Northern Life Museum, History museum in Fort Smith, Northwest Territories, Canada
The Northern Life Museum in Fort Smith holds over 13,000 artifacts on the peoples and history of the North, many gathered by the Oblate Fathers and Grey Nuns. Indoor displays follow five themes, including a northern trading post, a 1940s kitchen, two mounted bison, a trapper's cabin and a 1965 Polaris Sno-Traveler. Outdoors are a Holt tractor brought north in 1919 and the Radium King, a vessel that hauled uranium and radium ore.
The museum opened in 1964 with items gathered by missionaries including the Oblate Fathers and Grey Nuns who worked in the region. The collection grew over decades and was eventually housed in a building completed in 1974, preserving the story of the fur trade, missionary activity, and early settlement.
The museum displays traditional crafts, clothing, and tools created by First Nations, Inuit, and Métis communities. These exhibits show how different groups adapted to life in the North and maintained their skills across generations.
The museum stands in Fort Smith, Northwest Territories, and holds both indoor galleries and an outdoor yard with farm machinery, the Holt tractor and the vessel Radium King. The outdoor aboriginal cultural centre has a working cold cache, smokehouse and tipi for public use. An online virtual tour exists, but the displays have changed considerably since it was posted.
The museum houses Canus, a taxidermied whooping crane that symbolizes efforts to save this endangered species. This bird was found injured in 1964, raised in Maryland, and returned in 2004 to be displayed as a monument to wildlife conservation.
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