by Carl BR Johnson
May 15, 2013
Photo by Carl BR Johnson — Colleen Groat, Pouce Coupe museum curator, stands on the steps, of the caboose. The restoration project needs a $20,000 infusion for a paint job and structural restoration.
The Pouce Coupe Museum annual grand opening kicked off Saturday with a pancake breakfast and community rummage sale.
Museum officials hope to use the proceeds gathered from the breakfast and rummage sale for a railway caboose restoration project, among others, said Colleen Groat, the museum curator.
“We’re using this grand re-opening to try and raise funds to restore our caboose,” said Groat.
“We have several other items and buildings that need restoring here but the caboose has become our priority now.”
The caboose, located behind the Pouce Coupe Museum, is an old-style railway car typically hitched on the end of freight trains and used as a mobile hotel for the conductor and the brakeman.
According to the Mad River Railway Society, most railroad companies abolished the usage of cabooses during the 1980s to save money, obsolescence due to technological advances and due to safety reasons for the railway crew.
And although Groat is optimistic about getting the necessary repairs completed, which includes a full exterior paint job and some structural work, she conceded that, “the quotes we’ve been given for the restoration project are pretty high – some as high as $20,000 for a full restoration of the caboose.”
“We could settle for a patch job for only about $7,000, but then we would need to patch it again in a much shorter amount of time.”
Groat said that most of the damage on the caboose was caused by weathering.
The museum holds these grand openings every year at this time and closes at the end of August.
Many of the artifacts in the museum date back to 1889, around the time Pouce Coupe was established as the “pioneer capital” in the Peace Region.
The kinds of things found inside the museum are of monumental historic value – with decorative areas like school rooms, a doctor’s office, a trapper’s dwelling as well as items like old stoves, books, confectionary containers and a literally innumerable amount of curiosities.
Groat’s devotion to the museum is apparent, as she knows virtually everything there is to know about the museum and its contents.
Her influence, along with the 20 or so volunteers of the museum, has permeated the surrounding communities because all of the food, rummage sale items and time and effort, were all donated.
The antique collection of rarities inside the museum also, have all been donated by many different types of people to be preserved for posterity including many water-colour paintings by Emily Henrietta Woods – one of Emily Carr’s childhood drawing teachers.
Jack Frost, a retiree and an attendee of the museum grand opening who is also a member of the museum, was born in Pouce Coupe and has been helping out with the annual re-openings for several years now.
“I usually drive around to gather some furniture to help out with the rummage sale,” said Frost.
Clearly, Frost has become sentimental about Pouce Coupe as he looks upon his childhood home with fond nostalgia.
“We’ve moved around from place to place since I was born here and even though I live in Hythe, I will always enjoy visiting Pouce Coupe.”
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