Sukanen Ship Pioneer Village & Museum

www.sukanenshipmuseum.com

Souvenir Edition

8 miles/13km South of Moose Jaw on Hwy #2

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PAGE 2 • Sukanen Ship Pioneer Village & Museum 50th Anniversary Souvenir Edition

President’s Message from Gord Ross We are proud to present this 50th anniversary souvenir publication for our friends and supporters.

Fifty years in this day and age is a long time. We have made it 50 years through hardships with your support.

The Sukanen Ship Pioneer Village and Museum started with just one building and kept growing as people wanted to preserve their heritage. The growth into a pioneer village is a tribute to our leaders, volunteers and the community.

We’re very proud of the museum. We couldn’t have done it without the volunteers. We have done a lot for an organization with just volunteers.

In 2015, the museum received the Heritage Stewardship Achievement Award from Heritage Saskatchewan.

Architectural Heritage Society of Saskatchewan rep Joe Ralko said preserving heritage is important to let current and future generations know what life was like. “This collection of buildings is one of the finest in Saskatchewan.”

Last year we hit a milestone with 10,000 attendance at the museum. That’s double what it was

five years ago.

That kind of milestone and the 250,000 people who came through our gates over 50 years was achieved with support from the community, the volunteers and donators.

We want to keep going forward for the next 50 years. To do that we have developed a number of projects in the last few years.

Our newest project is a heated year-round shop being planned right now. The 40x60 shop will

let us work on machines in the off-season and give us more time for maintenance of the old buildings in the summer.

If we’ve got a shop, we’re extending our working time from six months to 12 months. A lot of this stuff that could be done in the winter is being done in the summer.

With so many of the old buildings, there’s more than enough projects to do to keep us busy here just doing the upkeep and repairing.

Since the 2013 grand opening of the elevator, it hasn’t slowed down. We finished the school, raised it and put it on a new foundation, put a new roof on the church, and the first tractor shed.

The Leonard Fysh Pharmacy was built. The second Bill Young tractor building went up. The combine storage building went up.

The Founder’s building was put up. Last year the vacant building left by the founder’s was turned into the Nelson Motors John Deere building.

The IHC dealership should be open by the Threshing Bee. We invite you to come out and enjoy yourselves at the museum and our events.

Keeping the museum is a challenge. We need your support and we need more volunteers to keep the vision going.

Today’s Sukanen Ship Pioneer Village and Museum started life as the Antique Auto Club of Saskatchewan Six vintage car restorers — Bill and Dick Meacher, Ross and Austin Ellis, Horace Marshal and Jim Taylor – formed the club in 1962 for fellowship purposes. This was the first antique auto club in Saskatchewan.

The club grew, raising funds in 1964 and 1967 by raffling Model T cars. The club played a role when government wanted to restrict use of antique cars.

Some years later, while seeking a place to build car storage and hold spring and fall car rallies, city council was approached for an acre of vacant land north of the Trans-Canada Highway.

Bill and Dick Meacher’s request to council that night was treated almost as a joke. In 1973, the city wanted the established museum to move closer but talks broke down.

The club found a home on the existing site, 13 km south of Moose Jaw on Highway Two, when Erald Jones sold 10 acres for $750. Later another 30 acres was acquired. Trees were planted on the

bare pasture.

The 36x72 foot building was still being framed when the first building, a settler’s shack, was moved on site.

Artifacts and farm implements kept appearing at the front gate. A tin-walled garage from Expanse was moved in.

By the fall of 1968 the idea of an agricultural museum with vintage buildings took shape. A model town was made for planning purposes. The name was changed to Prairie Pioneer Village Museum.

The Spicer School and Tilney Church were among the first main buildings moved in for viewing.

“We inherited a threshing machine and tractor,” says treasurer Garry Davis. “We decided to have a threshing bee to raise funds” in 1969.

Erald Jones let the museum bind and stook a field of his oats so threshing could happen.

The threshing bee, replacing the fall car rally, was overwhelmingly successful and for years

attracted between 2,500 to 3,000 visitors, similar to current counts.

Year by year, the museum grew with artifacts and buildings. In some cases, exhibit buildings were built from old buildings or converted from granaries.

The museum acquired a much-welcomed hall and concession building when the Kampen family donated a hog barn.

Dick Meacher, day-to-day volunteer manager and driving force behind the museum for almost 40 years, was a great scrounger for materials and artifacts. He bought the expensive cedar cladding on the original building cheaply at an auction.

“He was always working on something,” says Davis. “He could fix anything.”

Meacher’s dedication was recognized in 2015 with the new Founder’s Building name.

The museum’s growth and success has been a surprise. “Never in our wildest imagination did we think it would get this big,” said Davis.

