A Brief History of the Museum

Many years before the museum building was erected, a group of dedicated residents were busy preserving Quesnel’s young but exciting history. By the time they formed the Quesnel Historical Society in 1951 many household items, farm machinery, mining and logging equipment, and photographs had already been collected. These items had to be stored in Society member’s basements and sheds. When the Federal Building was opened in 1949, to house the Post Office and RCMP, the Historical Society was given a space in the basement to store their artifacts. This room was later needed and a new space was provided, but it was prone to water seepage.

In the mid 1950s, the Board of Trade approached the town council about building a Tourist Information Centre. Soon the Historical Society was also researching methods of fundraising and ways of increasing the Society’s profile. Key members joined committees, and, after years of meetings, lobbying and more meetings their perseverance paid off. The museum building was finally erected in beautiful LeBourdais Park in 1963. Society members and volunteers oversaw the collection until 1972, at which time the City officially took the museum over.

Since then the building has been expanded twice. The back mining and farming area was added in 1971 and the Lois Dawson Memorial Wing was opened in 1987. A storage area was included with that last addition, but was soon found to be inadequate due to the overwhelming number of donor’s pouring invaluable historical objects into the Museum.

A Pioneer corner was established in 1991, and has grown to include a microfilm reader/printer for perusing our Cariboo Observer newspapers, the Barkerville Sentinel newspapers, or the Ashcroft Journal newspapers. There is a TV/VCR for viewing the many videos in our collection, two tape recorders for listening to the many taped interviews our local pioneers, and a slide projector for viewing slide shows. We have two Pioneer Scrapbooks full of interesting articles and people, Quesnel’s Rich History 1863-1998, Municipal History of 1928, and numerous copies of newspapers and magazines from Quesnel’s past for all to read.

In 1992 the Education Program was established, with scavenger hunts for children and other hands on activities following. That was also the year the Museum began staying open year round.

A Policy and Procedure manual was created in 1995, to better establish professional work ethics for both staff and volunteers.

Upon successful application for a grant (CAAP) in 1995, the archives were arranged and described. Due to a severe lack of space the archives are housed in three separate locations within the museum. This shortage of space is even more evident today. It is our policy to collect as much material as possible from community organizations, societies, groups and businesses. Many have already seen the importance of housing their records and photographs in the archives. Subsequently, donations of archival materials have been coming in at a steady pace.