Museum tells story of immigration

Are you familiar with the Cooks Creek Heritage Museum?

It is located at the corner of Sapton Road and Highway 212 in the Rural Municipality of Springfield.

The Cooks Creek area is home to one of Canada’s oldest settlements of people from Galicia, the region of Europe that bestrides the border between Poland and Ukraine. It’s known as Galicja in Polish or Halychyna in Ukrainian. The settlement dates back to the late 1800s, at least 120 years.

The Cooks Creek Heritage Museum calls itself  "a prairie museum dedicated to Manitoba’s pioneers from the Eastern European Slavic countries" was founded 50 years ago, at the time of the Canadian centennial. 

Today, the CCHM is the steward of a great collection of artifacts — including religious objects, folk art, traditional clothing, household objects and  farm tools — much of which is on exhibit. 

The main building, which was built by the Hudson’s Bay Company in the early 1900s, is an old rectory. Other structures include authentic pioneer homes, an outdoor bake oven — "pich" in Ukrainian, a barn and a blacksmith shop.

In all, the museum tells a story of immigration to Canada and of pioneer life on the Canadian prairies in the late 1800s and early 1900s — the story of making a good life in Canada.

The CCHM is also home to noteworthy artefacts from the first and second World Wars.
The CCHM offers visitors an opportunity to reminisce about the past and to increase their knowledge and love of Canadian history.

The museum is open daily in the summertime from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., excluding Mondays and Tuesdays.

Looking ahead, the museum will hold its annual Heritage Day event on Sun., Aug. 27, from noon to 5 p.m.

For more information call 204-444-4448 or visit cchm.ca

Darlene Litchie is a community correspondent for Transcona.