Sukanen Ship Pioneer Village & Museum 50th Anniversary Souvenir Edition • PAGE

Museum namesake built ship 1,000 miles from ocean waters The story of Finnish settler Tom Sukanen leaves one with an impression that Sukanen was either a visionary or addled.

Born in Finland, he became a sailor, learning the craft of sailing and ship building. At the age of 20, he emigrated to Minnesota where he married and had a family.

He left his wife and children in 1911, walking from Minnesota to the Macrorie district north of Moose Jaw to homestead with his brother.

Sukanen prospered as a farmer for 11 years, then returned home to fetch his family.

Alas, his wife was gone. She either died in a fire or was in an insane asylum. The children had been placed in foster homes. The farm was in ruins.

The heartbroken settler returned home where he started in 1928 building his ship, planning to sail up the Saskatchewan Rivers, the Churchill River system to Hudson Bay and on to Finland.

He acquired navigational charts from the province to guide him.

Exceptionally strong and strong-willed, he handmade the tools he needed to build the ship and boiler.

He was known to carry a 100-pound sack of flour 17 miles to the farm from town.

Obsessed with the ship, he let his health slide, as well as the farm and his horses.

The ship-building site became a Sunday afternoon drive attraction. His niece Helen Sukanen recalls people driving to the site to call her gentle kind, uncle names. “We didn’t like it when they called him that crazy Finlander because he really wasn’t crazy,� she said. “He quit eating and stuff� just before he was taken from his homestead to the North Battleford asylum by an RCMP officer.

Neighbour Wilf Markkula, age five when Sukanen was taken away, recalled: “He was very tough, like a strong man. He wasn’t that tall, but he had broad shoulders and (was) a real jokester. He used to tease my grandma all the time. She’d get really mad at him and he’d laugh and walk away.�

Sukanen “was very obsessed with the ship. That’s

all he did the last few years. His farming just all went to pot.� “Some neighbours were scared of him; some thought he was a genius.�

The RCMP officer who took him there told others he didn’t believe Sukanen was crazy. Sukanen died in 1943 and was buried in North Battleford.

In 1971, Moon Mullins heard about a ship that was built by a Finnish homesteader near Macrorie. He convinced the museum to allocate $500 to see if the story was true and whether moving the ship here was feasible.

Mullins managed to have the two rusty pieces of hull donated and moved here within months for $500.

Six years of restoration, including hired help, brought the ship into condition for dedication and the museum name change in 1977.

By then, the museum had approval for a cemetery and moved Sukanen’s remains from North Battleford to rest beside his beloved ship.

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PAGE 4 • Sukanen Ship Pioneer Village & Museum 50th Anniversary Souvenir Edition

ELECTRICAL

CONTRACTORS

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on

50 Years

Restored elevator preserved historic piece of Saskatchewan grain farming One of the few restored wooden crib elevators in Saskatchewan resides at the Sukanen Pioneer Village and Museum The 1913 elevator was moved to the museum from Mawer, northwest of Moose Jaw in 2007 and restored.

The museum looked for an elevator for years to preserve the heritage of these one-time landmarks in 2,000 Saskatchewan towns and villages.

An historic part of the West, the elevator was more than a place where farmers sold grain. It was a place to get grain prices, find out about the weather forecast, drink some coffee, catch up on gossip and tell some jokes.

An elevator east of Mawer was no longer viable to move but three Mawer farmers, Mel and Ann Swanson and Larry Small donated their elevator to the museum.

Funding the elevator move some 85 kilometres was the challenge for the cash-strapped museum. Then one-night, museum Chairman Doug Carrick received an anonymous phone call.

The caller had heard about the plans and lack of money to make the move. Through a lawyer, he anonymously donated $30,000 that allowed the museum to take possession and move the 30,000-bushel structure to a new home.

Carrick recalled: “He said he would be at the grand opening but we wouldn’t know who he was.”

The move was a spectacle with the huge structure on multiple flatbed trailers taking a circuitous route to avoid the need for lifting power lines.

In 2013, after $100,000 expenses for the move and restoration, the grand opening was conducted to one of the largest ever crowds at the museum. Former grain buyers at the grand opening were enthused with the restoration by museum volunteers.

At the time, this elevator was one of five restored in Saskatchewan and is the largest restored elevator in the province.

The elevator, now a landmark for the museum village, was built by the Warner Grain Company in time for the 1913-14 harvest season. Victoria Grain, a subsidiary of American-owned McCabe Grain, bought it in 1923. In 1928 or 1929, McCabe amalgamated its Victoria and Crescent companies into McCabe.

The Saskatchewan Wheat Pool bought the elevator in 1968, closing it in 1994. Mel and Ann Swanson and Larry Small acquired it from the Pool.

They used it for grain storage once.

