“This website makes the museum’s treasure trove of contents more accessible to all,” said Brenda Evans, a board member. “Reaching a wider audience, it’s also a great means to receive feedback or get in touch with people looking for information or simply a question.”

Whether researching family roots or just interested in local history, site visitors will discover a wealth of information on Birtle’s beginning with the Birdtail Settlement in 1878 and events as the settlement grew into a successful town and community.

Although the website is a work in progress, tabs such as Publications and Reports, Vintage Views, Pivotal Mom­ents, Cemeteries and Churches can be opened, and a military section will be among new information added. By visiting the site, one will find personal stories, photos, and information on historic buildings, cairns, plaques and other heritage resources Birtle has to offer.

With the Town and RM of Birtle jointly supplying funds, the old bank building was purchased for $10,000 to become the home of the Birdtail Country Museum 35 years ago.

It expanded in 2004 with the acquisition of the building directly east of the museum on Birtle’s Main Street, which was the last home of the Birtle Eye-Witness newspaper.

Today, the museum houses over 5,000 artifacts including a variety of household items, military, archeological and Indigenous artifacts.

Open Monday to Friday in July and August, new displays are showcased each year, with guided tours available upon request.

Through a website, community support and dedicated volunteers, the community’s heirlooms, heritage and history, will live on at the Birdtail Country Museum.

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Tim Clack, who was born October 30, 1918, started the museum with his brother Doug, and Tim kept the museum running until his death in 2014.

In 2006 Tim wrote his memoirs and with the help of his niece had them published. He tells how life changed in 1948 when hydro first came in and his hydro bill was $12. He bought his first tractor for $1,086 in 1952. Bread was 10 cents a loaf then, milk 43 cents a quart, his driver’s licence $1.50. A bushel of oats sold for 43 cents, barley was 74 cents and diesel fuel was 21 cents a gallon. A highlight for Tim was showing the Grand Champion Hereford Female at the Royal Winter Fair in 1958.

Doug started making miniature equipment to display in the museum, starting with a push saw and then a Boss harrow. When he was making a fanning mill his eyesight started to fail and Tim took over the project. Numerous miniature pieces of machinery were made for the museum including a binder which took him two years, and a threshing outfit which runs, that took him a year to complete.

In 1981 the Clack brothers hired Gooden Industries to put up the first museum building, and in 1983 they opened it to the public.

The next building they built is a display of things you’d find in a Victorian home. Doug and Tim attended numerous auctions to find pieces for the museum over the years, and people have donated objects in order to preserve them.

Another building tells the history of the railway and another is a child’s museum. They also built a halfway house to remember where their dad got his first meal when he arrived in Canada, complete with an old barber’s chair, a Mountie in dress uniform, plus the history of an old post office.

Vintage cars can be found in a building such as a 1919 Model T Ford truck, a Model A Ford car, and a 1924 Model 490 Coupe.

In 1989 the Clacks donated a quarter section to Manitoba Wildlife Federation Habitat Foundation to preserve wildlife and its habitat.

Every August the museum board holds an Open House Fundraiser where you can take part in an old-fashioned log-sawing contest, or enjoy eating fresh homemade pie and ice cream while visiting with other history buffs.

The museum, located between Oak River and Rivers, Manitoba, is open during the summer, manned by students and volunteers. The dream of Tim and Doug Clack lives on because of dedicated volunteers.

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At Argyle, flags are now their main attraction. But they aren’t all flapping in the breeze this spring.

Argyle’s Settlers Rails and Trails Museum has recently become home to the second-largest Canadian flag collection in the country, containing over 1,000 unique flags.

A large donation from an Ontario flag collector arrived in Argyle February 15 — National Flag Day of Canada — to add to the museum’s already sizable flag collection.

The museum’s founder has been an avid collector himself and over the years has accepted donations of many Canadian-themed flags from many places, and he welcomes the new arrivals.

“We were pretty excited about it,” says Shayne Campbell, now its president and executive director.

It’s now second only to one larger flag collection in Canada, contained in the Museum of Civilization in Gatineau, Quebec.

