PANGMAN – The Pangman Museum held a ribbon-cutting on Saturday afternoon to officially open its new displays in three dioramas, along with a brand-burning held prior to the ceremony, and a supper afterwards.
The museum was a group effort of a small group of residents who wanted to preserve the stories and history of the town and area, including chair Jacquie Mallory, vice-chair Lexi Keller, secretary Arlene Howse, treasurer Gene Kessler and board member Ed Howse.
Mallory had grown up in the Pangman area, and after living elsewhere, including in Weyburn, she moved back to Pangman, bringing with her 10 years of experience working at the Soo Line Historical Museum in Weyburn.
In working with the displays and collections at Weyburn’s museum, she and a few others felt that Pangman should have a museum to preserve the history of the area, and in 2018 they approached the village council about such a project.
“We did some fundraising in 2018, and in December of 2019, Abundant Living Ministries gifted us with this building,” said Mallory, noting they set up a thrift store do some more fundraising towards setting up a new museum.
“It’s gone really well. The surrounding community have been supportive, plus in the summer we get visitors from the tourist train when it stops in Pangman,” explained Mallory.
At the ribbon-cutting ceremony, she told the gathered crowd this is the first phase of the museum, and they will be working on the second phase this fall.
The thrift store may need to move to another location, she said later, as the room inside of the building will be needed for more displays for the museum, plus a tea room is planned for the entrance area to the building from the courtyard.
In the courtyard itself, cedar shingles with local families' brands have been put up, as prior to the ribbon-cutting, families from the RM of Norton area were invited to bring their brands in, and a few dozen brands were able to be put up.
“So, it actually happened really fast. When I moved here, I saw the need for preserving the stories of the people here,” said Mallory, noting that once the thrift store opened, people started donating items for the museum.
Asked if the museum opening might spur more such donations, she said it would for sure, noting they had already received some items that morning.
“This was a group effort,” she added, pointing out that the group’s treasurer, Gene Kessler, built the model of the townsite based on an aerial photo of Pangman, taken in 1955, the town’s jubilee year.