The late Jim Pearson, author of the Vanishing Sentinel series and an authority on wooden grain elevators, called this a fantastic project. “It’s one of four Victoria elevators left in Saskatchewan — none left in Alberta. They did a spectacular job of repainting.

The logo looks fantastic.”

The elevator’s motor is operated by an unusual direct shaft, unlike most Western Canadian grain elevators that operated by a pulley and belt system.

The elevator became one of three museum anchors along with the Sukanen Ship and the Prime Minister John Diefenbaker homestead.

Replica International Harvester Company dealership built at museum The International Harvester Company (IHC) was one of the great North American tractor and farm equipment manufacturers.

Chapters of IHC collectors exist across the continent to remember these machines and how they reduced back-breaking work on the farm.

Conversations four years ago when the International Harvester Collectors Chapter 38 had its annual show at Sukanen Ship Pioneer Village and Museum wrote a new chapter in preserving the IHC heritage “We were sitting around talking about what everybody was going to do with their collections when they retired,” said Darald Marin of Chapter 38. “Some were going to sell it, some didn’t know what they were going to do and some would like to see it preserved.”

From that conversation came the idea to build a replica dealership at Sukanen Ship Museum.

The group decided to build a replica IHC dealership from the mid-1950s and house things in it from International Harvester over the entire era.

A sod-turning at the museum kicked off the start of construction of the museum’s next expansion. The 60-foot by 110-foot building is a replica of a traditional International Harvester dealership with the distinctive pylon beam.

IHC Chapter 38 members have lots of artifacts to donate for the dealership —signs, parts bins and old showcases.

But the replica building will feature a large donation from a former dealer in Derwent, Alberta.

“We had donated to us from the Algot Family

The Western Canada IH Collectors Club Chapter 38 is part of an organization that has established chapters worldwide. Its goal is to preserve the historical facts and data of International Harvester including the McCormick Family history.

an entire show room that they took with them when the dealership closed in 1989,” said Marin.

“We were quite fortunate that the Algot family decided to donate their showroom” if a suitable building were erected.

“International Harvester probably had the most complete line of household and farm equipment of anybody of that era.”

The company made electrical generation systems, fridges, air conditioners, freezers, milk machines, coolers.

Trying to make everything almost “led to their downfall.”

The first 20 to 30 years of the 20th Century were golden years. IHC was “pretty well the leading supplier of farm equipment all around the world.”

A company restructuring in the 1980s led to a cash crunch made worse by union conflicts.

Formed in 1902 by a merger of the granddaddy of farm machinery manufacturers, McCormick, Deering and some smaller makers, IHC was sold to Case in 1989.

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Sukanen Ship Pioneer Village & Museum 50th Anniversary Souvenir Edition • PAGE

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Museum rescued prime minister’s heritage homestead shack

Prime Minister John Diefenbaker’s northern Saskatchewan homestead shack was rescued from an uncertain fate by the Sukanen Ship Museum.

The shack was moved from the original site near Borden to Wascana Park at Regina in 1967 and restored as a Centennial project to recognize the only one of three prime ministers from Saskatchewan who actually lived in the province.

A tourist attraction for years, the wooden shack and one from Diefenbaker’s uncle Elmer was closed

in 2002. The Wascana Centre Authority sought a new owner and location.

Museum volunteer Keith Jelinski recalls a member raised the possibility of the museum acquiring the homestead shacks. Jelinski attended several meetings in Regina trying to obtain the heritage shacks. “They wanted us to fence it, put up floodlights,� he said. “Our application wasn’t approved.�

Then one day the shacks appeared at the museum and were placed on a concrete pad. The museum

heard the buildings were scheduled for demolition and just took them.

A call to then MLA Glenn Hagel unruffled some bureaucratic feathers and straightened out the paperwork to ensure these pieces of Saskatchewan heritage were preserved.

The original 35-foot-long home was built in 1906 when the 11-year-old Diefenbaker helped erect it. He lived in the homestead for about four years.

Diefenbaker was a well-known criminal lawyer with a passion to help the underdog. Losing four elections in the 1920s and 1930s, he finally won election as MP in 1940.

On his third attempt at the federal Progressive Conservative leadership in 1956, he succeeded. The following year, he won a minority government. In a 1958 snap election call, he won the largest majority ever in Canada.

Under six years of Diefenbaker leadership, Canadians saw some firsts: he appointed the first female cabinet minister in Canadian history; he appointed the first aboriginal member to the Senate.

His government gave the right to vote to First Nations and Inuit people.

His best remembered legacy is the Canadian Bill of Human Rights which guaranteed rights such as freedom of speech, religion and fundamental justice.

Diefenbaker died in 1979, still an MP for Prince Albert constituency.

Two other prime ministers — Liberals Sir Wilfred Laurier and Mackenzie King — represented Prince Albert constituency. Both were parachuted into the “safe Liberal� riding after losing their eastern ridings.

