Interesting mishmash of things from around the world at a museum hidden in Maple Bay focusing on natural history, cultural arts & conservation.
There's everything from taxidermy, pelts, fishing & hunting items, decoys and random displays of insects. Definitely an impressive amount of totem models, plus some other stunning indigenous carved items. You can see various eras of art in canvas paintings, stitched items, weaved objects, beaded work & tapestries. The indigenous ceremonial items are from around the world but I appreciated the areas of indigenous works from Canada displayed together, including clothing & art that would be sold to tourists. There's dinosaur to mammoth castings of bones and a TON of tusks. Some rooms felt cold with so many taxidermy animals gathered together. Turn the other way into an off shoot of another room and find brilliant colours & designs of pasanka eggs right beside the next display case of gemstone eggs. Surrounded by other brilliant coloured rocks & gemstones in the room. The old chests of various origins are placed throughout the building like the random furniture selections (still confused on the seating around the seating). I could go on with examples. Truly there was a lot of items.
To say the place is busting at the seams is an understatement but it's unique way to repurpose an old school & give the community something wonderful. I found the museum decently filled & very intriguing on the way things are presented/amount collected. However, it is a bit intense in some areas. More being that it was so full (absolutely everywhere) with no areas of blank spaces or ease of transition. Including the main hallway & some of the ceilings. So this isn't a quick walk through kind of stop.
I opted to not carry around the digital tour info; as it is only offered on a heavy iPad (granted it was well protected by a hardy case for kid use). I already walk with a cane & was carrying my purse. So I didn't want to hold something extra that weighed so much. Especially not knowing about where there was areas to sit & rest.
As I would rather read or listen about something on my own iPhone or by signs posted, I was surprised that there wasn't any options available for scanning QR codes or just opening up a secured link (after contributing a donation for entrance to the museum). I did like there was still enough info near the artifacts & collection items to get a good sense of things. Enough iPads were also being used by families & couples all around me that I got the most of info I wouldn't of known by simply skimming the info cards (the volume on all the iPads playing after selecting a number from the display is loud enough to hear asset across the small & medium rooms).
Even without carrying an iPad, I was in the museum for over 2 hours looking at the art details, reading the short location placards for items (even more so for the items I had no cultural background on) & enjoying the larger written info summaries. I do think if there's a chance to do shorter summaries, that would be smart not only for kids but for adults or seniors that have limited capacity for audio learning &/or might not want a huge background but just a simple explanation.
For my disabled & neurodivergent people, heads up that it can feel quite tight in some rooms, lighting differs, there's lots of info being played loudly on iPads & airflow wasn't exactly consistent between rooms. Some areas have stronger musty smells (understandable with that many artifacts & pieces of history), so wearing my mask helped me stay much longer than I would of otherwise.
I navigated the museum fine with my cane. Another lady had her small walker & looked pleased with her access to rooms. Flat entrance into the building with a generous door size but they do request you enter into the actual museum area through the big heavy barn door after registering (I don't know why they can't let disabled go through the gift shop that connects to the main hall, with no door to physically move...). The whole museum is technically accessible, but I would caution trying to maneuver a wheelchair in the smaller rooms (some of the doorways felt really small in width even to me with a cane & turning would be difficult in others).
It also should be noted there's limited options for legit seating to rest while you absorb so much information. As the seating that seem obvious actually seems to be part of the displays. So plan your visit when you have a good amount of stamina for browsing. Being that this is an old school, I feel it's also important to note the toilets are also extremely low to the ground & not properly set up for handicap stall in the female bathroom. However, I didn't ask if there was a legit handicap bathroom elsewhere for visitors. read more
