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Museums we have known….

Here is a Bird’s Eye View of the area, our campground was just off the map, lower right.

                        Over the last few days, we’ve visited any number of historic sites and museums, some of which really deserve a Post of their own. But for many reasons (one of which is just beating you guys over the head with Museum Minutiae) I decided to give you a brief overview of the same. The Post from two days ago, Sault Ste. Marie, was one of the hardest that I’ve written only because there was too much information and the culling of which became tedious (in a good way!)

                        So….. here are two Museums that we visited that if included in the other Posts, would have been smothered and would not have received the distinction that they deserve!

                        I present now, for your Museum Musings….

                        Two collections of regional interest…..

                        One is of airplanes (No! Really?)

                        And the other is ships (Gasp! What a surprise!)

            Well, both are vital to this area. If Canada has anything, it has trees. And lots of trees together become forests. And when it gets hot and dry they like to show off what a spark can do and ignite into raging infernos. We all, as of late, have seen and smelled (even as far away as NYC) the effects of the huge wildfires in Canada. These places are hard to reach as there are not a lot of roads that cris-cross these vast arboreal areas. This is where this particular museum comes in as it highlights and documents the efforts of Canada’s Bush Planes and firefighting services.

            We poked over the Border to the city in Canada with the same name as the one in the USA, Sault Ste. Marie. The border crossing was uneventful in both directions, they just took a while as the lines were significant but not extensive. It took probably an average of twenty minutes to cross over. This was not the time for levity. No joking with the Border Patrol folks, just answer their questions politely and hopefully move on. You could tell that they are trained…. Small questions about where we’re from, the answers, if given hesitantly, may have morphed into a more serious discussion.

Yes, I know they have it as one word, Bushplane, but I’m not so sure. I’ll investigate and report back to you

                        The Bush Plane Museum is in an old giant hanger that was used for seaplane service back in the day. It afforded a realistic space for all of the planes in their collection, which were many.

There were also two movie features, one on the firefighting process itself and the other was on Jane Goodall and her positive attitude towards what we can do to help our planet recover from abuse and further survive in the future.

Jane is a World Treasure.

The Maritime Museum, Great Lakes Freighter, Valley Camp

The next day we went to an old (1917) Great Lakes freighter that has been converted into a Maritime Museum, both inside her hull and out. The exhibits were quite extensive and very informative.

Looking at the bow of the Valley Camp
Looking at the bridge from behind. It sits at the very front of the ship, directly on the bow.
The inside of the bridge.
Looking aft towards the stern, 500 feet away.
The stern houses most of the crew, the dining facilities and the engineering department.
A comparison of the Valley Camp, 570′ (left) and the rest of the 1000′ fleet of Great Lakes freighters. BTW, The Edmund Fitzgerald was the largest of the fleet at 760′ when she was built back in the ’70’s.
From the stern looking forward you can see all of the large hatch covers over the holds. That white superstructure with the three portholes is in the center of the ship. There are just as many holds forward of it.
One of the exhibit spaces contained in the holds of the Valley Camp.

The exhibits were so well done that Paula (who I drag to every maritime/aviation museum we find and is not particularly drawn to same) was fascinated by the stories of these ships which did include a detailed timeline and narrative of the demise of the Edmund Fitzgerald.

Paula down inside one of the holds of the Valley Camp that was made into exhibition space.

The Great Lakes and their accompanying inclement weather are nothing to be trifled with. The evidence of these mishaps is overwhelming as evidenced by the exhibits in all of the Maritime Museums of this area.

3 replies on “Museums we have known….”

In my opinion there is no such thing as too much museum trivia so thank you for sharing so much fascinating information. The photographs hint at how large the Valley Camp is and I can’t scale that up to 1000 feet. They must be overwhelming.

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