The gift of 276 Canadian-themed flags comes from a collection of about 3,000 flags of retired Anglican bishop, Ralph Spence of Hamilton, Ontario. When he donated the legacy collection to the Canadian Heraldic Authority in Rideau Hall in Ottawa, part of it was recommended to go to the Argyle’s museum too.

That’s because Campbell, a high school teacher from Teulon, is a well-known lover of flags himself and had amassed a sizable collection.

They were thrilled to receive this donation, says Campbell.

“Ralph’s never been to Argyle but he had the largest private collection in the country and when that collection was up for grabs to the major national museum, we were suggested as a flag collection museum on the Prairies,” he said.

Spence’s own collection contained about 3,000 flags, including many historical Canadian flags and flags gifted by the Queen.

“We were very excited to have a choice of what we could take from his collection to have here on the Prairies,” Campbell added.

The donation brings Argyle’s Canadian-themed flag collection to over 1,300 historic, corporate, sport, regional and special occasion flags. They will be displayed in groups such as flags flown on Canadian embassies around the world, and celebratory flags including those marking Canada’s 100th, 125th and 150th years.

“A lot of functions are most often represented with a flag,” said Campbell.

“Our flags tell the story of Canada. They tell the story of Canadian identity and what it means to be a Canadian, and how that symbolism is morphing and changing as the country grows.”

Future home

The Argyle museum itself will soon be changing and growing too.

It’s been housed in the Argyle Community Centre since 2013 while the board tries to acquire land elsewhere in the village for its permanent home.

When it does, the plan is to build a modern pavilion to house it and surround it with outdoor space for more displays and exhibitions as well as recreation facilities to attract and accommodate large groups of visitors. A greatly expanded agricultural display — to complement the hands-on interactive one they already have indoors — is planned.

“We’re looking at setting up gardens and plots and crops,” said Campbell. Other plans include showcasing arts and culture through theatre, interpretive dance, photography and visual arts.

It’s all about making ready their museum for telling stories about the past tomorrow, he said.

The successful museums are going to be the ones that can offer more than just static displays to view, said Campbell.

“We’re trying to take the step toward becoming a modern museum,” he said.

Argyle’s museum has always been the ‘little museum that could,’ championed by Campbell since he started it himself at age 12. That was on his family’s own property near Argyle. He called it the Argyle Prairie Museum. He gifted all its artifacts to Argyle in 2009.

In addition to its flag collection, the 700-sq.-ft. space contains exhibits about the community’s historic Brant-Argyle School, its former United Church.

There’s also a special display about local veterans, which includes a display of a uniform of Wellington Wilson, a First World War veteran Campbell has always taken special interest in.

He carries a penny around in his pocket to commemorate him.

“It’s an 1891 penny which is his birth year,” he explains. “I now live on his property and I’ve visited his grave in France.”

The museum is open to visitors the first Saturday of every month from 1 to 4 p.m. and also by appointment and for tour groups.

More information can be found on the Settlers Rails and Trails Museum website.

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Last month the provincial government rolled out its new Heritage Trust program which will provide $5 million over three years to create endowment funds within local community foundations for museums and archives.

“We have heard a strong call for greater investment from our heritage organizations across Manitoba,” said Sport, Culture and Heritage Minister Cathy Cox who announced the program alongside Municipal Relations Minister Jeff Wharton just before Christmas.

Cox said the Heritage Trust program will be a partnership that provides stable long-term funding for Manitoba’s smaller museums and archives.

The province is dotted with nearly 200 of these smaller entities and 75 per cent are located in rural areas.

Their need for funding is widely varied but many of those in the smallest towns and villages have been operating on shoestring budgets, with dwindling volunteers wondering how to find cash to keep operating.

This is wonderful news, said Monique Brandt, executive director of the Association of Manitoba Museums, adding as far as she knows this is a first-in-Canada approach to funding the museum community.

“It’s fabulous,” she said. “This is a way for them to get money that isn’t tied in anything except to what they need to do for the museum. It doesn’t come with strings.”

The endowment program will provide a maximum of one provincial dollar for every two private dollars raised by qualifying heritage organizations. That creates an incentive for communities to develop an endowment pool worth up to $15 million to support heritage projects across Manitoba.

