You don’t have to travel far to go back in history.
About five minutes north of Barrie, you can escape the hustle and bustle of the 21st century to discover what life in Simcoe County was like almost 200 years ago, long before we had the luxuries of electricity, indoor plumbing and the internet.
May is Museum Month and to celebrate the Simcoe County Museum, located at 1151 Highway 26, in Springwater Township's Midhurst community, is ramping up its seasonal programming by opening up all of the heritage and display buildings on the museum’s grounds and introducing a new season of programs.
“Springtime is a great time of renewal,” said Kelley Swift Jones, the museum’s curator. “Everything is opening up and starting to grow. It’s a great fit for our programming.”
The theme of renewal starts the moment you enter the museum.
An exhibition called Stories from Nature, featuring mixed media fibre art created by members of the Georgina Fibre Artists, hangs in the community gallery, the first exhibition space you see upon entering.
Featuring a variety of styles and interpretations, the artworks selected for the exhibit invite the viewer to see what the artists see when they’re out observing their subjects.
“Majestic creatures, beautiful flowers, eye-catching rock formations, aggressive thunderstorms and the infinite variety of colours in the changing seasons: these all provide daily inspiration,” reads the promotional materials that accompany the exhibit.
“There’s a lot of flora and fauna and it’s a great way to incorporate nature with textiles,” said Swift Jones. “There’s a variety of techniques on display and that certainly adds to the interest.”
When you’re done viewing Stories from Nature, you can venture outside and explore the many heritage buildings that have been relocated to the museum’s 327 acres.
Recently opened for the season, the heritage buildings chronicle the county’s heritage and way of life.
The Spearin log home, built in 1834, is an excellent example of local architecture, 33 years before Confederation.
Simple, sturdy, utilitarian and without unnecessary adornment, the log home is very much a reflection of the people who lived in it.
At its centre is a large wood-burning fireplace used for both cooking and heating.
The living space, while not cramped, is darker than most modern rooms and the ceiling is substantially lower. Understandable, as the average height of a man in the 1830s was about five-foot-five, while a woman was about five feet.
Folks who happened to live on property that had an abundance of maple trees, may have harvested sap and made their own maple syrup. The sugar shack at the museum is typical — a rough-hewn structure, the shack is strong enough to keep out the snow but not much more.
A large, wood-fed stove, stoked by cords of wood that would have been chopped by hand the year before, provided the heat needed to reduce the sap to syrup.
After a long week of work, most folks in the community would find themselves at church on Sunday morning.
The Vespra Anglican Church, built in 1872, was moved to the museum grounds courtesy of a donation from the church’s longtime organist, Maydee Shaw. It’s red and blue stained glass windows, plain wooden pews and carved pulpit look exactly like they did when the church was built more than 150 years ago.
Out beyond the buildings you encounter monster machines: earth movers and highway builders and stump removers that seemingly border on prehistoric.
Left out among the elements for goodness knows how many years, they’ve taken on a bit of age — the resulting patina a mix of rust and dirt.
Beyond the monster machines are trails, trees and an abundance of nature — an added bonus for the museum’s 30,000 annual visitors.
In addition to the regular displays, the museum offers a variety of special events during May.
On May 15, the museum will host mini-explorers: bedtime stories, a program for young children from 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. and 11 to noon. Kids are encouraged to put on their favourite pyjamas and look for lost nursery rhyme characters and work together to put Humpty Dumpty back together again. There’s limited space and pre-registration is required. The cost is $6 per child.
On May 26, the museum will host IG Wealth Management Walk for Alzheimer’s and on May 29 they’ll host another session of museum mini-explorers called Let’s Get Planting, a program that will teach youngsters about seeds, plants and more. There’s limited space and pre-registration is required. The cost is $6 per child. There will be two sessions — 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. and 11 until noon.
For more information on the Simcoe County Museum, click here.