Vintage, classic cars and trucks rekindle memories at Sukanen car show

The sight of old cars revives memories for people.

For some, the memories are of younger days when the car they owned gave them a new freedom, or memories of family visits and vacations by car.

For one man at one of the Sukanen Ship Museum Spring Fling car shows, the memory was a 1938 Mercury convertible he owned briefly before trading it off for a “better model.�

Only 50 of that model were made during that year of the Great Depression. “Imagine what it would be worth now?� he asked.

“If only we had known what those cars would be worth,� sighed another visitor viewing more than 120 vehicles on display at the pioneer village museum south of Moose Jaw.

A restored 1957 Volkswagen “Beetle� was displayed by owner Bob Reid.

The car was left in a quonset storage building for years on a farm near Boharm when he bought it.

“It only had 89,000 original miles on it� and was sold by a High Street Volkswagen dealer in Moose Jaw.

This model is called a Canadian Standard, which was a cheaper model than the normal VW. Mice had eaten into the upholstery and had lived in the car. “The back seat was (once) full of mice; the muffler was full of grain. When I stripped the interior and then put some air pressure in, the stuff that came out was unbelievable.�

The VW is strictly a summer car with no heater. “The idea was they would take the hot air right off the air-cooled engine. It never worked.�

Built to be low-priced the VW became popular around the globe with the last made in Mexico in the early 2000s.

“You don’t want to be in a hurry.� Top highway speed is 50 miles an hour.

Winston Huenison was seated by his rare 1939 Hudson car that he bought from a farmer near Boharm. “It was really in sad shape. The back seat was gone.

There was just enough upholstery left for a pattern.�

Parts were hard to come by with many ordered from Texas.

“Hudson has a unique kind of clutch. Instead of having just facings on it they just have holes with little pads all over it and everything runs in a very light film of oil.�

That cost almost $1,000.

The two-door car features a different front seat.

When a passenger gets in the rear seat the back on the front seat folds forward and the whole front bench angles forward to allow easier access.

Huenison got into restoring by helping his sonin-law Terry Paice rebuild cars.

Through him he did a Model A and had a Whippet restored. It was bought as a parts car.

1926 Hudson

1939 Hudson

1935 Chevy

Rare Whippet

Studebaker

PAGE 6 • Sukanen Ship Pioneer Village & Museum 50th Anniversary Souvenir Edition

A stroll down memory lane!

Four main events staged by museum The annual threshing bee held the weekend after Labour Day was the first major fundraising event by the museum.

The event required food concessions which is where women members stepped up to the plate baking home-made pies, a staple feature for future bees.

Known then as the Bonnets and Dusters, this group of women also does annual spring clean-up to prepare the buildings for visitors.

Their volunteer efforts have extended to some grounds’ maintenance and painting of various buildings.

Once the museum had a number of vehicles, there was a need for used car parts. That kicked off an annual spring used car parts sale and swap meet.

The event grew as members displayed a variety of collections, even swapping and selling items.

The location moved from the Western Development Museum to the Armouries to the Exhibition grounds.

Now dominated by collectibles and antiques, the Antiques Collectibles and Used Car Parts Sale in March attracted 3,000 visitors.

The Spring Fling Car Show in June began with members displaying their collections and grew into a car show with a range of models produced before 1980.

To be held on June 2 this year, Spring Fling again plays host to a model steam engine show.

The Haunted Museum night celebrating Halloween with scary night time tours of the grounds began as a fundraiser for the fire hall. This year’s haunting will be Oct. 26.

Life has changed dramatically over the centuries with most of the technological advances taking place in the last 100 years.

The Sukanen Ship Pioneer Village Museum located 8 miles South of Moose Jaw on Highway #2 continues to be a place for all ages to appreciate and enjoy.

Seniors can reflect on ‘days gone by’ while the younger generation can enjoy seeing how far things have come since. Prairie artifacts and hidden treasures abound across an expanse of 40 acres. The museum site contains over 50 buildings and includes a pioneer village, a farmyard house and barn, Tom Sukanen Ship, Diefenbaker Homestead, McCabe’s grain elevator (from Mawer, Sk.), as well as many other buildings containing antiques and collectibles.

Annual Threshing Bee displays old time technology

Annual Collectibles show continues to grow and attract visitors Every spring for 42 years, the Sukanen Ship Pioneer Village and Museum has had a spring collectibles show. It usually takes place the last weekend in March.

Everything from old and new artwork, auto parts to woodwork and in between can be seen on the tables at the Sukanen Ship Museum antiques collectibles show. There is always something for everybody to see or buy. Viewers can just relive old

memories with tables running from toys, glassware, books and records to Coke memorabilia or they can visit with exhibitors.

