Surprise Visit to Quesnel Museum

I did not plan to visit this museum.

The children discovered a nearby park and wanted to stay to play. I wandered off to the Visitor’s Centre to learn more about Quesnel.

As I was about to leave, I remembered something about Quesnel that I had read about the night before at our AirBnb. I had spent the whole night reading this book….

Interestingly, I remembered a story about a doll named Mandy. As we were not suppose to take a photo at the museum, I found a photo from the museum’s website. Please see below….

Mandy

So I decided to go in and take a look around myself first. As I entered the doorway, I was able to have a lovely conversation with the current caretaker. I just had to ask her if she had encountered anything supernatural that could be related to the doll. So she told me the following….

“Many years ago, I had just agreed to begin my job here at the museum. I received a odd and weird looking text message. Remember, there were no smartphones back then and my friends did not use text messages. The message started with a bunch of gibberish and symbols then ended with…..

MANDY

I asked all the friends I knew if they had texted me as a joke, and they all said no…..”

Believe or not?

Exploring the Rest of the Museum

After thanking her for the chat, the children also came in as there was a searching game for them. They discovered that there were three different challenges…..

The children spent over two hours in this museum searching for all the items on the games list. They got to see so many different and unique antiques from all the local homes back then. It was extremely educational.

World’s 8th Most Complicated Machine

That was the description on this Linotype machine that had printed out the Cariboo Observer newspaper back in 1908. I couldn’t find out much about this particular machine, except that it had 10,000 parts!

Still currently have the same Chinese remedies in my parent’s cupboard!

Titanic Connection

In the second room of the museum in a small elegantly decorated corner, I discovered this glass case. In it, there were two hair brushes and a mirror. According to the donor, Mrs. Yvonne Snushall, these were given to her mother from her mother’s friend. Helene (Suzette) Baxter Douglas was on the Titanic and was saved along with her mother, Mrs. Baxter on that tragic day. These brushes and mirror was part of the belongings that survived too!

Footprints In Stone

Another very important part of our country’s heritage and history, was wonderfully curated in another section of the museum. It told us about how the Indigenous people’s story of survival from diseases to the tragedy of many of the Residential Schools.

I was fortunate to be able to go on a field trip with the children a few years back, where we met an elderly lady, who told us first hand how sad and devastating back then, for all families. As a mother of two, I could not imagine how heart-breaking it must have been for all. I couldn’t help tearing up whenever I thought about it….