That’s a different approach than the grant-based system they’ve tried to operate under, said Brandt. Grants often required matched funding and had specific criteria which didn’t match museums’ needs, she said.

“An endowment fund is producing money that can be used any way you want,” she said. “You could use it as matching funds for a grant. You can use it to repair a roof or for staffing. Those are things really important but are really hard to find outside money for.

“What we’re really pleased about is, this is a way for the smaller community museums to build community support and to build their own resources so that they can be sustainable in the long run,” she added.

Manitobans are already supporting museums with donations from individuals and corporations amounting to $7.6 million in 2013, matched by about $7.8 million from the province.

But the operating budgets of museums vary widely, and many struggle to find qualified workers to fill summer positions and lack software to digitally manage collections. Inadequate environmentally controlled storage systems is a huge concern as museum volunteers watch precious artifacts put away for winter in unheated conditions.

Brandt said she hopes municipalities will contribute to this program too.

Municipal government per capita contribution to museums in Manitoba is, at $2.08, lower than the $3.58 national average, according to figures cited by the association in a submission to the province’s cultural policy review earlier this year.

“Almost every municipality has museums or archives within their constituency,” said Brandt. “I think this might be a way they could step up and help as well.”

There are also 75 archive sites throughout the province and these will also benefit from the new program.

“The creation of a Heritage Trust program that includes Manitoba archival institutions is indeed positive news,” said Heather Bidzinski, chair of the Association for Manitoba Archives.

“We are excited about the possibilities presented by this contribution to the long-term sustainability of the archival community.”

Wharton said just as major attractions are important to the province, so are our smaller museums, archives and heritage organizations.

“We are working with heritage organizations and community foundations across the province to create stable, long-term funding to maintain these important community infrastructure assets,” he said.

The province will enter into a three-year agreement with The Winnipeg Foundation to work with Manitoba’s other 54 community foundations to administer the program.

“This new initiative is an exciting breakthrough because endowments provide sustainable funding that can be counted upon year after year,” said Rick Frost, chief executive officer, The Winnipeg Foundation.

“The Heritage Trust program provides a unique opportunity for those wishing to support the preservation of Manitoba’s rich history.”

The program is part of a larger package that will contribute $8.75 million to the Royal Aviation Museum and $10 million over five years to the Winnipeg Art Gallery’s Inuit Art Centre.

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Also called Nebogwawin Butte and Merry Dance Hill, Star Mound is thought to be a glacial moraine from the time of the Ice Age. It rises above the surrounding fields, with scenic views from the top stretching in all directions. It is believed that this mound was once the site of a long-abandoned Aboriginal village, probably used only in summer, as it would not be at all sheltered in winter. The area was no longer inhabited by 1738 when the explorer La Verendrye visited it.

At the top of the mound is a burial site, which is said to be beaver shaped, as shown by excavations undertaken between 1912 and 1915 by archeologist William Baker Nickerson. He uncovered several graves with skeletons, and a variety of artifacts including arrowheads, pottery shards, weapons and stone and bone tools. Today Star Mound is home to an original one-room, wood-frame schoolhouse — Star Mound School, No. 413. The burial mound itself has been so disturbed that no more artifacts remain there.

Star Mound School District was established nearby in June 1885, but the school was actually about two kilometres to the south, not on this hilltop. While in operation, the schoolhouse was moved twice, first in 1901 to a location that was more central for the pupils, and then in 1962 to the nearby village of Snowflake, where it was used for high school students for about four years, after which they were bused to Manitou. At that time a local group — the Star Mound Historical Society — acquired the school and in 1967 had it moved to the top of the mound.

Today the school operates in summer as a municipal heritage museum. It is easily accessed by road (although with steps at the entrance, it is not wheelchair accessible). The school is one of the oldest remaining ones of its type. Inside are single and double wooden desks, each with a prominent inkwell, a pot-bellied stove, a teacher’s desk and a couple of benches. Atop a storage cupboard is a globe, along one side sits an organ, and Aboriginal stone hammers are displayed in a wall case. Various historical pictures line the walls, along with a list of all the previous teachers.