Because of its popularity, the show has grown phenomenally over the years. In March of this year (2019), the show attracted 3,000 visitors, almost double from the 2014 show when approximately 1,400-1,700 people came out.

Farm life turns back the clock about 75 years when the annual Sukanen Ship Pioneer Village and Museum Threshing Bee happens. Every year the second weekend of September is devoted to the old ways of farming at the museum located 12 kilometres south of Moose Jaw on Highway Two. Today’s giant combines gobble up a field in five minutes that took a whole day to harvest 70 years ago. The contrast draws people to the two-day event.

The older ones come out to see what it was like, to remember the good times and the bad times.

The younger ones come out to see how it was then.

They just can’t understand how much work it was to farm, and this opportunity is an incredible spectacle for them to behold.

Now-a-days called combining and done with a combine machine, threshing was an arduous and time-consuming process where the ripened wheat and oats was cut and the horses hitched to the grain binder.

The grain binder dropped a bunch of oats sheaves on the ground. Someone needed to stack them in an upright pile called a stook. The stook prevented rain from spoiling the grain seeds. The stooks were then grabbed by the heads and stacked two up and then stacked around.

An 80-year-old farmer near Gravelbourg said that in the 30s when the grasshoppers were bad, they put one on top for the grasshoppers” hoping the hungry insects would not eat the rest. He said his father used to cut and bind 20 acres (four city blocks) in a day. They never used gloves unless the grain had a lot of Russian thistle.

Binding and stooking often can be a part of the twoday event with stook loading, hand threshing, stationary hay baling, threshing machine demonstrations and daily tractor, truck and car parades.

Threshing was popular with two giant grain separators powered by belts linked to flywheels on old tractors.

Bundles were put into the separator and the grain separated, coming out of the spout ready to be stored in the granary.

Belting up – putting the belt on and aligning it within the proper tension and distance –was a dangerous task and took considerable time.

Breakdowns and loss of harvest time were a natural occurrence on all farms.

In 2019, the Threshing bee will be held September 7th and 8th. The threshing bee is the museum’s biggest fundraiser bringing in more than one-third of annual revenues.

Sukanen Ship Pioneer Village & Museum 50th Anniversary Souvenir Edition • PAGE

1. Entrance and Souvenir Shop 2. Antique Car Display 3. 1904 Spicer School 4. 1907 Tilney United Church 5. Leonard Fysh Drug Store 6. General Store 7. 1905 Mortlach Hall (Doctor’s Office, Masonic Lodge, General Displays) 8. Dryland Gazette Printshop 9. Harness and Boot Repair Shop 10. Joe’s Barber Shop 11. Camlachie Hardware Store 12. Service Station 13. Telephone and Post Office 14. Baildon Municipal Office Library 15. Radio Shop 16. The Emporium (Toy, Music, Sewing Shops) 17. Sukanen Ship

RATS CONGN O S! 50 YEAR

18. Sukanen Chapel and Grave 19. Fire Chief’s House 20. Fire Collections Building 21. Baildon Settler’s Cabin 1914 22. 1906 William Grimshaw Homestead 23. Carriage House 24. Appliance Store 25. Pumphouse and Creamery 26. Stationary Engine Display 27. 1886 Dalrymple Homestead 28. 1960 CPR Caboose 29. 1911 Baildon Railway Station 30. 1909 Farm House 31. Gypsy Wagon 32. Barn 33. Carousel 34. Stave Lock Granary 35. Threshing Crew Cook Car 36. Threshing Crew Bunkhouse

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37. Machine Shed 38. Mawer Elevator 39. Machinery Storage - DO NOT ENTER 40. 1906 Diefenbaker Homestead 41. Bee Keeper’s Workshop - DO NOT DISTURB HONEY BEES 42. Hergott House 43. 1928 Blacksmith Shop 44. 1893 Glover Ranch House 45. Tractor & Car Shed 46. Replica IHC Dealership 47. John Deere Building 48. Storage - DO NOT ENTER 49. Canvas Building 50. Founders’ Garage 51. Truck Building 52. IHC Tractor Building 53. Allis Chalmers/Case Building

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Congratulations on the

50th Anniversary of Sukanen Ship Museum!

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PAGE 8 • Sukanen Ship Pioneer Village & Museum 50th Anniversary Souvenir Edition

Congratulations Sukanen Ship Museum Celebrating 50 Years!

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Dark night Haunted Museum event celebrates Halloween for visitors One night a year, the peaceful Sukanen Ship Pioneer Village and Museum grounds transforms its character with arrival of ghosts, goblins and witches.

The Haunted Museum, occurring on a night before Halloween, is a night of fun and fright for youngsters and older “youngsters” alike.

The grounds and buildings are transferred with almost a week’s work by volunteers placing the “scares” along routes the dark evening visitors will explore.

The Haunted Museum committee works hard each year to design new kinds of scares on the

grounds.

