfellows Chapter, actively sought to assist Elizabeth McLain in establishing a Museum which would house artifacts of great historical significance to Canada, associated with the settlement of the northwest and the events surrounding the 1885 Northwest Resistance. Melvin Sawatzky holds the distinction of Life Member of the Board of Trustees of Clayton McLain Memorial Museum.
Mel’s achievements also include:
Volunteer firefighter for 24 years;
Councilor for the Town of Cut Knife for 8 years;
Decades of participation with the Saskatchewan Wildlife Federation, including the Hunter Safety Education program;
20+ volunteer years with the Cut Knife Colts hockey team in a variety of roles, and
Assistance with coordinating the 2005 RCMP Musical Ride in the Town of Cut Knife.
Congratulations Mel!Thank you for everything you do for us!
The museum will be moving forward with the planting of the Community Garden this year on Tuesday, June 2, 2020.
Recommendations of the Chief Medical Officer of Saskatchewan on Covid 19 social distancing protocols will be followed:
Families are invited to work within their quarantine group;
Individuals will be assigned work areas practicing two meter spacing.
The garden is located north of the Armstrong Building adjacent to the Cut Knife grid road. Planting will take place between 10:30am and 2:30pm. All volunteers are welcome.
Things will be winding up at the Museum in a few weeks, although, we still have an afternoon Kids’ Camp scheduled for August 20th and a Hi Pie Friday for August 21st. Our guided tours will continue to run on into September, by appointment. So, we have lots of opportunities for you to meet our summer staff before the Clayton McLain Memorial Museum closes for the season!
Our Museum Manager, this year, is Colleen, a three year resident of the Cut Knife area. She, and her family, live on an acreage which, she claims, “would qualify as a zoo!” Many may recognize Colleen from her work at the Cut Knife Elementary School as a Special Education Assistant. Her favourite exhibit, although it was a tough choice, was Raymond’s General Store; she especially likes seeing the original items for many of the name brands we use today.
Most Interesting Museum Experience: Colleen actually had the nerve to participate in one of Fort Battleford’s Ghost Walks! Led by the light of a single lantern, the tour winds its way through the fort’s buildings while the guide recounts ghostly historic tales. Colleen admits it was “a whole new experience” and, she says, she “would do it, again.”
Duvall House
Jayden is a recent graduate of Cut Knife High School with plans to attend the Canadian Tourism College in Surrey, BC for her Adventure Tourism Diploma. She “loves being outdoors and working with people.” Jayden’s favourite part of the CMMM is the Medical Building. She’s had occasion to spend lots of time at hospitals over the years and finds it interesting how medical tools and procedures have changed over time.
Most Interesting Museum Experience: Jayden has also had a “spooky” musuem experience but this one was closer to home. She opened up the Duvall house one morning to find a footprint “clear as day” on the floor. Now, what’s especially peculiar about that is, after Jayden had swept the floor and locked up the house for the night, no one had entered the building until Jayden unlocked the door the next morning – to find the footprint!
Gallivan School
Blake is a resident of Cut Knife and a student at Cut Knife High School. He’s working towards his Journeymen’s in either carpentry or electrical. Blake, like Jayden, loves the outdoors; he spends time hunting, fishing, hiking and camping. The Gallivan School House is Blake’s favourite exhibit; he finds it “fascinating how our education has changed in the past 50 years.”
Most Interesting Museum Experience: Blake visited the Royal Ontario Museum and was impressed by “the shear size of it” with many levels of exhibits from a variety of ancient civilizations as well as an animal exhibit “which was cool.” Unfortunately, it was also so large that he became separated from his group and spent two hours wandering, looking for them, until finally meeting up with them, again, in the front lobby.
Railway Station
Aunica is a student at Cut Knife High School and a resident of the area. She lives with her family on an acreage on the Rockhaven road. Aunica’s favourite exhibit is the Train Station, not only because it’s filled with so many different kinds of artifacts but because she also likes the architecture of the building.
Most Interesting Museum Experience: Aunica used to live in Calgary and, once, she spent a whole week at an overnight immersion camp at Heritage Park Historical Village. The participants dressed in period costumes; they learned all about life at the turn of the 20th century and they lived it that way for 5 days!
This is the last official day for our summer staff, Brandi and Megan. They have worked very hard on building maintenance and exhibit construction. As well, they have cleaned and cleaned.
They survived the crazy Centennial weekend, met a lot of visitors and gave some tours.
They can look back on the summer work with pride. Well done, ladies!
Our museum tries to encourage our visitors to give us feedback on the museum, internet sites and the park. We’ve tried surveys but they don’t work out that well because few people like to fill out forms of any kind. Also it means remembering to ask them to fill one out! It is so easy to forget.
So when someone volunteers some feedback, it makes it much more special and real. The following message and link arrived by e-mail recently.
We had the distinct pleasure of visiting your fine town, touring your museum and spending one night in your awesome campground. I mentioned our experience in my blog titled: “Largest Tomahawk in the World!” I hope you enjoy the story. http://susanbraveheart.blogspot.com/ I’ve let my family and friends know about you. We really enjoyed our stay. Best wishes,
Susan and Frank in Campbell River
This made our day! Guess we are doing something right.
Clayton McLain Memorial Museum 