Outside, there is a large winnowing stone once used for threshing grain, and a buffalo rubbing stone. The hill was formerly a well-known place for crocuses, but now the long matted grass makes it hard for them to grow, and also recent tilling near the school has probably disturbed them.

There is no charge to explore the museum. A sign and box indicate that donations are gratefully accepted, as plans are underway to do some repairs and put new siding on the school in the near future. In summer the museum is sometimes visited by bus tours, and the community holds an annual picnic there on July 1. For more information and photos visit: www.mhs.mb.ca/docs/sites/starmound.shtml.

The museum is open to the public from April to October. From the village of Snowflake (which is south of La Riviere), drive two miles west and one mile north. Be sure to sign the book before you leave, as grants are sometimes dependent on the number of visitors.

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The week’s work is all done as most of the people in the photo are well dressed, however, one man is in overalls which provides us with a clue. Sundays were strictly observed at the time, with work of any sort frowned upon so the man dressed in work overalls indicates this photo was not taken on a Sunday. Perhaps the photo was taken on a late Saturday afternoon and some of the people are getting ready to drive into the town of Douglas to take in the Saturday night events there?

Visiting with other farm families, shop for supplies at the general store, check in at the CPR station for the news. If they were lucky, perhaps an event of some sort was being held at the town hall.

The Black family operated farms near Brandon and Douglas and the photos hold no clue as to which farm the photos were taken on. So they could also be heading into Brandon to sample the delights this Prairie metropolis held. And who knows what could happen there!

Stroll down Rosser Avenue window shopping, visit with people they knew, sample some of the delicacies the Mutter Brothers Store held, maybe even go to a movie, perhaps the new Charlie Chaplin feature. They could even shoot the budget and purchase ice creams or popcorn. If their budget was zero they could just loiter around the fire hall on Princess, in hopes that a call would result in the firemen springing into action cranking up their new firetruck, or go down to the CPR station on Pacific Ave. to watch for one of the CPR’s crack passenger trains, the “Flyers,” coming into the station to see who was boarding or getting off.

A roundhouse crew came up to the station to service the passenger locomotive which always provided interest as the crew “oiled” round the locomotive, cleaned the boiler ash pan and crawled over the locomotive tinkering with various bits. The tender was filled with water and, if the train was headed west, a labourer shovelled coal forward in the tender so the fireman had coal close to hand for the run to Elkhorn, where there were coaling towers right on the main line. Lots of activity in the few minutes the passenger train was stopped at the station!

They could also do the same with the CNR but somehow that lacked the same drama as the CNR passenger trains had to back down the spur off the main line into the station behind the Prince Edward hotel. The CNR seemed more leisurely as a result. But then they could look through the lobby of the “Eddie,” Brandon’s leading hotel at the time, to see who was there that they knew. Perhaps even tell the younger members of the group of how the Eddie’s original order of furniture went to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean with the Titanic and so a second order was necessary.

But wherever they were headed, the photo tells a story of a late-summer afternoon in 1920. The week’s work is all done with some of the family taking a rare opportunity to just do nothing for a few minutes except visit. A time before radio, TV, even hydro, a time where most work was manual, a time where there were few conveniences, a time where pleasures were few and simple, a time where frugality was practised out of necessity, a time where a few minutes spent visiting was a luxury to be savoured.

The Black family no longer farm in the Brandon area and for the people in this photo their workweek is long over, as are their lives. Their descendants have moved on from farming to other occupations. New people came to these farms to work, struggle and make a life. But once the Black family were here.

More than this, the Blacks and other families left the province and Canada a legacy in the form of their hopes of a better future and what they built for this future, not only the farms but the infrastructure and institutions such as the municipal governments, village halls, co-ops and more.

Museums like the Manitoba Agricultural Museum tell a story with photos like this and all the artifacts that they contain. This story is the story of the Province of Manitoba, the Canadian Prairies and of Canada, how the pioneer era shaped the Prairies and Canada and how this influence still resonates to this day.

So come on out to the museum this year to help the museum celebrate Canada’s 150th birthday this year. As part of this celebration, the Manitoba Agricultural Museum has identified the top 150 artifacts in the collection. You can find this list in the museum website. Visit the museum to examine these artifacts and others in the collection and then give us your opinion as to the top 150 artifacts.

