Homestead Papers and Land Grant Certificates Available

Copies of homestead papers and land grant certificates are available to the public.
For more information:

• visit the Saskatchewan Homestead Index at  www.saskhomesteads.com ; or
• visit the Saskatchewan Archives Board website at www.saskarchives.com or phone the Saskatchewan Archives in Regina, 306-787-4068, or in Saskatoon at 306-933-5832.

I imagine there will be a small fee for the copying service.

New Acquisition

Russell Stewart is standing beside the melodeon that he donated to the museum this year.
It belonged to his grandmother, Lucinda Rebecca Cunningham Atton, 1854-1940. As a young woman in Kincardine, Ontario, she taught music on the melodeon. When Lucinda and her husband, William Matthew Atton, came west to homestead in March 1906, the melodeon came with them. Their son Fred rode in the train box car of settler's effects guarding his mother's treasured instrument.
Lucinda and the children spent the summer in a rented house in Battleford until their home was ready for them to move into on SW 14-44-20 in the Riding Hill District in September. Lucinda and William lived for the rest of their lives in this house. The Attons owned the land that bordered the lake that was named after them, Atton's Lake.
The melodeon was passed down to Lucinda's daughter, Annie, who gave it to Russell.
We are very honored to have this treasured musical instrument in our museum's collection.

The Last Week Mad Dash

Every year I have a burst of energy in the last week that the museum is open.
The visitor traffic is down and my 'to do' list is still far too long. So I spend a lot of time at the museum trying to make the season a little more productive. At least for my list.
In the big picture we have accomplished a lot again this summer.
New wheelchair ramps and the Duvall House exhibits completed and the main floor usable.
New flagpoles and fixed roof on Raymond's Store.
And I almost forgot the new office and Sales area. How could I forget - it's great! (Needs a little electrical work tho - hint, hint, Glenn!)
The 1885 Photo Exhibit looks good - at least in my eyes.
The Armstrong Building has been cleaned up a bit and there is a great new work bench.
The outdoor exhibit signage is up and awaiting the info to be put in them. (I have it 1/2 done!)
The Railway Display is progressing well - should have most of the signage up tomorrow.
Mitchell has constructed new intro signage stands and Tori and Rachel have painted them. I will do the signage for them this fall.
I even had time to do some organizing on the MAC computer. The files were so jumbled up - should be easier to find things. Or at least for me - sorry, Noreen, if I mixed things up for you.
Our printer at the MAC has been giving us grief - paper stuck, refusal to print more than one page at a time, incompatibility with Vista. I almost took the hammer to it, but it has too much ink left to use in it.
Next week I promise I will stay home more - no more dashing!

Ribbon Cutting

Jean Duvall Parkinson and Janice Duvall cutting ribbon for Grand Opening of Duvall House

Duvall House Grand Opening

 We had a week of cleaning, moving, arranging, cleaning again, re-arranging, changing my mind, and re-arranging again. (Yes, Tori, the old bat is losing it!) But last night made it all worth while.
The Grand Opening of the Duvall House, 1928 farmhouse, was a wonderful success. After the ribbon cutting at the front door by Jean Duvall Parkinson and Janice Duvall (both had lived in the house), Noreen welcomed everyone and made a few short remarks. There are so many people to thank in the journey of restoring the house from volunteers to donors that we decided to be very general and not mention names in fear of leaving someone out.
Of course there are a few that just have to be mentioned. Like Randy Brackenbury and Lorne Veikle - they instigated the whole project and did so much work to fix up the building.
Glenn Stewart spent the last day and a half getting the electricity to all parts of the house so we could light it up and show how magnificent it is. 
Some people who will not be named stained and varnished the floors upstairs and quite a bit of the woodwork pretty much by herself. And she wields a mean paint brush on cupboards too!
Refreshments were served and many little remembrances of the house were heard in conversations. If only they would have agreed to write them down.
There were about 75 people attending which was pretty much a full house.

Painting Restored

This beautiful painting by Marilyn Weikle and Ralph Veikle was restored by Marilyn and returned to the museum on Friday. Now to find a spot to put it so it can be shown off. What a great job, Marilyn! Thanks so much - especially for all the trouble that you and Gordon had in getting it to the museum.
This is the kind of help that warms one's heart. :)