By Michael Lynch
When tourists think of visiting a historic site in Thunder Bay, Old Fort William comes to mind, the world’s largest fur-trading post.
Yet there is another historic site near Thunder Bay that depicts the period following the fur trade, and it is slowly gaining prominence and has the potential to become a major attraction for visitors to the area.
Americans who cross the border at the Pigeon River “just love it,” says Fran Loney, president of the Founders Museum located on Highway 61, a little more than one kilometre outside the city limits.
The museum was the brainchild of the late Fred Goodfellow who acquired more than 100,000 antiques over 40 years of collecting. The village depicts Slate River pioneer life between the late 1800s up to 1949.
It was opened to the public in August 2000, a year following the death of Goodfellow who acquired the site in 1967 to store his antiques. A pioneer village has been created, and much of what is being displayed touches the hearts of seniors and children alike.
The pioneer village opens to the public on May 1 and shuts down after the September long weekend.
Goodfellow, a lifelong bachelor, lived in Thunder Bay and became a teacher after service in the airforce during the Second World War. He acquired a master of education degree and bequeathed a substantial amount of money to the museum society. The interest on the principle provides funding for operating expenses.
“Our immediate goal is to have admission fees pay our operating expenses,” Loney says. The museum society has applied to FedNor to develop a business plan and would like to hire a general manager, she says.
The authenticity of the setting, and the volume of merchandise displayed, overwhelm a visitor entering the general store. Children marvel at the prices and seniors are often overheard saying “This brings back memories” and “I remember these.”
The general store has been named after Goodfellow and contains a barbershop, beauty parlour, ladies boutique, post office, cobbler shop and an area that displays military and royal family memorabilia.
Carpenters and blacksmith shops are under construction, and the barn contains boxes full of antiques to fill them. Antiques from the era keep pouring into the site from area residents, Loney says.
On the site there is a 26- by 80-foot community hall that has been designated as a heritage site by the township. The Slate River Hall was moved six kilometres to the site and reassembled. It is rented for showers, wedding receptions and family reunions.
A Baptist church with prayer books and pews was transported from Kakabeka Falls, about 30 kilometres away.
The train station is a replica of a 1908 Canadian Pacific Railway train station. The plans were purchased from the CPR and the station is as close to the original as modern materials will allow.
The pioneer village has impressed educators from area schools, who each spring take their social studies classes for an authentic pioneer life experience.
“(The museum is) phenomenal,” says Sandy Carruthers, a Grade 3 teacher at Vance Chapman School in Thunder Bay.
“It brings history to life for the children,” Carruthers says.
The children’s experience is packed with hands-on activities. They shop in the general store, wash clothes with a scrub board and take lessons in the one-room schoolhouse.
On a table in the nearby “teacherage,” (living quarters) there is an 1872 document entitled: “Rules for the Teacher.” One rule explains merit increases. “The teacher who performs his labour faithfully and without fault for five years will be given an increase of 25 cents per week in his pay, providing the board of education approves.”
The Slate River area was, and still is, an agricultural community and the pioneer village reflects this. The two-storey pioneer home is crammed full of furniture from the period. The visitor gets the feeling the house’s occupants have just stepped outside to wash clothes in the gas-powered washing machine or to tend the fields with one of the many tractors and farm implements from the era.
There are four cars in the driving shed, including a 1927 Model T, a 1929 Dodge, a 1929 Plymouth and a 1930 model A. Each of the vintage vehicles has stories that are willingly shared by Walter Saarimaki, vice-president of the museum board.
Pointing to one of the cars, Saarimaki explains that the car was sold by the owner for $500 to provide the down payment on a house for him and his bride.
There also buggies, farm implements, a broom-making machine, a road grader, hay rakes, mowers, plows and a rare 1912 steam tractor.
Volunteers operate the pioneer village. Students, attired in the era’s dress, are hired for the summer.
Most of the 12 volunteers are retired and have experienced pioneer life.