Be it a full moonlit night, or a night with clouds occasionally moving to block the moon, or a pitch-black night, the guests giggle and squeal during the event.

The event could not take place without the volunteer assistance from local high school drama classes. Members of the classes dress in costumes and play their scary roles along the dark route.

Visitors are taken in small groups from the concession rallying quarters with a leader from the museum guiding the group through the scares and a

“tail gunner“ from the museum, who follows to make sure no stragglers are lost or kidnapped by the witches and ghosts.

The scares are so dramatic the night isn’t recommended for anyone under seven years of age.

The Haunted Museum started when the volunteers needing funds to build the fire hall conducted the first night to raise those funds.

Between 700 and 800 youngsters of all ages go through the haunted village each year. Many folks wait in the car or at the gate for up to two hours. The event starts after dark sets in.

Allis-Chalmers/Case tractor collection among largest on the Prairies Like many collectors, Bill Young started by buying the 1948 Allis Chalmers WF model this family first had — planning to restore it.

And he bought a steel wheel WF for parts.

Years of travelling in the farm implement business passed and Young’s collection of AllisChalmers and Case tractors kept getting bigger.

“I was travelling and selling. I picked them up as I saw them. Some of them were from auctions.

“This collection sat around the yard for 20 years,” said Young. “I had every shed at the farm full.”

A new neighbor, Gord Cameron helped him get them all running. He painted them but at the farm north of Pense they weren’t on display.

“I wanted them preserved and (Sukanen) seemed to be the best place to preserve them. I used to come to things here years ago. It always impressed me. That is why we decided to come

here.”

He donated his Allis-Chalmers/Case collection – one of the largest in the Prairies – to the museum and put up the storage shed for them.

A few years later he donated his Farmall/IHC collection and built that storage shed. Following that, he built a storage shed at the museum for his collection of vintage combines.

“If anybody wants to preserve something, this is the best place to do it. It’s a great place and I’m proud to be part of it.”

The Allis-Chalmers/Case shed has a dozen panel mural depicting a history of Prairie farming.

“The purpose of this whole collection was to display the change from horsepower to small tractor power, small combine power, the half section farmers and that sort of thing,” said Young. “[The tractors are] a pretty good display but people come in here and they’re not familiar with

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what took place, particularly school tours. They’re impressed with the paint and all that, but they don’t really get the point of what it’s all about.

“I’ve tried to design it so they might come in here and do a little bit of reading and come away with a little different perspective of what farming was all about 100 years ago.”

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Sukanen Ship Pioneer Village & Museum 50th Anniversary Souvenir Edition • PAGE

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Congratulations Sunkanen Ship Museum as you celebrate your 50th year!

We would like to thank all the contributors and volunteers for you work in preserving Prairie history.

1950s John Deere dealership facade re-created at museum A replica of a John Deere dealership was constructed onto the tractor building at the Sukanen Ship Museum in 2018.

With assistance from the Nelson family of Avonlea, the facade was re- built just like the first Nelson Motors John Deere dealership. The work was complete right to the painting of a front window with two cartoon characters gazing out of it.

Wally Nelson, age 90, cut the grand opening ribbon along with former Case competitor Bill Young.

The Nelson Motors story came into being in 1959 when owner J.D. Armstrong offered to sell the business to his employee Wally Nelson. Nelson had no money but by afternoon Armstrong had found someone to finance the sale.

The company grew from a mom and pop operation to

the present day four stores managed by the third generation.

The Nelson family also donated pieces from their tractor collection to the museum display.

Among the John Deere tractors in the museum collection is a 1923 Waterloo Boy Tractor. John Deere, known best for making self-scouring ploughs, bought Waterloo Gasoline Engine Company in 1918 and did not make John Deere tractor models until 1923.

History in houses in museum’s village Built in 1909, the four-gabled Gamble house at the museum is one of seven dwellings in the pioneer village.

The gamble house was considered one of the best houses in the Parkbeg district in its time.

Once used as a stopover in winter to warm up at before continuing five miles to town, the two-storey clapboard home was even used for dances.

The house had only been painted once in 84 years before moving to the museum.

The oldest house in the village, built in 1893, served as a ranch house on the Glover Ranch in the Dirt Hills for 18 years, then as a bunkhouse.

The shingle-sided bungalow was moved to Baildon

where it was a family home, then a teacherage.

This home had the distinction of being the 100,000th thousand house connected to the rural power grid in Saskatchewan.

The Bill Grimshaw settler’s shack was built before 1914 by the bachelor. Although Grimshaw’s marriage plans ended when his English fiancée promptly returned home on seeing the place, a baby was born in the shack.

The parents were on the way to town when the baby decided to enter the world so the baby was born in the shack.

