The Souris Valley Museum has proven to be a popular attraction since an expansion to its building was completed earlier this year.
The museum celebrated its grand reopening on Saturday as part of its annual Cowpokes and Cookouts season-opening event. Board chair Marguerite Gallaway and City Councillor Lyle Yanish, who is the city’s representative on the museum board, cut the ribbon in front of a gathering of board members, staff and others.
The expansion includes an activity area and washrooms, which will allow the museum to remain open throughout the year.
Mark Veneziano, the director-curator at the museum, said after the ribbon cutting that the activity room has already been used several times, and they hope to use it more for programs, crafts and summer camps.
“It’s going to be a very good thing for the community of Estevan,” said Veneziano. “It allows them to come out to the museum, and it gives them another place to come throughout the year.”
Their first program was an archaeology camp for children during spring break in April.
“All of the campers enjoyed themselves,” said Veneziano. “We’ve heard positive feedback from parents, and we’re definitely looking forward to doing that again in the future.”
On days when school isn’t in session, the museum has programs for children ages five to 12. Topics are connected to items in their collection and the history of Estevan.
“Our last one was actually Moving Through History, in which we invited a yoga instructor to come out here and talk about the history of yoga and do a yoga class in the museum,” said Veneziano. “Part of the group learned about the history of Estevan sports as well as some local historical sports team.”
Thanks to the success of the archaeology camp, they created a series for young children with the theme “I am.” Their first session was “I am a Dinosaur,” in which children ages three and four came to the museum to learn about dinosaurs that roamed the southeast millions of years ago, and played games that allowed them to pretend they were dinosaurs.
Their next session will be I am a Firefighter on June 7 and 9. The two fire trucks in the museum, including Estevan’s first fire truck, will be incorporated into the presentation.
“We’re going to learn about the history of the department,” said Veneziano.
The programming area is expected to be popular this summer, as it will be the site of their summer camps, with their Pioneer Day Camps for children ages five to 10, Discovery Day Camps for those eight to 12, and a Pioneer Play Time for toddlers.
People are also happy the museum has washrooms. Until now, visitors had to use the washrooms at the neighbouring Tourism Estevan Visitor Information Centre.
“It makes it a lot easier to do programs, so that if a kid has dirty hands, we don’t have to worry about the child walking through the museum with dirty hands,” said Veneziano.
They also don’t have to be dependent on the hours at the Visitor Information Centre.
The museum was traditionally open from May to September each year. But now with the washrooms, they will be open until the end of this year, and starting next year, they will be open year-round for the first time.
As for Cowpokes and Cookouts, it had several events related to a western theme. There was a chili cook-off, various activities in the museum, a children’s craft in the programming area, panning for gold, rope making and butter making. Schoolhouse re-enactments took place in the old Schneller Schoolhouse.
