A new exhibit at the Grande Prairie Museum is talking people back to 1904. That’s when a group of land surveyors first came to Grande Prairie. Curator Charles Taws says Making Their Mark tells the story of how land surveyors helped shape the city and the province.
“Its a part of the settlement of Alberta that I don’t think a lot of people have thought about. We all think about the pioneers and we think it starts with them… but for European settlement, it really started with the surveyors.”
The exhibit is on a six-month loan from the Alberta Land Surveyors Association. It features artifacts surveyors would use out in the field as well as photos from trips they have made to Grande Prairie. Taws says the most eye-catching item on display is a tent.
“It’s a reconstruction of the type of tent that a surveyor would have lived in when they were out in the field 100 years ago… They would come out with the barest of necessities… And all the table legs and chairs they would just construct on site just from the wood that was handy.”
The exhibit will be on display until May 2019. The museum is open Monday to Friday from 8:30 to 6 and on weekends from 10 to 6.