Neighbour Bobby Hamon kept an eye on the aging bachelor. One morning Hamon noticed no

smoke coming from the shack up on the hill. He found Grimshaw had died.

A 1914 settler’s shack was the first building on the museum site.

The Hergott house with interior tin cladding was a granary north of Assiniboia before donation to the museum.

The Archie Dalrymple homestead shack, built in 1893, was the first house in the district north of Moose Jaw and became a halfway house for travellers to Moose Jaw. A house next to the fire hall is under restoration as a fire chief’s dwelling.

1886 Dalrymple Homestead

1909 Farm House

1893 Glover Ranch House

306.691.0080

888 Main Street North www.pandaautoservices.ca I remember very fondly the Sukanen Ship Museum of my youth.

I spent lots of time there in the early 80s, cutting grass, dusting displays and helping with repairs. I would drive out to the museum every chance I had. Now you may think that I had a keen interest in history and old cars, which I certainly did and still do, but my reasons for going to the museum included one that was much more selfish. That was to spend time close to a young lady whom I would eventually fall in love with. The young lady’s name was Rosemarie, who later became my wife. Rosemarie was the daughter of a wonderful man, Dick Meacher - one of the museum’s founders. Today we have 6 wonderful children and 12 grandchildren with more on the way. The Sukanen Ship Museum played an important part of our courtship. Perhaps as a result of being around all of the museum artifacts steeped in old values of a time when life was different and family was most important contributed to our enduring marriage. A wonderful place, standing still in time, filled with memories.

Congratulations Sukanen Ship Museum on your first 50 years - Thank you to all the wonderful contributors and volunteers who have worked hard to preserve the vision of the founding members! ~Curtis Moggey - Panda Tire & Auto - Moose Jaw

Hours: Monday - Friday 8am - 6pm

PAGE 10 • Sukanen Ship Pioneer Village & Museum 50th Anniversary Souvenir Edition

Fire truck collection, fire hall developed at Sukanen Ship Museum The idea of having a fire collection at the museum began in August 2001 when it was brought to members’ attention that the town of Montmartre was selling an old fire truck that had once belonged to the Moose Jaw Fire Department.

A group of members with fire related collections, or otherwise involved in firefighting, bought it jointly.

They began planning to build a fire hall at the museum to display collections and donated items.

The first donation to display was made by Don Stover in February 2002 — Moose Jaw alarm box, alarm bell and running card.

Also, that month the museum meeting approved plans for creation of a fire collection at the museum and fundraising. Several steak nights and garage sales were held in following years to raise funds.

On May 4, the group held its first fire collections day to showcase what was being done. Multiple displays of various fire collections and various contests happened including a hose cart race, in which even media personalities took part.

In 2003, an old barn was donated and torn down for lumber to build the fire hall. Construction began in June of 2004.

In May 2005, Chief Royden Taylor of the Caronport Fire Department, a supporter of the fire collection, invited the group to take part in several training exercises and a controlled burn so that it would have firsthand experience in what was involved in firefighting.

The grand opening of the fire hall took place at the Threshing Bee, Sept. 11, 2005 with the Moose Jaw

Fire Department presenting a length of the original fire pole from the No. 1 station for display.

The number of people working on the fire collection has increased and waned over the years, but a core group has kept it going. We do need people interested in working on restoring trucks and need to have a larger building to store trucks.

Trucks at the museum include 1920 Stutz; a restored 1937 Ford-Bickle-Seagrave; 1940 International; 1941 International; a restored 1940s air raid protection trailer; 1951 Bickle ladder truck; 1953 Bickle Seagrave pumper; 1953 Chevy forestry truck; 1961 Mac; 1965 International-King-Seagrave.

And there are two Wells-Thornton-Fords in need of restoration and a fully restored LaFrance aerial ladder truck.

Baling was labour intensive even with first baler Putting up hay for livestock feed was a labourintensive activity even when the first baler was invented.

An IHC stationary baler demonstrated at Sukanen’s annual threshing bee is cumbersome by today’s standards, requiring a crew of at least three or four, at least one to fork the hay, two to operate the baler and tractor that powers the machine.

Bales are hand tied with wire. A board is placed in the hay when the bale reaches the right length. The machine is stopped. A special wire with a looped end is placed between the board and the next bale and tied together, then the process resumes.

Too much compaction and the board buckles.

This baler allowed compact hay storage and more convenient feeding.

Originally called a hay press, most stationary balers were owned by custom operators who went from farm to farm baling. They were run by a horse walking in a circle and required a crew of six.

International Harvester (IHC) introduced an engine-powered hay press in 1909, later building belt-driven hay presses using tractors or stationary engines. In 1921, an engine-powered unit cost more than five mowers.

IHC brought out an automatic tie pickup baler

in 1944, ending the hay press by 1950.

