The museum is housed primarily in Pouce Coupe's (pronounced Pouce Coupee) one time railway station, built in 1931 about three blocks west of its current location and moved here in 1972. The museum itself opened in 1973 and has grown constantly since.
Not only does the museum have an authentic railway station, it also has a
Northern Alberta Railway caboose parked behind that station. Naturally, it was that selfsame railway which built the station. As well as the caboose the museum has four buildings packed with artefacts, Heritage House, the Trapper's Cabin, a tool shed and the original NAR Train Station. Artefacts in the collection depict each and every aspect of life in the Peace Country, including domestic life, agriculture, transportation, business and industry, medicine, even the effects of war on the people of the Peace Country.
Having seen many of these, and even using one in our younger years, we had no difficulty in identifying this. When the writer was
knee high to a grasshopper, these were generally known as seed cleaners. As was the norm a century ago, this mill was actuated by the "Armstrong Method", by means of a hand crank which drove the fan and the sieve shakers simultaneously.
As a seed cleaner/fanning mill represented a cash outlay which and would be used only a few days a year by a single farmer, farmers often bought these as part of a co-op - several farmers each buying shares in the machine and using it as necessary before seeding time.
FANNING MILL
THIS HAND OPERATED TOOL WAS USED ON FARMS FOR SEPARATING WEED SEEDS FROM GRAIN SEEDS. IT WAS GENERALLY USED IN EARLY SPRING BEFORE THE GROUND WAS READY FOR SOWING SEED. GRAIN WAS PLACED IN THE HOPPER AND SHAKEN THROUGH MANY SIEVES. THE AIR FROM THE FAN REMOVED CHAFF AND OTHER LIGHT OBJECTS.
CLEAN SEED WAS DELIVERED AT THE END, WITH THE WEED SEEDS AT THE BOTTOM.
DONATED BY TED WIEPERT OF THE ROLLA DISTRICT<
ORIGINALLY OWNED BY HENRY THORENSON