Everyone who’s been here knows that visiting the Museum is a great way to spend a day, whether you bring your kids, your parents, your friends (or come on your own so you can move at your own pace!). Part of what I do here at the Museum is booking guided tours for groups who are looking to delve a bit deeper into the story of Canada through the lens of the canoe. The wonderful thing about taking a guided tour of The Canadian Canoe Museum is that your tour guide will point things out in our galleries that you might never notice, or read about, without having the guide there to direct you!
If you haven’t been on a guided tour at The Canadian Canoe Museum yet – here’s some of what you might be missing…
When you enter our ‘Origins Gallery’ you see a huge whaling dugout from the West Coast of Canada – you can’t miss it. But, what you might not notice if you aren’t a guided tour is the painting of a whale on the bow of the canoe.
If you aren’t on a guided tour of the Canoe Museum you might not notice that along with a bunch of ‘miniature’ canoes we have a model of a Beothuk canoe – which is such a cool shape and very unique!
If you were visiting the Museum on your own you would learn about George Douglas and you would certainly see his large ‘Klondike’ canoe built by the Lakefield Canoe Company. What you might not notice unless you’re on a guided tour are the neat little bits of Douglas’ camping equipment we have in our collection. His mini deck of cards, interesting food tins, an old candle lantern (like this one, but older!) and a mini chess game that uses small paper pockets to hold the ‘men’ – just to name a few. Learn more about George Douglas here.
If you weren’t on a guided tour you might look at this 16′ Chestnut Canoe Company canoe and think “I wonder why it has those extra bits at the sides?” If you’re on a guided tour you would find out that they’re called sponsons and they’re filled with air for extra stability and buoyancy.
We have this amazing collection of Olympic and paddling memorabilia from national championship paddler, Mike Brown, in our ‘It Wasn’t All Work’ gallery. If you aren’t on a guided tour, however, you may not realize that Mike Brown is from Peterborough and can often be found here at the Museum!
In our ‘A Walk With Kirk’ exhibit you will see our ‘Dining Hall’ with the Payne dugout (the very first canoe in this collection) hanging from the Dinning Hall ceiling…
But, if you aren’t on a guided tour you might not realize that the scene you see out the window of the Dinning Hall is Kirk Wipper (circled in the photo below) teaching canoeing to a group of Kandalore campers.
Visiting the Canoe Museum is great however you chose to do it, but if you’re looking for an activity for your group, club or family why not book a guided tour?
Contact Beth Stanley at [email protected] for rates and more information.