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Museum shows off its new makeover

The Nakusp & District Museum held an open house to show off its new look.

Residents of Nakusp were invited to an open house at the Nakusp & District Museum on Oct. 3.

The Columbia Basin Trust and Columbia Kootenay Cultural Alliance gave the museum the grant, which enabled it to redo the whole museum.

"Each display was taken apart, photographed, cleaned, and then put back, but put back in a little different way. All the exhibits are more accessible now. You can walk right into them, whereas you couldn't before," said museum curator Sharon Montgomery.

The process took four months to complete, and the museum was open while it was being done.

Linda Dixon was chosen to photograph every artefact, and considering there are around 5,800 items to be catalogued, this was no small feat.

The museum is deceptively large. It features exhibits on everything from forestry, mining, trapping, and farming, to village life, WWI and WWII. An entire room is dedicated to the Sinixt Nation and its history.

One thing that really impressed Dixon was that everything in the museum was from the local area. Most of the items had been saved by the local Women's Institute before the valley was flooded in the 1960s.

"This has all been brought to the museum to be saved because people, after the flood, valued the fragility of stuff, and knew how easily it could be lost. I think that's what gives it such a special feeling." Dixon said.

Many were pleased with the new facelift.

"I think it was fabulous the job that Linda and Sharon did on making it more open for the people to see every part of it," said Walter Pasieka, who really enjoyed the room dedicated to the Sinixt.

"I've been working with the Sinixt for 25 years, so the Native section I'm really pleased with. It's really good for educating locals and people from out of town about the people who lived here since the last ice age." Pasieka said.