The folks at the Plamondon & District Museum Society are so committed to the history of the region, they are operating out of a building that is an exact replica of the first church constructed in the community more than 110 years ago.
Inside the Plamondon Museum, the history of the region from the original Indigenous people, to the Metis trappers, the first Francophone settlers ... and all the way to the rotary telephone ... are on display.
Wait a minute ... are rotary phones part of history?
Yep, says Plamondon & District Museum Society President Bonita Marchand.
"We just had Grade 4 classes visiting us, and we asked if they knew how to dial a rotary phone we have on display," she said with a laugh. "... They didn't know."
And that's the whole point of the museum system, she says, to introduce people — young and old — to the many aspects of the community around them.
Much of the recorded history found inside the museum, located just a block west of Plamondon's main street near the Ecole Beausejour and Ecole Plamondon schools, dates back to the late 1800s and early 1900s. In fact, the museum boasts a full geneology — complete with era-correct tools, household items and photographs — of the Ladouceur and Powder families dating back to 1810.
Tools for building trappers' cabins, family homes, fences ... and the original church, are all on display, each with a story and a connection to the past, says Marchand.
The Metis and Francophone culture of the area intertwines in the early 1900s, says Marchand, linked by farming, trapping, the church and music.
"We do have a large area for our music display," she says, including actual recordings dating back decades and generations.
Jean-Paul Plamondon, the Plamondon Sisters, and Jeanne-Louise, the "Sweetheart of the West" are just some of the names on file in the museum. If the Sweetheart of the West isn't part of your record collection, Marchand says the late Jeanne-Louise Middleton wrote the Plamondon Homecoming theme song known as the Shangra-La Waltz and the Plamondon Bay Waltz. Likening her music style to that of Patsy Cline, Marchand said the "Sweetheart's" music is just one of the many interesting finds at the museum.
"People can come here and see things they grew up with or their parents or grandparents grew up with. They can reminisce and learn about life from generations ago," said Marchand, encouraging locals to stop in during the site's summer hours of Tuesday to Saturday from 9:30 to 4:30. "It tells the story of our area."
In order to keep that story going, museum supporters are in the process of a fundraising and awareness drive to eventually move and expand the museum. The hope is to move to a larger building near Plamondon's Festival Centre. To donate or to find out more about the Plamondon Museum & District Museum Society, follow the links in the digital version of this story at www.lakelandtoday.ca
