It Feels Like ‘’HOME’‘ Founders’ Museum & Pioneer Village

 

A visit to the Founders’ Museum and Pioneer Village is perhaps best described as a visit to someplace that feels like ‘’home’‘.

Wooden boardwalks along storefronts. General Store with an old style porch for sitting and chatting – and just about everything inside one needs for pioneer life in the wilds. A two-story pioneer homestead. Yellow caboose on rails beside the Upsala train station. Cobbler, carpenter, blacksmith and printing shops. Village square (with library, museum, photographer, china and toy shops). Bandstand. Village church (used all year round)…and much more.

“This is a very different kind of museum” said Fran Loney, full-time volunteer during the summer season and president of Founders’ board of directors. “It is its own little world – you really start to believe it is real.” She’s right.

I counted about 20 different stores and buildings to visit in the village. Most have been built on site, but four are original buildings that have either been moved to, or dismantled and re-assembled, at the Village: the S.S. #1 Conmee Store, Village church, Community Hall (1921) and the big red barn (Biloski).

An average of 6,000-7,000 people visit Founders each season (open seven days a week, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., mid-May to early September). Volunteer-based and driven (including Fran, a costume maker and the ‘’boys in the back’ – ‘Russ Roulston, Bill Bukovy, Walter Saarimaki and Don Arril — who make ideas happen), Founders’ Museum and Pioneer Village is a non-profit organization that is celebrating its 45th anniversary this year.

A visit to the Founders’ Museum and Pioneer Village is perhaps best described as a visit to someplace that feels like ‘’home’‘.

Wooden boardwalks along storefronts. General Store with an old style porch for sitting and chatting – and just about everything inside one needs for pioneer life in the wilds. A two-story pioneer homestead. Yellow caboose on rails beside the Upsala train station. Cobbler, carpenter, blacksmith and printing shops. Village square (with library, museum, photographer, china and toy shops). Bandstand. Village church (used all year round)…and much more.

“This is a very different kind of museum” said Fran Loney, full-time volunteer during the summer season and president of Founders’ board of directors. “It is its own little world – you really start to believe it is real.” She’s right.

I counted about 20 different stores and buildings to visit in the village. Most have been built on site, but four are original buildings that have either been moved to, or dismantled and re-assembled, at the Village: the S.S. #1 Conmee Store, Village church, Community Hall (1921) and the big red barn (Biloski).

An average of 6,000-7,000 people visit Founders each season (open seven days a week, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., mid-May to early September). Volunteer-based and driven (including Fran, a costume maker and the ‘’boys in the back’ – ‘Russ Roulston, Bill Bukovy, Walter Saarimaki and Don Arril — who make ideas happen), Founders’ Museum and Pioneer Village is a non-profit organization that is celebrating its 45th anniversary this year.

It all started with the dream of a Grade 3 Thunder Bay teacher, Frederick Fraser Goodfellow. He realized that children didn’t have a clue about pioneer days, so he began to collect things, take them to school, cover them up on a table, and have students play, “What am I?”. Over time, the collection got much bigger (many of us can remember driving by and wondering what the heck all those “found” items were doing scattered on a country yard). In 2000 (a year after Fred died), his dream became reality, when Founders’ Museum and Pioneer Village officially opened its gates.

“Children are special at Founders – they can pick things up, feel and touch the items. And we still have a ‘What am I?’ table,” said Fran, who personally welcomes the two school tours that visit Founders every day. She tells the children about ‘’box lunches’‘ and how ‘’box socials’‘ were used to raise money to build the Pioneer Village. “I tell them that back in the pioneer days, wages were $1 a day, maximum bid was 10 cents for a box lunch.Box socials were how money was raised, and they were to use their imagination to figure out what was in the box. It’s an ice-breaker for the kids”.

Today, the Community Hall is a busy place, housing a tea house, plus catering luncheon or dinner tours in the hall. Lunches are also served to the school and tour groups. There are also lots of picnic tables on site (“bring a lunch and stay the afternoon”).

During the season, Founders’ hires eight tour guides. “I can’t praise the guides enough. They are what actually makes the village come alive,” said Fran, adding with a twinkle in her eyes, “All along the intent was to make you feel like you are coming home to live in the village.”

And they have succeeded.

Elle Andra-Warner is an author, journalist and photographer based in Thunder Bay.

Let’s Go! Founders’ Museum & Pioneer Village is located on Highway 61, a short drive north from the Pigeon River border crossing; just outside the city limits of Thunder Bay. Phone 807-475-5114 www.founders.ca