Island Museums
Vancouver Island Museums
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Explore Alberni's heritage and its collections that tell the story of community history, Nuu Chah Nulth art and culture and our industrial roots from logging to fishing and farming and unique folk art. The presents the cultural heritage of this unique Island community through its collections of artifacts and historic photographs.
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Museum displays featuring artifacts such as Old One-Spot", a forty-five ton, forty-six horse powered steam locomotive built in 1911, transported logs out of remote locations. A 1918 one-ton Maxwell truck with wooden wheels. In its day the biggest logging truck on Vancouver Island was a 1919 five-ton "Republic" truck with solid back tires and pneumatic front tires for logging in the Sooke area.
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Campbell River Maritime Heritage Museum
Features a collection of over 500 maritime artifacts, some dating back 2,000 years. Dogwood Centre, Campbell River BC
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Canadian Forces Base Esquimalt Naval & Military Museum
The museum exhibits focus on four distinct military groups that have made an impact on Canada's history and left a lasting heritage: The Royal Canadian Navy on the West Coast. The Canadian Women's Army Corps. The Women's Royal Canadian Naval Service. The West Coast Defenses. In addition to exhibits and displays, the museum houses an expanding archive and library that includes thousands of photographs and documents, histories of Canadian naval vessels, navigation charts, biographies of important leaders in the Royal Canadian Navy, and copies of the Navy List, Lloyd's Register of Shipping, and Jane's Fighting Ships.
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Collections and chronicles the history of 19 Wing Comox and West Coast Canadian Military Aviation. Located at historic and operational 19 Wing Comox, the museum records the history and heritage of all of Canada’s Air Forces, from the short-lived Royal Flying Corps of Canada (1917-1918) and Canadian Air Force (1918-1924) through the glory years of the Royal Canadian Air Force (1924-1968), consolidation of the forces in 1968
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Courtenay District Museum & Paleontology Centre
On-site and outdoor programming suitable for all age groups, subjects include fossils, geology, First Nations history, pioneer settlement history, social history of the Comox Valley, logging and lumber history, river way study, marine fossil exhibits, and visit fossil sites.
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Duncan's "Heritage Designated" 1912 Railway Station along the E&N Railway. It is located in the center of Duncan, a community of 5000 people in the heart of the Cowichan Valley, also known by its First Nations population as "The Warm Land".
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The historical collection reflects the main activities of the island's inhabitants, since its settlement in the mid-Nineteenth Century. Most of these activates continue into the present day. Home-making (before and after Hydro), Schooling, Communicating (from mail steamer to modem) Farming, Logging (by hand and by machine)
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See, hear and touch the human history of our coast. On a hillside with a beautiful marine view, the Museum presents vibrant exhibits of ancient First Nations cultures and the unique historic lifestyles of the region. You’ll also find a native plant garden with illustrated signage, and large outdoor artifacts including a historic fishing boat and logging steam donkey
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Located on the waterfront in the heart of downtown Nanaimo. Early history of coastal living on Vancouver Island, from European, Chinese and First Nations' perspectives. Explore a coal mining exhibit, learn about native life, hands-on exhibits and audio-visual presentations, or stroll the re-created streets of early Nanaimo and Chinatown.
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Contains detailed information on all of the province's natural and human history. It includes a collection of over 10 million objects and specimens and millions of significant government documents and records; substantial photographic, audio and video collections; artworks; and an extensive library of publications.
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Saanich Historical Artifacts Society
The Society is dedicated to collecting, restoring, housing, and demonstrating artifacts from our rural past. We have one of Western Canada's largest collections of working steam engines, tractors, agricultural machinery, and household and industrial artifacts.
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A seniors group obtained a provincial grant to create a museum in this small, four roomed building. The artifacts represent the furniture, tools, household items and various items of interest from earlier times.
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Traces the history of the early lives of Sidney and North Saanich pioneers, portrayed through photographs and artifacts.
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Learn about the arrival of the first aboriginal people and how their lives have changed through the ages to the present day. See how change was accelerated with the arrival to our shores of the first Spanish explorers, some 200 years ago, followed by the development of our many natural resources through trapping, farming, logging and fishing. Living exhibits, videos, special events, displays and books
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Located next to Saywell Park on South Shore Road in Lake Cowichan. The museum is housed in a restored Esquimalt and Nanaimo Railway station, constructed in 1912. Here you will find varied displays, photos, murals and archival material. Logging and forestry is a big part of Lake Cowichan's history, mining, railroading and early pioneer life are all very well represented.
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The Vancouver Island Marmot is a unique species that lives only in the mountains of Vancouver Island. Historically, Vancouver Island marmots lived in small colonies scattered throughout the mountains of Vancouver Island. Garry Oaks grow nowhere else in Canada but on Southern Vancouver Island, the Gulf Islands, and two isolated groves on the lower mainland.
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