WEYBURN: Weyburn has a real gem that not enough people know about, with the Charlie Wilson Silver Collection located at the Soo Line Historical Museum.
We had a good reminder of just what an amazing collection this is, with the visit of Saskatchewan’s current Lieutenant Governor, Russ Mirasty and his wife, on Saturday.
The main reason they were here was to commemorate the Platinum Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II, as she has marked 70 years as the monarch of the Commonwealth.
Weyburn Tourism had a brilliant plan, with a disruption caused by Saskatchewan weather, to combine a High Tea event at the museum, and have the vice-regal couple here not only for the Queen’s jubilee, but for them to see the world’s largest privately-held collection of silver.
We’ve had high-profile visitors to the collection before, as I noted in the Review’s archives that I had photos of former Lieutenant Governor Jack Wiebe visiting the museum.
But with everything that’s happened in recent years, such as losing two years of activities and tourism and everything else, it was a really great idea to kickstart things again by promoting the fact that Weyburn’s museum houses the largest collection of silver in the world.
Our outgoing director of tourism, Larry Heggs (who’s done his position here on Friday), is right when he said this is really not promoted enough, and not very many people in Weyburn and those outside of Weyburn know that it’s here.
During the vice-regal couple’s visit at the museum, a great-nephew of Charlie Wilson, John Shelly, came by and shared some facts and stories about the man who collected these items.
He noted that a good friend of his was the legendary auctioneer, Herman Lackey, and he was able to source several items at auction sales.
Another fun fact: the eight-legged calf on display at the museum came from Wilson, and sat at the foot of his bed while he was alive.
Noting all of the clocks that are on display, Shelly said those were all in Wilson’s living room, and if he had visitors over, conversations would have to stop at the top of the hour until all of the chiming by the clocks was done.
If you haven’t seen the collection, or haven’t visited for a while, you should check it out!
