Around the Circle This Week: August 15, 2014

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Founders’ Museum reopens Saturday

The Founders' Museum & Pioneer Village south of Thunder Bay on Highway 61 will reopen Saturday under new ownership.

Beyond the August 16 grand opening, the Founders’ Museum will be open on weekends – Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 1 to 4:30 p.m. – until September 14, then it will close for the winter, according to Lois Garrity, the new curator. She also is curator of the Duke Hunt Historical Museum.

The Founders’ Museum has been closed since August 2013 due to financial problems. The municipality of Oliver Paipoonge has taken ownership of the museum.

“We’re trying to keep it pretty much as it was,” Lois says. 

For now, admission will be by donation. There will be self-guided tours. Some tour guides will be available.

For 2015, plans are to reopen the Founders' Museum & Pioneer Village Saturday, May 16, for the new season.

The museum contains a large collection of touchable antiques displayed in realistic indoor and outdoor settings, creating an early 1900s village with a pioneer home, carpenter, cobbler and blacksmith shops, original one-room schoolhouse, a church, train station replica and a heritage community hall that’s more than 100 years old. 

For more information, call 807-577-3141 or visit www.founders.ca.

– Bob Berg

Fisheries research vessel snags an uncharted shipwreck

The CBC Thunder Bay reports:

An American fisheries research vessel accidentally snagged an old barge that may have sunk in the Cloud Bay area more than 100 years ago.

Sea lamprey battle continues

Crews from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will survey the St. Louis and Nemadji rivers this month to estimate the abundance of sea lamprey larvae in those Lake Superior tributaries – data needed “to determine the need for sea lamprey control,” according to a news release.

The invasive and parasitic lamprey, whose favorite Great Lakes prey is lake trout, reached Lake Superior in the 1940s and decimated the commercial fishery. For more background, read Bert Bowers’ story in our archive.

First Nation plans hydro plant inside Canadian national park

Northern Ontario Business:

Pic River First Nation has eyes on building a hydroelectric power station inside the boundaries of Pukaskwa National Park on Lake Superior.

+ WDIO: Northland veteran running Superior Hiking Trail for Wounded Warriors.

+ Two of our region’s communities were recognized by the International Mountain Bicycling Association this month.