No historical artifacts, photographs, paintings or books were damaged when a water main in the Canmore Civic Centre burst early in the morning of Jan. 31.
Canmore Museum and Geoscience Centre director Debbie Carrico said Monday (Feb. 10) the museum was lucky that the only damage was to floors, furniture, some display cases and stands and some merchandise in the gift shop.
The museum’s collection sustained no damage whatsoever.
“We are very, very fortunate that our collection was not damaged in any way. There was water in the storage area, but we were fortunate to get that water out and dried up quickly,” said Carrico. “It was minimal and most of it had gone down the drain.”
Water poured into the museum through its main entrance and spread through the gift shop, office, gallery and library after the pipe burst.
Volunteers helped museum staff and board members to pack up the gift shop, library, office and gallery while McKnight Cleaning and Restoration and Onside Restoration began the immediate cleanup and damage assessment.
“I’m in debt to the volunteers that came and helped Friday and Saturday,” Carrico said.
She added insurance will cover the bulk of the repairs, however, given that the museum will be closed for at least the next few months, revenue will fall short.
“I believe there will be a shortfall, but we intend to do some major fundraising to take care of the shortfall,” Carrico said. “It was devastating and the fact is that the gallery needs to be redone and the office needs to be redone and the gift shop needs some TLC. But I think it’s an opportunity to do some redesigning and I’m looking forward to doing some updates inside the gallery. So maybe perhaps this is an opportunity to do this.”
Carrico said it is not yet known what the revitalization will look like, but it will likely involve changes to some of the existing exhibits and panels.
Stands for Bud the Bison, the taxidermied bison bull that can be found roaming the main hallway of the Civic Centre, and the fossilized cyprus tree stump, will need to be replaced, as well.
Even so, Carrico said stands, furniture and carpets can be replaced; the irreplaceable items are safe and the future, despite the work ahead of the museum in the short term, looks bright.
The museum is planning to inventory its collection and reorganize it to use its space more efficiently and move higher any of the artifacts stored near floor level, such as large ledger books from Canmore’s coal mining companies.
“I really think it is an opportunity. It’s unfortunate that it happened. But it is also an impetous to change, move, grow, get bigger, better,” Carrico said. “The primary thing is it’s now that we can intertwine and connect that story between the geology and the history. We went through the strategic planning and fine-tuned our vision and mission and now we can go ahead.”
The museum’s mission, she added, is to tell the stories of the Rocky Mountains and its communities, both geologically and historically.
For now the museum is operating from the historic Northwest Mounted Police Barracks. The barracks will be open seven days a week and will also serve as the gift shop and venue for events and presentations, including Emerson Sanford with Whiteman’s Gap: The Route to White Man Pass on Feb. 20 and Stephen Legault with Turning Fact into Fiction: How making a mystery of history can bring it to life on March 6.
