Lögberg-Heimskringla - 04.11.2005, Qupperneq 9

Lögberg-Heimskringla • Föstudagur 4. nóvember 2005 • 9

Selkirk
The remains of the wooden ship Granite Rock, built in Selkirk in
1913. Retired in 1962, it was the iast steam driven vessel on Lake
Winnipeg. Behind it is the Black Bear Island Lighthouse.
stepped into her new position
and finished her education de-
gree. She still substitute teaches
on the side, but works full-time
at the museum.
Nordal is of mixed Icelandic
and Ukrainian descent. She was
bom in East Selkirk, but says
she wasn’t aware of the museum
much until she started working
there.
The musuem is open to visi-
tors from Victoria Day weekend
in May to Labour Day weekend
in September, but work contin-
ues after the doors close. The
ships and their interiors need to
be kept up, materials need to be
catalogued and archived and new
displays are put together. There
are also hold special events, such
as the Hallowe’en Haunt, a tour
of three ships held in October.
Visitors are taken through the
Keenora, which is rumoured to
be haunted.
Nordal herself can testify to
some strange goings-on aboard
during her time at the museum.
“We’ve had visitors come to the
front desk and tell us, ‘We’ve
seen people up in the lounge
above us, dancing and playing
the piano,’ and we’ve actually
had people see a captain in here
at times,” she says. “There are
a lot of different ghosts on this
ship that people have told us
about.”
Many of the sightings oc-
cur during normal hours in May,
June and July. The musuem does
not employ costumed re-enac-
tors. Nordal has witnessed a
few odd things herself. “We’ve
had sealed cabinets with plates
moving, and ship’s logs where
the pages have been tumed. One
actually used to display Cliff
Stevens’s name on it, and one
day he said, ‘Well, how come
it’s flipped?’ I said, ‘I don’t
know, it’s sealed — we haven’t
touched, we haven’t opened it, or
anything.’ It was flipped to a dif-
ferent page and I never thought
to actually look at the captain’s
name on that page.”
Clifford Stevens is a name
that will be familiar to readers
of Lögberg-Heimskringla for
his nautical stories of the ships
of Lake Winnipeg. His book, I
Talked to the Captain Today, is
available for sale in the muse-
um’s gift shop.
Is Nordal ever afraid to go
to work, considering the ghosts?
“During the day, no,” she says.
“At night, if there’s a noise or
something, that’s another story.
I usually phone my dad and
say ‘Dad, meet me here!”’ she
laughs. “But n'o, if you open up
here in the morning by yourself,
it’s eerie. You almost feel as if
there’s something watching you.
Or someone.”
Other events at the museum
include banquets held aboard the
Joe Simpson and special school
tours arranged in April and May
before the museum officially
opens.
Nordal adds that one of the
things that makes their museum
unique is that visitors are wel-
come to poke around all parts
of the ships, making it a very
“hands-on” experience.
Unfortunately, in recent
years the museum has faced
dwindling financial support
from the different levels of gov-
emment, which has also meant
a decrease in staff. In the early
nineties, Nordal says, there were
between 14 and 20 people work-
ing on restoring the ships. Now
they can only afford two.
However, the museum at-
tracts many to the town. Nordal
estimates that between 10,000 to
12,000 visitors come to the mu-
seum every year, most of them
from outside Selkirk and many
from outside Manitoba and Can-
ada.
The fact that the museum
can have the ships it does it a
testament to the changing nauti-
cal history of southem Manitoba
— the waterways aren’t the main
route of transportation anymore.
“There are a few ships out there,”
she says, “like the Goldfield, still
operating, you have the Pop-
ING OIFFERENT
DAIRY QUEEN BRAZIER
307 Main Street, Selkirk, Manítoba

482-6664
lar River, which takes cargo up
and down the river, you have the
Paddlewheels, which operate in
Winnipeg, but I mean, we used
to have a big fish processing
plant out here on the dock. We
don’t have that any longer. And
the way the river is going now,
they don’t dredge it anymore, so
it makes it difficult for the bigger
ships to get through.”
Still, the maritime business
isn’t completely gone. The Ca-
nadian Coast Guard has a dry
dock right next to the museum,
where ships are repaired or refit-
ted.
“It’s a good teaching tool,
too, when kids are coming on,”
says Nordal. “We fill in the whole
di-y-dock-going-out and the ship-
coming-on process. That’s actu-
ally how half these ships [at the
museum] came up.”
Kome
cOVVoUic.LUvUi*
785-2773
917 Manitoba Ave..
Selkirk, MB

Visit us on the web at http://www.lh~inc.ca