By Hannah Link
As a popular tourist destination and pillar of community events, Heritage Park Museum is an important symbol of Terrace’s past, present and future.
This year marks 40 years since the museum came to be, and the story of its conception is highlighted by the volunteers who remained devoted to the museum for decades.
In the early 1980s, a group of local historians and longtime Terracites decided that the town deserved a dedicated museum space that could also serve as an interactive display of early colonial life in northern B.C. An economic recession of the B.C. forest industry was causing stress during that time, and grants were available through the provincial and federal governments to boost the economy and offer jobs to the unemployed. These were influential in the funding of Heritage Park’s construction.
Members of the newly-formed Terrace Regional Museum Society arranged for log buildings from the region to be donated, disassembled, transported and built on the site throughout 1983. These buildings were saved from the fate of many other log buildings in the region, which often end up forgotten and overgrown.
The location of the park at the top of Kalum Hill proved to be ideal. The newly-built Terraceview Lodge would house seniors from Terrace and area, many of whom could recall rural life in the early 1900s. Seniors teas were often held at the museum to encourage these pioneers to reminisce about their past and connect with others.
The same volunteers who dreamt of the idea for the museum operated and managed Heritage Park until 1999, when the City of Terrace took over. Since then, the museum has been run by a volunteer board, titled the Terrace and District Museum Society, which reports to the city. The Terrace Regional Historical Society, as it is now named, is no longer part of Heritage Park’s operations, but still meets to publish historical works and arrange community events.
With its yearly crew of summer student employees and its many innovative and motivated curators throughout the decades, Heritage Park is used to change. The museum adjusted its programming during the COVID-19 pandemic, offering online tours and small, low-risk events.
In 2021, when the suspected graves of 215 children were discovered at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School, Heritage Park shifted its popular Canada Day event into a Community Day. The event offered educational resources, the opportunity to reflect on Canada’s colonial history and activities for children. All proceeds were donated to the Indian Residential School Survivors Society Fund, and Heritage Park will do the same for its Canada Day event this summer.
In celebration of the museum reaching its 40th year, the Terrace Regional Historical Society has organized a community event, hosted at Heritage Park. The event runs from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. on June 10 and all are welcome.
Guests can expect displays, music and refreshments. Children are encouraged to bring their favourite stuffed animal to participate in the teddy bear parade at 3 p.m.
Hannah Link is a summer student at Heritage Park Museum. She studies anthropology and journalism at the University of Victoria.
