The Icelandic Canadian - 01.09.2008, Side 21

Vol. 61 #4
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
159
drug deals done at the Falcon restaurant.
KARL SCHNERCH LOG SUMMER
KITCHEN
Construction date is believed to be
between 1905 and 1910. A tin roof was built
for the summer kitchen to preserve the logs.
The building has a gable-end roof and sad-
dle-notch or dove-tail notch joins in the
walls. It is now used as a children’s play
house. Other buildings on this farm proper-
ty include a stackwall house, a barn and a
cement building. It is now owned by Karl’s
great grand-daughter and her husband.
THE BIFFY
On one of the Seaforth cottage lots is a
building that originally had a biffy and a
shower. It is said that a certain lady called
Mrs. Tweedy died in that biffy. “They took
her away in a wicker basket.”
The MHAC succeeded in obtaining a
grant of $5000 from the Historic Places
Initiative, and a $1020 grant from the
Historic Resources Branch to develop the
exhibit. This allowed them to design a first-
class presentation of the information they
had collected. Starting this year, the exhibit
can be transported to other Manitoba her-
itage associations and to schools. The
exhibit includes:
• a 12 minute film/video produced
and directed by Matthew Wright of Arnes
• 14 pictorial panels with commen-
taries (selected sites from the inventory)
• a PowerPoint presentation pro-
duced by Ken Krebs of Cimli
• a loose leaf binder containg the
photographs and inventory forms of all
documented properties
• two cases of display material (arte-
facts, documents and historical pho-
tographs) loaned to the museum by the
people who were interviewed
• a model of the original log house of
Chris and Rose Reichert in Berio
In 2007, its inaugural year, the MHAC
received $1000 from the RM of Gimli
Council. This generated over 700 hours of
volunteer labour, almost 4000 km in volun-
teer travel, $8500 in grants, and $3000 in
donations. And this is only the beginning.
Wally and his assistants will be collecting
information and photographs of more
buildings and local cemeteries’1' in the sum-
mer of 2008. There are also plans for two
Heritage Tour Brochures—one a walking
tour of the town, the other a driving tour of
the RM. Plans are to have a map on one side
of the driving tour brochure, and photos
and commentaries on the other. This will
greatly enhance the tourist potential of the
area.
The Municipal Heritage Advisory
Committee is made up of the following vol-
unteers: Wally Johannson (Chairman),
Grace Artyshko, Tammy Axelsson, Andy
Blicq, Diane Hall, Rick Lair, Ernest
Stefanson, and Stefan Tergesen. This talent-
ed group generated many of the ideas and
policies of the MHAC. For example, Andy
Blicq supervised the development of the
film, and wrote commentaries on the picto-
rial panels. He also writes news releases for
the MHAC. Tammy Axelsson, director of
the NIHM, developed the concept of the
museum exhibit for Manitoba Day, and set
it up. If These Walls Could Talk was very
much a group effort. Congratulations on a
job well done. The community looks for-
ward to future accomplishments.
If you would like to donate ideas, infor-
mation or time to the MHAC, please con-
tact Wally Johannson at johannso@mts.net.
Editor’s Note: The MHAC has collect-
ed information and erected a monument to
the victims of the 1876-77 smallpox epidem-
ic at the Icelandic Pioneer Cemetery on
Highway 9 in Gimli. This story will be
included in a future article in The Icelandic
Canadian.