28 July 2010

Fire Ruins High River Museum Exhibits

The desire for a new station at Calgary, and the growing need for improved railway facilities in the promising settlements of High River and Claresholm, convinced the Canadian Pacific Railway to dismantle the third Calgary station stone-by-stone between 1910 and 1911. The station was reconstructed, with some modifications, into two stations, with the west half of the old station moved to High River and the east half to Claresholm, Alberta. The photo shows the High River station prior to the fire.

High River Alberta - An early morning fire has damaged a museum in High River, Alberta, and some of the prairie artifacts it housed.
 
Volunteer firefighters from the town, as well as Blackie and Okotoks, responded to the fire at the Museum of the Highwood, south of Calgary, at 4 a.m. on Wednesday.
 
It took crews several hours to extinguish the blaze in the former Canadian Pacific Railway station.
 
"It appears the fire started on the outside of the building and made its way up to the attic and roof area," said Len Zebedee, High River's fire chief.
 
Artifacts on the main floor, which outline the history of the Highwood River basin, are believed to have suffered smoke and water damage.
 
"Luckily, some of the collection is currently stored off-site due to limited space at the museum," said town manager Harry Harker in a news release. "We will have to wait until we can get inside to assess the extent of the damage to the artifacts as well as the structural damage to the building itself."
 
Experts from Calgary's Glenbow Museum will be helping museum staff restore and preserve the artifacts, said Doug Munn, director of community services.