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These aren’t merely collections of curios, tools, books and other things donated by local pioneer families, says Monique Brandt, executive director of the Association of Manitoba Museums.

They’re tangible connections to local history. But many face an uncertain future.

“They’re struggling to stay open,” Brandt said.

Some face the very real possibility of closure and collection dispersal one day.

“We’re hoping that this maybe opens eyes up to people a bit more.”

‘This’ is the “The End of Our Memories,” a documentary released this summer for the Manitoba Telecom Service series “Stories from Home.”

It was co-produced by Gimli-based filmmakers Andy Blicq and Huw Eirung and premiered in July at the Gimli Film Festival. The 25-minute documentary takes viewers to locales throughout rural Manitoba where volunteers describe their struggles with dwindling volunteers and next to no cash to make upgrades or develop programs to boost revenues.

Blicq said he was personally touched by their troubling tales which he says are really a bellwether issue about what’s going on in rural Canada.

“It’s a symptom of much larger issues around change,” he said, adding that small museums are falling through the cracks as demographics shift.

“Populations are aging and shrinking. People are very busy. It’s difficult to find people to volunteer and it’s a lot of work. It’s difficult to make these museums run anymore.”

Blicq said he hopes this film also shows why more people should care about what’s happening to these sites.

“The museum is a repository of the community’s memories,” he said. “Lose that and that connection to our past is gone. So is a fundamental way of telling a story all Canadians, including those with no connection to Canada’s pioneer past, need to hear.

“You’ve always been able to come to Canada with nothing, and work hard and find a future for your family.”

He hopes the film can start a more urgent conversation about the issue.

In the film several volunteer museum operators are interviewed about what they do and why they persevere to keep one going, including St. Malo’s Edmée Gosselin, the museum’s proprietor and last board member. She talks about the significance of the historical artifacts to the community, but also the very real prospect having to close up the site permanently.

“I’m tired,” she says in the film.

The documentary also tells the story of the intense grief residents felt when an arsonist destroyed the St. George museum in 2014.

National museum management expert Pat Bovey is also interviewed, and says the woes of small-town museums are by no means a Manitoba phenomena, but a problem right across the country.

But she sees not “the end of an era” but “time for a quantum change,” in how museums are operated.

That view is echoed by Peter Cantelon, executive director of the Canadian Fossil Discovery Centre in Morden. He speaks in the film about Morden deciding to focus on its very specific collection, as well as concentrate on giving museum visitors more hands-on experiences.

“It’s difficult to simply be a large space that people walk through and leave,” he says in the film. “You can’t be in what some people see as a maintain mode or a good enough mode because there isn’t any such thing.”

Small-town museums in search of their future must know their target audience, develop a business plan and market a focused experience to funders and the public, he stresses.

Brandt says that’s what more would like to do, but often it’s simply a lack of people to do these things.

The story of small-town museums isn’t entirely bleak either, however.

The film also describes sites doing well, including the 13-acre Arborg Multicultural Heritage Village site on the edge of the north Interlake town. There they’ve found new and innovative ways to engage and keep volunteers, including offering a complimentary fall supper on site to those buying an annual museum membership.

It’s a way to keep loyal volunteers happy, explains the museum’s manager Pat Eyolfson in the film.

Brandt says all their association can do to help those struggling is to share ideas and advice and point museum committees to potential resources. The status of this province’s approximately 200 small-town museums does vary from place to place, she added.

“There’s some doing really well and some that are dying or dead,” she said.

The Association of Manitoba Museums hopes to help distribute “The End of Our Memories” as a DVD so it can be made widely available to the public.

The association hosts its annual general meeting in Boissevain September 22 to 24.

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Iron slowly

Take your time, do a good job. Don’t rush through less-than-stimulating tasks just to get the work done. A radio-controlled aircraft concept model from the early 1930s was bequeathed to the museum that summer. It came packed in newspaper pages of the Winnipeg Free Press dated from November 10 to 17, 1942. We spent the whole afternoon slowly ironing wrinkled newspaper. We were instantly transported back to the war years, to a different age, full of anxiety, and intensity and, surprisingly, hope. How sad it seemed, from our historic vantage point, to be so unaware of what was yet to come, what sacrifices were yet to be demanded of our people. But somehow it seemed strangely uplifting too. It truly felt like we held history in our hands that afternoon. What greater feeling, what better balm for the soul, than actually touching the past.

