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1912 Jackson Touring Car
Reynolds Alberta Museum
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Reynolds Alberta Museum
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Reynolds Alberta Museum
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Reynolds Alberta Museum
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Reynolds Alberta Museum
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Reynolds Alberta Museum
By Cynthia Blackmore
Driving east on Highway 13 towards Wetaskiwin, Alberta one cannot help but notice the huge, antique drag lines proudly standing next to the Reynolds-Alberta Museum. These imposing, one-of-a-kind machines helped to make Alberta what is today. They are now part of the collection of thousands of machines at the Reynolds-Alberta Museum.
This international award-winning museum celebrates the “Spirit of the Machine” through a significant and outstanding collection of rare and unusual cars, airplanes, tractors and industrial machines. The museum is also home of Canada’s Aviation Hall of Fame, a national organization that pays tribute to more than 220 men and women who pioneered and advanced aviation in Canada.
Visitors to the museum can always count on having much to see and do. Each year, the museum unveils a new exhibit and offers new experiences. For 2013, the exhibit is “The Fabulous Fifties”, featuring more than 30 vehicles from this era. The exhibit also looks at select automobile-related components of the 1950s; Aviation Influence, Foreign Invasion, Drive-Ins, Music and Pop Culture, “Only in Canada”, Chrome Dreams: Colour and Style, Designer Influence: the People behind the Designs. One of the feature cars for the exhibit will be a 1955 Chevrolet Nomad.
Transforming the Nomad from junk to jewelry has been of the most extensive restoration projects ever undertaken by the museum’s restoration professionals. “In my 20 years here I’ve never seen a car in as poor condition as the Nomad when we received it,” said Darren Wiberg, Head of Restoration Services. “You wouldn’t know it if you looked at the Nomad today because it looks brand new, but there were several years of extensive restoration work done on this vehicle.”
There is far more to this award-winning museum than impressive restoration work. Some jewels in the collections include a one-of-a-kind 1929 Duesenberg Phaeton Royale Model J, a 1942 Hawker Hurricane, a 1908 International Harvestor Company gasoline traction engine, a Bucyrus Class-24 dragline, and much, much more.
Year round, visitors can tour the exhibits, take in a film in the museum’s theatre, take advantage of a photo opportunity in some of the vintage machines, check out the Drive-In, select the perfect memento in the gift shop and enjoy the culinary goodies offered by Chef Brady in Cruisers Café.
During the summer, visitors can take a chauffeur driven tour of the grounds in a vintage vehicle or soar like an eagle in a 1920s open cockpit biplane. Airplane rides are weather dependent!
The summer season heats up with two of the museum’s special events - History Road: The Ultimate Car Show and Harvest Festival. History Road roars to life every year during the second weekend in June. It is a spectacular display of over 500 cars, trucks, and motorcycles spanning more than a century of automotive history. The lineup features rare vehicles from Reynolds-Alberta Museum’s collection and those of enthusiasts from across Western Canada. From open-bodied roadsters to 1960s muscle cars; from tiller handle steering to electronic fuel injection and everything in between.
The sights, sounds, and the smells of Harvest Festival happen every Labour Day weekend. This annual event features more than 40 pieces of vintage agricultural machinery in action, including tractors, threshers, binders, swathers, separators, combines and stationary engines. Staff and volunteers join together to present traditional skills in fieldwork demonstrations, while massive, crowd pleasing steam traction engines steal the show. “It is a rare opportunity to see so many antique tractors all running in one place at the same time,” said Museum Director Noel Ratch. “
Harvest Festival also includes demonstrations of butter making, winnowing, flailing, plowing, and bread baking. A Farmers Market rounds out the experience.
But just because the children are back in school doesn’t mean that the activity stops at the museum! Late September, the Metal Art Show and Sale is presented in style. Metal artists from across Western Canada display and sell stunning jewelry, magnificent metal sculptures, custom knives and more! It is the perfect opportunity to get something shiny for her and something cool for him!
So as you can see, there is more to this facility, and the memories you can create here, than one might suspect from that first view of the huge, antique drag lines proudly standing next to the Reynolds-Alberta Museum!
When you visit:
• admission is charged
• group rates are available
• open year round, 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
(closed on Mondays from September through May
– except for holiday Mondays –
closed December 24, 25, & January 1)
How to reach us
Drive: 6426 40 Avenue
2 kms west of Wetaskiwin on Hwy 13
Fly: Wetaskiwin Airport
Mail: Box 6360, Wetaskiwin, Alberta T9A 2G1
Phone: (780) 361-1351 or 1-800-661-4726
Fax: (780) 361-1239
Internet: ReynoldsAlbertaMuseum.com
E-mail: ReynoldsAlbertaMuseum@gov.ab.ca