The summer season is the best time to celebrate the past. Alberta’s rich history is relived over and over again at many of the sites where it all unfolded. This is a partial list of those destinations, taken from the website at http://www.culture.alberta.ca/events.
Reynolds-Alberta Museum
Join us in celebrating the “Spirit of the Machine!” This outstanding collection of vehicles, aircraft, tractors and industrial machines pays tribute to mechanical genius. Cruise in a 1927 Model-T Touring car or soar in an open cockpit biplane! Enjoy the display galleries on your own, watch museum-quality restoration in progress or take in one of many special events.
Location: 2 km west of Wetaskiwin on Hwy 13
Phone: 780-361-1351
Royal Alberta Museum
The museum’s long-term exhibitions include the internationally acclaimed Syncrude Gallery of Aboriginal Culture, showcasing 11,000 years of Aboriginal history. The Natural History Gallery explores one billion years of powerful forces that have produced Alberta’s rocks and minerals. The Bug Room exhibits some of the world’s biggest insects – alive. The Wild Alberta gallery takes visitors across, over and under Alberta’s diverse landscapes and is like no other museum experience in Canada. With new touring exhibitions featured each year, there’s something new to discover with each visit!
Location: 12845-102 Ave., Edmonton
Phone: 780-453-9100
Royal Tyrrell Museum
Head for Drumheller’s badlands and discover this world-renowned museum. See more than 35 skeletons of real dinosaurs like Albertosaurus, T. rex and Triceratops. Journey through time, as different life forms emerge, evolve and in some cases, face extinction. Watch technicians painstakingly remove rock from around fossils. In summer, join a guided hike to an ancient dinosaur bone bed.
Location: 6 km northwest of Drumheller
Phone: 403-823-7707
Rutherford House
Afternoon tea in the sun porch. Dinner in the oak wainscotted dining room. The austere private chambers upstairs. The gentility of the pre-First World War era is yours to experience at Rutherford House. Alexander Rutherford, Alberta’s first premier, built this post-Edwardian mansion in 1911. For many years, this home welcomed the political and social elite of Alberta. Costumed interpreters recreate daily household life and lead guided tours.
Location: 11153 Saskatchewan Dr., Edmonton
Phone: 780-427-3995
Renowned as one of the greatest poets in the western world, Icelander Stephan G. Stephansson managed to tend this homestead by day and write his famous and respected poetry by night. Costumed interpreters recreate daily chores of this 1920s household, like spinning wool and baking, combined with leisurely poetry readings.
Location: 30 minutes southwest of Red Deer, off Hwy 592 & 781
Phone: 403-728-3929 or 780-427-1787
Tyrrell Field Station
Walk the trail of the dinosaurs at Dinosaur Provincial Park, one of the richest fossil sites in the world or stop in at the station and take a guided hike or bus tour (Reservations recommended). For more information contact the Royal Tyrrell Museum.
Location: 50 km northeast of Brooks off Trans-Canada Hwy 1
Phone: 403-378-4342
Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Village
Visit the farmsteads, shops and churches of this living-history village. Chat with costumed interpreters who play the roles of real-life Ukrainian settlers. They will share the compelling stories of the triumphs and hardships of Ukrainian immigrants who came to the Bloc Settlement in east central Alberta from 1892 to 1930. Tour the site on foot or hop on a horse-drawn wagon. The food kiosk features authentic Ukrainian fare.
Location: 25 minutes east of Edmonton on Hwy 16
Phone: 780-662-3640
Victoria Settlement
Step inside the 1864 Clerk’s Quarters or the 1906 Methodist Church. Learn about the growth and decline of this once-bustling community from costumed interpreters. This is where,in 1862, Reverend George McDougall founded a Methodist mission to the Cree. The Hudson’s Bay Company later established Fort Victoria to trade with the natives.
Location: off Hwy 855, near Smoky Lake
Phone: 780-656-2333