Listen

Do we ever actually listen when someone talks to us? Working with volunteers is one of the best parts of working at our museum. We have many dedicated, loyal and dependable volunteers who work cheerfully alongside us year after year. From the young people on work placements who clean display cases to the elderly gentlemen who greet our guests at reception, we are one big team. We could never pay our volunteers adequately for all the work they do. Volunteers who come and stay for the sheer enjoyment and interest in their job are the lifeblood of any organization. Raelynn and I enjoyed twice-weekly tea in the library and archives over the summer. Who knew what Duncan did during the war, or that Bob was a paratrooper or that Jake actually flew Lancasters? Or that several of our volunteers have written books, or are professional musicians or artists or photographers. Or were principals or pilots or policemen in real life. Raelynn and I know. Because we listened.

Plumbing precedence

Sometimes it takes a major occurrence to put life in perspective. One day at work as we were doing a he-said, she-said round of intense discussion about some contentious issue, everything suddenly stopped. There was a plumbing problem. Nothing is more important than a plumbing problem. We retreated to our offices to await salvation. Yes, don’t sweat the small stuff, as they say. We worry so much about the details and the minutiae of life. But how much of it will still be significant a week from now, a month or a year from now? Don’t get caught up in the merry-go-round. It is hard to put things in perspective sometimes, especially at work when inundated by people and problems and paperwork. But really, if the plumbing doesn’t work…

Stay longer at your wedding

Even if one never marries, this is a life lesson worth remembering. How often do we motor through something with our sole focus the end in sight? Study hard for four years for your post-secondary degree or put in 10,000 hours of practice to be a world-class musician or athlete. These are noble goals, without a doubt. But my best memories of school are not of the work, but of the experience of being there. Making friends, working together, playing euchre on the bus, discovering Thai food and Irish music. Take your time and enjoy the trip. We actually did vicariously enjoy a wedding this summer courtesy of Mara, a new contract staff member of the museum. We had a lot of advice for her: wear comfortable shoes, don’t cry, eat slowly, thank your parents, make sure you talk to all your guests. And most importantly, stay longer at your wedding. Don’t be in a hurry to leave. Stay late; do the chicken dance and the polka, hug your grandma and kiss your uncles, actually eat some cake. Recognize the event for what it is: a chance to see all the people who mean the most to you, in one place, at one time. This does not happen often in life.

Have faith in people

Let’s lose the modern work ethic of extreme self-sufficiency. Set your own alarm and feed your own fish. But at work, trust that people will do their job. We are all adults, we know our jobs, we will get it done. Conversely, do what you say you will. Soon. Listen to your phone messages, answer your emails, stay on top of your paperwork. Life is so much easier if you’re not constantly treading water. Learn to swim. And have faith in people… have faith in your co-workers, have faith in your volunteers. People live up (or down) to our expectations.

Go to the party

Take the time, make the effort, get dressed and go. That’s one of those very common regrets in life; that you didn’t bother to go to the party, the picnic or the presentation. These are usually once-only events and life is short. This is especially important for funerals. Go, always go. As uncomfortable or emotional as they are for you, they are not about you. Let’s repeat that one: they are not about you. They are for the family and friends of the deceased. Your presence is an affirmation, an acknowledgment of the communal loss of another human being. Even if you go alone, sit in the back and don’t stay for the sandwiches, your presence is your gift. Don’t ever, ever miss the chance to say goodbye. Go to the party.

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That’s a lot visitors for a museum its size, says Keven Bowie, treasurer at the museum.

“We were quite amazed at the traffic,” he said. “We were only open during July and August, mainly.”

Hillcrest is strategically located beside another popular local attraction — the Souris swinging bridge. But soon this museum’s operators as well as 20 others in small towns across the Westman region will have more insight as to why people come through their doors.

They are participating in a two-year visitor traffic study by two Brandon University professors.

