Port museum has it all for Canal Days
Marine heritage festival returns for civic holiday weekend
The Canal Days tradition carries on at Port Colborne Historical and Marine Museum.
Assistant curator Michelle Mason says the museum sees families and individuals linger for two to three hours on the grounds, taking in everything there is to offer.
“It’s a really good place to come learn, play or sit in the shade … we’ve got it all.”
New to the museum for this civic holiday weekend festival is Blackthorn Production, who put on medieval combat demonstrations.
“They have a game for children called Hit the Knight.
“We have an expert in sandcastle building coming Saturday from noon to 4 p.m. to show children five and older how to make sandcastles.”
Mason said the Holodomor National Awareness Tour will be at the museum as well. The tour generates awareness about the Holodomor, a famine-genocide carried out in 1932-33 by the Soviet Union led by Joseph Stalin, which resulted in the deaths of millions of Ukrainians.
Mason says event favourites, such as the Great Lakes Model Boat Association’s remote control boat show and the Niagara Antique Power Association, will be back again on the museum grounds.
Visitors can watch artisans demonstrate their skills in
blacksmithing, woodcarving, spinning and rope ladder-making throughout the heritage village.
“We have great entertainment with Kindred who perform kitchen music and Finnegan’s Wake who perform Irish and East Coast style music, which fits in with our maritime theme.”
Niagara Old Tyme Fiddlers, Tara’s School of Highland Dance and more will perform over the weekend of the event.
“We have a scavenger hunt for children and Floss & Tann’s Cabinet of Curiosity for the Incurably Curious (presented by Mental Floss Sideshow) is back with a brand new show. They were very popular last year.”
In addition to the many outdoor activities and attractions, Mason says people can pop inside the museum itself to check out the Welland Canal exhibit.
The interactive exhibit uses a touch screen that takes people through a time-lapse of a journey down the canal from Port Colborne to Port Weller.
There’s also the Tugging Along exhibit on display in the Marine Exhibit Lighthouse, a reproduction of the parapet of Port Colborne’s lighthouse. It shows how tugboats were a vital part of the operation of the Welland Canal, and at one time there were between 20 and 30 operating in Port Colborne alone.
For more information on Canal Days at the museum, visit portcolborne.ca/page/
museum_attractions.