Allis Chalmers produced the first-round baler in 1947, selling 23,000 in three years. The machine had to stop each time a bale was made to tie and eject the bale. In the 1950s, Allis Chalmers developed a

process to wrap twine around the bales.

Sukanen Ship Pioneer Museum has a 1950s Allis Chalmers model in working condition, part of the Bill Young collection.

Sukanen Ship Pioneer Village & Museum 50th Anniversary Souvenir Edition • PAGE

CHURCH & HALVERSON ACCOUNTING LTD. #3 - 15 Lancaster Road 306.691.6633

Sukanen Ship & Pioneer Village Moose Jaw Express is proud to have designed and printed this 50th Anniversary Edition.

With special thanks to Ron Walter for the contributed articles and photos and to all of the advertisers who have made this edition possible.

11

OPEN 365 DAYS A YEAR

Free Prescription Delivery Flu Shots Available at both Locations Home Health Care Products Gift Ideas 2 Convenient Locations 890B Lillooet St. W 212 Main St. N 306-692-2900 306-692-6433

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MON - FRI 9AM - 5:30PM SAT. 9AM - 1PM COMPOUNDING PHARMACY

Order Your Refills Online At www.pharmasave.com Congratulations on your 50th Anniversary & thank-you to all the volunteers!

Drug store replica connected to Moose Jaw’s first pharmacy A century-old pharmacy is recognized at the Sukanen Ship Museum with a replica building of Moose Jaw’s Fysh Drugs.

The drug store was opened at the museum in 2015 with museum volunteers building a scale version of the High Street pharmacy, including the green stucco front and the glass tile facing.

The interior of Fysh Drugs is refurbished with original fixtures, bottles and items from the Moose Jaw store. The old cash register and wall clock are featured.

Dale Toni, who worked at the pharmacy, became part owner in 1980 and full owner in 2006, kept all the items when the store converted to a Pharmasave, hoping to someday preserve the heritage.

He donated the materials to the museum for

the replica building.

“This is part of Moose Jaw,” said museum president Gord Ross. “We were fortunate to be the recipients of all these valuable artifacts,” The Co-op store used to be two doors down from Fysh Drugs. Co-op customers bought their groceries, laid them on a bench at Fysh’s and left for other business, supper or a movie, returning to collect the bags. Fysh stayed open until the last bag was picked up.

Both Len Fysh and his son Bob were involved in the community, sponsoring sports and music groups.

In February 1966, this store was the first in Western Canada to issue one million prescriptions to different customers.

Fysh installed the first retail computer in Saskatchewan in 1998. When computers became available, he insisted on sending data electronically to the drug plan.

Fysh bought the business from the Calling family, which started Moose Jaw’s first drug store in 1898.

In 1927 he set up a South Hill site and in 1922 he set one up in Swift Current.

Fysh Drugs never closed a day in its existence, closing only three hours for funerals of owners.

Service meant advertising after hours phone numbers for customers and taking calls day and night from people who forgot to pick up prescriptions, went to emergency and needed a new prescription, or vet supplies.

Baildon CNR station preserved This CNR railway station is one of the few preserved in a Saskatchewan museum. The Sukanen Pioneer Village and Museum moved the station to the grounds in 1972. The railway station was a transportation hub for small Prairie towns from the 1880s until the 1960s. The station was where trains dropped off passengers, mail and merchandise. The train shipped cream and eggs to market for regular farm income and carloads of grain and live cattle were shipped out.

Stationary engines proved boon to farming The collection of stationary engines at the Sukanen Ship Museum represents a turning point in agriculture.

Introduction of these cast iron engines to the farm saved a lot of back-breaking work running pumps, grinders and the like.

Until the 1950s and into the 1960s, there was no electricity on some farms. Whatever power was needed to run anything was from horses or human muscle power. The engines allowed farmers to generate their own electricity.

These engines ran everything from washing machines to grain cleaners, grinders to elevators.

The museum collection has about 100 of the engines, with nearly all in running order.

Model steam engines A collection of model steam-powered devices built-to scale, was donated to the museum by the family of Tom Leschinski, the heavy duty mechanic who built them.

The collection inspired the model steam show at the Spring Fling.

Thanks!

our supporters over 50 years

the RM of Baildon • our visitors, volunteers & members Special thanks to members, Moose Jaw Express and advertisers who made this souvenir edition possible

Museum opens for the season May 8 Hours : 9 am to 5 pm Monday to Saturday • Noon to 6 pm Sunday (closed for the season end of the day september 8th)

Come! Join us for our special events this year Spring Fling Show and Shine A car show for models 1980 or older Family Day A day of fun for the family Threshing Bee Two days of demonstrations, vehicle parades and fun

See you there

2 SATURDAY juLY 20 SUNDAY

june

SAT & SUN

SEPTEMBER

www.sukanenshipmuseum.ca

7-8