Gumbo was visiting Western Canada’s oldest Natural History Museum, the quirky yet fascinating Banff Park Museum National Historic Site. Gumbo first visited this museum as a boy decades ago and it’s one of the few things around that hasn’t changed over the years. Congratulations to TravelingCanuck for being the only one to solve the puzzle. Even though he is a fellow Canuck, you really needed to have visited this place to come up with the solution.
Situated at a prime location in Banff, beside the Bow River at the corner of Buffalo St and Banff Ave, there’s a large building constructed of logs, the Banff Park Museum. It’s been declared a national historic site because the museum’s original exhibits are still on display, a collection reflecting an early (some might even say “primitive”) approach to the interpretation of Western Canada’s natural history. Also, the architectural style and detailing of the 1903 log building are characteristic of early federal buildings in Banff National Park, considered by some as the “old rustic Banff style”. I found the interior woodwork (made of locally available woods) to be beautiful and a work of art, but I’m a sucker for nicely worked wood.
Banff tourism boomed in the late 19th century, when the completion of the railway to Banff gave folks wanting a mountain experience easy access to the Canadian Rockies. The town of Banff sprang up and the museum was constructed as a site that would be of interest to tourists. It was a way to see all the animals in the Canadian Rockies without leaving the town of Banff. Immediately adjoining it in the old days was the Banff Zoo — yes, you heard that correctly — there was a zoo in this National Park, where people could see grizzly bears and such up close. The zoo is long gone and has been replaced by a nice public park, but the Banff Park Museum sits there to remind us of times gone by. It’s even said to be haunted by a ghost!
The Banff Park Museum has 5,000 vintage specimens – many of them stuffed animals and birds, but also a collections of rocks and plants. It’s a fascinating step back in time, to see how natural history was interpreted and presented a century ago, and does offer people a way to see the diversity of wildlife (admittedly just taxidermy specimens) in the west under one roof. The museum and its collection is largely the product of it’s first curator (1896-1932), the enthusiastic Norman Bethune Sanson.
Admission is only a few dollars and if you like Natural History or historic buildings, it’s worth an hour or two of your time to explore this one. The building has a wonderful library/reading room, and beside it an interactive Discover room where kids can view videos and touch specimens, like antlers and fur.
A few more image of the museum follow:
(Library and reading room)
(antlers you can touch in the Discovery room)
Nice clicks. Seems like a great place to take the kids.
Thanks for the trip down memory lane. Its been several years since I have even been to Banff and I haven’t been to the museum since the early 80s. It is a nice look at the old Banff before it exploded into the mass tourist site it is now. I will have to revisit the museum in the near future.
Thanks for your comment, Vagabond. It is a great place to take kids, who are fascinated by all the displays. But even as an adult, it was fascinating to take this step back in time to how a Natural History Museum presented information 100 years ago.
Great Pictures. I lived in Canmore for a year, and I never knew about this place. I will definitely stop in te next time I am there.