Kootenai Brown Pioneer Village holds ceremony to dedicate 5 heritage buildings

Members of the Hul family at KBPV dedications event
C. Davis photos except where noted

Chris Davis with material from Farley S. Wuth

A sizable crowd was present at Kooenai Brown Pioneer Village's (KBPV) Beere hall on Sunday afternoon, February 3 for dedication ceremonies for five heritage buildings located on the museum grounds.  Pincher Creek Mayor Ernie Olsen was also in attendance.

KBPV Curator Farley Wuth 

Presentations were made in chronological order based on the actual age of the structures.  Some of them have been on the KBPV grounds for years, and some are new arrivals.  Included in the dedications were the Northwest Mounted Police Barn, the Cyr School, the Cyr family farmhouse, the Gietz House, and the Doctors' Office.

Pincher Creek and District Historical Society President Colleen Cyr officiated the event with KBPV Curator Farley S. Wuth.

"We're here to thank five families in the community for donating a building to the museum.  Some of them are long overdue, some of them have just happened recently.  We are covering a decade of families today," said Cyr in her preamble to the dedications.

"We had plaques made for each of the buildings, and come springtime we are going to attach these brass plaques to each one of the buildings so you'll know forever where this building is."

NWMP Barn  

"The Mountie building is the oldest surviving building in Pincher Creek," said Wuth.  "It dates back to 1878 when the Northwest Mounted Police established a horse ranch here at Pincher Creek."

"The building is quite important historically for us."

NWMP Barn

"The building used to stand where the swimming pool and the library are now, and was there until the early 1940s."  In documents he pinpoints the original location of the barn as being where the tennis courts are currently located.  "In 1939 the rest of the buildings burnt down, but this one building survived.  In 1943 it was moved out to the Cliff Therriault Ranch to the southeast of Pincher Creek. A number of years ago, the Hul's contacted the museum with it's history, and we were able to move it onto the museum grounds where it now sits."

Suzanne Hul and Colleen Cyr 

According to Wuth "The (NWMP) Ranch's location acted as a catalyst for the establishment of Pincher Creek as a settlement which served as a commercial, social and educational centre for the local ranching industry."

Raphael and Suzanne Hul represented their family for the dedication.

"I just want to say thank you to Suzanne and Raph for thinking about the Historical Society with that building," said Colleen Cyr.  "Like a lot of other historical buildings it could have just gone up in smoke over the years.  People don't recognize the significance of what they have."

Cyr School

"The Cyr School is one of 39 country schools built in the Pincher Creek area.  It was one of three schools that saw a new life after consolidation in the town of Pincher Creek itself," said Wuth.

Cass and Janet Main 

He explained that the school was established eight miles south of town in 1909, where students from grades one to nine were educated until it was closed due to consolidation of the school system in 1947. Four or five years later it was moved into town by Johnny Green, who was the proprietor of the Betterway Store. It was utilized as a cold storage facility. It served that purpose for the grocery store and a succession of restaurants until 2012. At that time the front building (then known as Kings Restaurant) burned down. "We were contacted and asked if we were interested in the school and we immediately said yes". The Main family donated the school to KBPV and it was moved onto the grounds.

"Fortunately, the school wasn't damaged in the fire," said Wuth. "Thanks to the Main family who helped organize it for us, and a lot of the logistical details, and made contacts for us, we have a second country school preserved at the museum."

Cyr School enroute to KBPV
T' Lucas photo

Colleen Cyr introduced Janet Main, who was representing the Main family at the event.  Quite a few members of the Main family were also in attendance.

"This is a really exciting project that the museum is really actively working on right now," said Cyr.  "The building was really well preserved, with tin on the outside, and wallboard on the inside, the school walls were perfect in the middle. But all the windows had been taken out, and some of the wainscoting was gone too.  We went out to a couple of country schools that are not being used any more and scrounged a few windows, which we are just working on at the moment that are the same as the ones in the Cyr School."  Cyr demonstrated the rescued window frames.  "They don't look like much at the moment, but they will.  We have great plans.

"We are really delighted to have the Cyr School here at the museum and we have plans for it.  Hopefully, it will be ready by summertime."

"One of the interesting things we found in the school... We found a bunch of the metal lettering from the Betterway Store," said Wuth.  "It was an old Betterway Store sign that was taken apart and stuffed away in there."  The remnants were on display at the back of the room.  "Part of the tin siding that was on it were pieces of that sign, all cut up," said Cyr.  "If you can go by there, and remember what that might say, I'd be thoroughly delighted.  It would stop keeping me up at night, wondering what it really said."

Cyr House

"The third heritage building that we're dedicating this afternoon is the Cyr House," said Wuth.

Fran and Colleen Cyr 

"Paul Joseph and Alice Cyr Established a farm four and a half miles east of town that is still owned by the family today, three generations later, which is nice. Three generations of the Cyr Family were raised in this house."

The two-story frame house was completed in 1917 and now houses many of KBPV's 1920s exhibits.

"Fran was kind enough when he was ten years old to write his name on the ceiling in the upstairs of the Cyr House," added Colleen Cyr.  "As most of the members of the Cyr Family have toured through it this summertime, and gone back and I've had lots of stories about that house that nobody ever told me since Fran and I've been married."

Cyr House
T. Lucas photo

"It's kind of a fun thing to have here, and sure gives me a reason why it's fun to have things donated to the museum, because this is a really personal one to us."

Gietz House

Gietz House (shortly after arrival, 2011) in the foreground of Cyr House,
Doctors' Office to the left

The Gietz house is a one-story frame dwelling that was constructed in the 1920s  and is representative of the Mennonite history of southwestern Alberta.  A well-known member of the Gietz family is the Honourable Beverly McLachlin, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada, who was raised in the Pincher Creek area.

The structure was later owned by Francis and Colleen Cyr, who recently donated it to KBPV.

Doctors' Office 

"The Doctors' Office came about through contributions from Doctors Lorne and Rhonda Collins, who generously helped out the museum, both in publicity and in artifacts," explained Wuth.  "So the building is being dedicated in their honour."

The couple now lives in Lethbridge.  They started practicing medicine as a husband and wife team in Pincher Creek in 1946.  The earliest medical doctor was Dr. Goforth, who arrived here in 1892.

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