Chris Malcolm and Doug Ramsey began surveying museums in southwestern Manitoba this summer, hiring a summer student to drop off questionnaires for visitors to fill out.

“We ask them questions like, ‘why are you visiting the museum today?’ and if they’re going to other community museums in the region, and how they found out about the museum, and how the sites met their expectations,” said Malcolm, a geography professor.

By gathering this info, they hope to explore ways volunteer operators can potentially widen their appeal and boost visitor numbers. Researchers expect to approach about half of the 40 museums in Westman, Malcolm said.

The team was approached by Manitoba’s Tourism Ministry after completing a similar study for the Canadian Fossil Discovery Centre in Morden.

These small-town museums are full of fascinating things and definitely appeal to a segment of the public, but a lot more could be learned about them, including their needs and challenges, Malcolm said.

The study will continue over the summer of 2016 and will also include asking the volunteer caretakers to share what they think is working for them, and where they need help.

“We’re going to be talking to them about where they think they’re going to be in the next five years,” Malcolm said.

The answer actually may be quite troubling. It’s no secret many of these keepers of the past wonder what the future holds. Older volunteers often ask who will care for these sites after they cannot.

“They get relatively little funding and they’re almost soley based on volunteers,” said Malcolm.

They also worry about how long their aging artifacts may hold up when many are kept in not-so-well-insulated buildings, adds Ramsey, with BU’s department of rural development.

“These museums don’t have displays from the 1960s,” said Ramsey. “They have displays of things from 1910 and 1895.”

Monique Brandt, executive director of the Association of Manitoba Museums, says members are keen to see the results of the surveys because it will help those running museums see what their visitors see. This can potentially help small museums tailor their exhibits, education programs and advertising based on visitor experiences, expectations and satisfaction.

Capacity to operate is always limited, but operators of small-town museums are also really passionate about what they do, she added.

“A lot of these really small museums, even though they have no funding and it’s all volunteers, offer some pretty unique programs,” she added.

Ramsey said it’s hoped a final overall report to be shared among all participating museums might facilitate development of a ‘heritage trail,’ or guide designed to direct more visitors their way. Once museums have a better collective idea of what’s drawing people to them, they could potentially work more closely together to attract visitors, he said.

“They know they’re all in the same boat,” he said. “To see this data collected this way and find their similarities and differences will help them. They can learn from each other.”

Recruitment of participating museums and some initial data collection occurred in 2015. They’ll begin again next spring distributing more visitor surveys and will carry on this study throughout next summer as well, Malcolm said.

They hope to present their findings at next fall’s Association of Manitoba Municipalities conference.

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Five years ago the museum board started a project to upgrade the records to a computerized system specifically designed for small museums and archives.

“The historical value of an artifact is often directly linked to its ‘story,’ said David Gamey, who along with Grace Kang, are among the people working on this project. “The information about where the item came from, who owned it, when and how it was used and its place in the pioneer history of the community is sometimes as important to the collection as the object itself.”

The database is designed to ensure that as much information is collected and recorded as can be determined about the objects in the museum’s collection.

“As one may surmise, the job of inputting all the relevant information related to a collection which has been growing for 40 years was daunting to say the least,” said Gamey, who is the current secretary treasurer but also acts as the technical adviser for the Archive and Museum records program. “However, with the help of volunteers, summer student employees, and other grant support, the backlog of data entry will be nearly 100 per cent complete by the end of 2015.”

The Seniors Consultation group has contributed hundreds of hours identifying people and places in photographs. “This summer Grace (Kang) has been working on a special project called ‘School Memories,’ involving audio and video recording of various seniors reminiscing about their early school years in this area,” said Gamey.

The primary focus of the Museum Association is the Strathclair area, however, the organization’s mandate stipulates “Strathclair and Surrounding Districts,” so it accepts and currently holds material from Elphinstone, RM of Park, Newdale, Blanshard, Shoal Lake and Oakburn.

A version of the Museum and Archives collection records is available on the museum’s website.

Anyone in Strathclair or surrounding districts who has material or items appropriate for the museum or archive can contact Gamey at: phone 204-365-5350, text 204-720-0704 or email davidgamey@mymts.net.

Darrell Nesbitt writes from Shoal Lake, Manitoba

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