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Pioneer museum near Timmins has first pandemic opening

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A former lumber town located in a rural area of Timmins, the Connaught & District Pioneer Museum, is welcoming visitors for the first time since summer of 2019.

Though while the museum was shut down, the Connaught & District Historical Society, which runs it, had plenty of time to collect new local artifacts to showcase on its opening day.

Items like those from a local church that was recently demolished.

“The United Church (had been) here since the 1920s,” said the society’s president, Rheal Dupuis. “I’ve got the pulpit, the signs and a few items that I had before … so I put everything together, it’ll make a nice little story.”

New additions to the museum include antique cameras and projectors from Dupuis’ own collection, who was born and raised in Connaught.

The museum couldn’t have its usual community barbecue to kick off the season, due to COVID restrictions, but Dupuis said people are still welcome to explore its unique pieces of northern history.

He said whether someone has roots in the Connaught area or is simply a history buff, the museum allows people to take a glimpse back in time at a town that once had a booming lumber industry and a vibrant community.

“In the hay days, in the 20s and 30s, even the 40s, we had about four and up to five saw mills in the area,” Dupuis said.

The museum’s assistant administrator, Simon Grech, said he’s grown increasingly interested in the beginnings of his home town.

While it consists of one road and a handful or two of houses now, he said it’s fascinating to picture Connaught once being a bustling area.

“There used to be a school, there used to be like three saw mills, used to be a store, a hotel,” Grech said. “There used to be a lot of things here that you just don’t see anymore, which is really interesting.”

Dupuis said he hopes to hold a proper reopening celebration once COVID restrictions loosen further and that he will keep collecting new artifacts to showcase in the museum.

He said he’s particularly grateful to the Ontario Lottery Gaming Corporation and the Timmins Charitable Gaming Association, which kept the bills paid while the museum was shut down.

“Without them, we wouldn’t have survived,” Dupuis said.

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