SUKANEN SHIP PIONEER VILLAGE AND MUSEUM — Against the backdrop of a 115-year-old steam tractor, Alfred Volman cut the cake to mark the grand opening of the Volman Museum at the Sukanen Ship Pioneer Village and Museum.
Icing in the shape of a steam tractor decorated the cake,
“It’s too nice to cut,” Volman, age 85, hesitated.
“It’s like a wedding cake,” said someone.
“This is my wedding’’ joked Volman, who never married.
The building and contents are the newest additions to the museum.
Volman and his brothers, Mike and George, built a private museum in Leross, an east central Saskatchewan town in 2000 next to the Leross Museum.
The private museum represents family-used artifacts from the 1907 homestead. Many of them were hauled out of a slough or the bush and restored.
“This a great addition for us,” said museum president Gord Ross.
Realizing that Leross is getting smaller and smaller Volman sought somewhere to relocate the collection.
“Mr. Volman didn’t want to see his private collection in his museum go to the dump as a lot of them wind up.
“In 2020 he approached us and asked if we would be interested in having his collection relocated to our museum here. We jumped at the opportunity.
“He spent a lot of time, hard work with backing from his family, not the least a lot of money.”
Volman said the museum was set up exactly like at Leross with help from his family,
“When walking through this building you will have the unique experience of being able to ‘talk’ to the people who used the artifacts on a day to day basis and wonder how this family might have used these items over the last 100 years
Volman thanked everyone who made the move possible “especially the president Gord Ross, Garry Davis, the board and volunteers who made this possible.”
The metal clad building will be open with the other Sukanen buildings.
Ron Walter can be reached at [email protected].
