Archives, Our Stories

SK Archives Week 2015

CMMM DEBUTS ONLINE EXHIBITS

The Clayton McLain Memorial Museum and Archives will celebrate Saskatchewan Archives Week 2015 with the presentation of two online events at cmmmcutknife.ca.

At noon on Wednesday, February 4th, “The History of the Cut Knife Downtown Business District” will make its website debut. This page will feature the research put together by CMMM volunteers for the Town of Cut Knife’s Centennial celebrations in 2012.

Information was sourced from the CMMM Archives, the Highway 40 Courier, local history books and local residents with long memories. The signage was originally displayed outdoors over the 2012 summer season. By uploading these documents to our website, we are pleased to be able to contribute to Saskatchewan’s online documentary heritage.

The second event, at noon on Friday, February 6th, will introduce a Genealogy Resource page for all those working on family histories. This should be considered a work-in-progress as the addition of relevant website links will be ongoing.

Please note the Museum Administration and Archives Centre (MAAC) is closed for the winter. These are online events at: cmmmcutknife.ca.

For more information, call (306) 398-2345 or email cmmmcutknife@gmail.com.

archives week 2015 poster
2015 Archives Week poster

~ Debbie M.

Our Stories

Sites Mapping Adventure

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.

Events

Working Towards 2012

2012 is Cut Knife’s 100th birthday as a town. There was a settlement before 1912 but this when it became a town.

Our museum is researching the businesses and residences along Broad Street and other older buildings in the town for a walking tour and publication to help celebrate the event.

The committee has spent some time in the old newspapers where it is sooooo easy to become sidetracked because the information is very interesting. We will need to focus and work more quickly because time may run out when we only go through several years of papers a day!

I have also done some research for individuals who want some genealogy information. This too is very time consuming. Would love to have the newspapers digitized. Sigh. Too much work, not enough time or hands to complete it. Anyone interested in helping?