Imagine a cold afternoon, in town. It’s a town so young that, if it were a human, it would not yet have taken its first steps- and already it’s bursting with 1,200 people, with shops and hotels and a school, with rutted frozen-mud streets and hastily-erected wood...
Hardship and heartache were the norm during World War II. Rationing, in every Allied country, made life difficult with shortages of food, clothing and general supplies. Watching young men leave, knowing it might be the last time you glimpsed their faces, would break...
Rationing, making do, shortages – no matter who you were or where you lived in the early 1940s this was the stuff of daily life. Every effort was being made to win the war. Keeping spirits up also required a huge effort. Despite blackouts in the face of nightly...
Jackets enhanced with shoulder pads, narrow waists, knee length skirts – my uniform for work during the 1980s. But it wasn’t the cusp of a new innovative design in fashion – it was a nod to the difficult war years of the early 1940s. What I love about the Fernie...
It's a rare and welcomed thing when you read or see or experience something that inspires you to act. We are inundated with images, stories and views every day but it's not often that many of us are moved to act upon any given source. Last year the Fernie Museum did...
A guiding principle of the Fernie Museum is that one can learn from the past - past events, past activities, past traditions - and that learning leads to a better understanding our world today. The museum’s summer camps will be a chance for kids to connect Fernie’s...
Meditation and the Practice of Photography Norman Riley created the Peace Park Perspectives exhibit after completing his artist in residence program at Glacier National Park last summer. He reflects here on his experience and how the experience was about more than...
In a race against time, the Fernie Museum's Community Memory Project seeks to document the memories of the current generation of community elders to help create a greater understanding of our history. This project will build on the research of past museum staff and...
This is the story of one of Fernie's ghosts - the tragic tale of a young man lost in the 1902 Coal Creek Mine Explosion; the largest mine disaster in BC's history in which 130 men and boys perished. Stephen wasn’t more than a lick of a kid at 13 when he started...
The Rise and Fall of Emilio Picariello travelling exhibit that opened at the Fernie Museum on September 19, 2015 revealed a deep-seated desire to understand Fernie’s past. This was particularly true for members of the Italian community. At museum visits and the...
Emilio Picariello is a character who captures the imagination. His entrepreneurial spirit garnered him many successful legal businesses. The rising tide of Prohibition, meant that bootlegging was a natural progression of “Emperor Pick’s” acumen. However bootlegging...
In celebration of the Fernie Brewing Company's Cheers to Charity Program here's a quick look at the origins of brewing in Fernie. The Fernie Museum is the recipient of the proceeds of the Cheers program until February 13. Go have a paddle in the FBC tasting room,...