The Rusty Relics Museum celebrated their 40th anniversary on Aug. 26 with coffee and cake.
Throughout the years the museum has grown, while being able to offer a great number of new and exciting additions to the facility. Based out of the Canadian National Railway station which had once been active in Carlyle, the museum focuses on prairie life and the influence of the railroads in the town.
With help from the Sask Culture, the Town of Carlyle, Young Canada Works, the Lions, the Bear Claw Community Development Fund, and a great number of donations from community members as well the Museum has been able to survive and thrive in the community.
Over the years the museum has acquired a Canadian Pacific Railway caboose, a CN Motor Car, telegraph equipment, a CN workshop, a Buffalo Rubbing Stone and Cairn, as well as a Union School House from the area. The St. Paul's Anglican Church was donated to the museum in 2000, while in 2003 Rusty Relics was able to acquire a small section of CP track behind the museum. They were also able to obtain a pump jack and a windmill making the Rusty Relics a well rounded prairie museum.
The most recent acquisition has been a CPR bunkhouse, in which they hope to discover CPR bunk beds to include.
Members of the Board of Directors and museum staff spoke with The Observer expressing what they believed were some of the highlights of the museum over the years.
"I think being able to top out in our tier with Sask Culture," Lauren Hume, a curator, explained.
Classified in Tier 2 with Sask Culture, they continue to fulfill all of the standards and provide a variety of activities which means that for its size Rusty Relics is one of the best.
In addition to this, Hume said that the Oral History Project, which was made in 2011, was something that relays what Carlyle was like in the 1930s.
For Ron Paul, member of the Board of Directors, explains that being able to work diligently with volunteers to fundraise for the museum has been a highlight. When speaking with The Observer, Paul laughed about a story from when he first began to volunteer: "What sticks out in my mind is the fact that we needed a new toilet seat and someone said that they had one we could use, so we put a used one on and made do with what we had."
Though they had to "make do" during certain years, overall the museum has been successful in Carlyle and continues to draw people in, while also offering a tourist information office to the community.
Delores Cutler, a member of the Board of Directors, thought about her years with the museum stating that her favourite part of her time with Rusty Relics was a program called Pioneer Women.
"I think one of the highlights for me would be a program we started in the 90s, Pioneer Women," Cutler explained. "It involved six-year-old girls dressed in period outfits. We would do laundry, make pies and a pioneer craft."
Though the Pioneer Women program was Cutler's, the museum still offers youth programs during the summer which continue to be well attended.
A place to remember the past and think about what people's lives were once like, the museum will continue to be a place where people are able to reminisce and learn of the history of Carlyle.
