Stony Plain Pioneer Museum

 Just a few minutes drive from our Stony Plain base, a Google map search revealed that Stony Plain has a Pioneer museum and so why wouldn't we visit! We actually visited twice as on our first visit the girls naturally wanted to explore outside and were not interested in the indoor exhibits. 

Not knowing what the museum offered before our first visit we didn't know how long to allow and consequently we were a little short of time.The Town Hall building is currently home to a collection of more than 500 oil and gas lamps with some spectacular specimens on display. Upstairs in the Town Hall is a magnificent model railway layout, built, maintained and developed by a small band of volunteers (more always welcome!) as well as a smaller, portable, layout to take to regional events.

The Pioneer Museum collects items of historical interest from Parkland County and presents the stories of these items to visitors from far and wide and even not so far and wide. Most of the Museum work, such as machinery restoration, building restoration and maintenance, archiving artifacts, guiding tours and hosting events, is done by a large group of volunteers. 

The museum sits on 14 acres at the western edge of Stony Plain. 

 There are a wide range of restored and reconstructed buildings on site such as a schoolhouse, blacksmithy, trapper's cabins etc as well as a large selection of vehicles from the period when the region was being settled and in it's early development. 

Unfortunately I did not take sufficient photographs to do the museum justice, you'll just have to visit yourself! There are lots of buildings to explore as well as some of the larger buildings with hundreds of items on display.

The Pioneer Museum partners with other organisations for some of the major events in the town, such as Farmers' Days, Canada Day, The Blueberry Bluegrass Festival and the Stony Plain Cowboy Gathering.