What started out as a dream the year Saskatchewan got its flag and the year Woodstock changed the music world was celebrated when the Sukanen Ship Pioneer Village and Museum observed 50 years of operation.
The Moose Jaw Antique Auto Club sought a place to restore and perhaps display their collections, Evan Davis told the dedication ceremony.
After unsuccessful negotiations with the city, the club bought a place 13 km south of Moose Jaw.
They built the first building, now the museum office, "never imagining it would expand the way it has.”
Members have always been made up of some “interesting characters” who didn’t always get along but managed to get the job done.
The late Dick Meacher was a central figure and became known as the contact for the museum.
“He was an excellent scrounger. He could repair or fix anything.”
That first-year, donations to the museum included a W-12 tractor and a threshing machine. The club decided to have a threshing bee for a fundraiser and has had one every year since.
The museum grew as local people looked for a place to preserve their buildings.
Another of the “interesting characters” Moon Mullin heard about a ship lying on the Prairie near Macrorie and was given $500 to investigate.
With that money Mullin was able to bring the ship to the museum. Another expert scrounger, Mullin “could talk anybody into anything.” And he brought the body of ship builder Tom Sukanen from the North Battleford cemetery to lie beside the ship.
In 1977, the restored ship was dedicated, and the museum name changed from Prairie Pioneer Antique Auto Club to the Sukanen Ship Pioneer Village and Museum.
The women’s auxiliary, Bonnets and Dusters, ran the concessions and made enough money to keep things going. And they built the tradition of home-made pies at threshing bees.
Fifty years of museum growth came from hard work and dedication by the volunteers with a collection of 100,000 artifacts, over 40 buildings and over 200 vehicles and machines.
Jonathon Potts, Tourism Saskatchewan marketing director, said this museum has become a significant provincial tourist attraction outside of the two big cities.
The museum development shows “the small-town community spirit of Saskatchewan.”
Potts remembers visiting the museum often as a child growing up in Swift Current. “As far as I was concerned it was always there.”
Museum president Gord Ross said the all-volunteer museum has built a village — a village that should be put on the provincial map.
Fifty-year membership plaques were presented to Elsie Meacher, wife of the late Dick Meacher, Garry Davis, Bob Jones, Charlie Meacher and Andy Sentes.
Threshing bee demonstrations ranged from quilting, rope making blacksmithing, square dancing to reaping, binding, ploughing, hand threshing to threshing with three sets of machines.
Ron Walter can be reached at ronjoy@sasktel.net
