The village of Fillmore held a grand re-opening ceremony this past Wednesday for their local museum.

The Prairie Memories Museum was created to showcase the community's rich history as well as some of the tools, memorabilia, and various items that were used by Saskatchewan residents more than 100 years ago.

"So for our grand opening ceremony we had a barbeque with plenty of food, drinks, and desert," said Larry Wiggins, President of the Prairie Memories Museum. "We had a presentation from the Mayor of Fillmore, the Mayor of Osage, the Reeve of the RM of Fillmore, and MLA Daryl Harrison."

He shared that the museum is made up of a number of old artifacts that date all the way back to the 1890s. With a wide variety of items from agriculture, home cooking, and anything pertaining to the district that they could find and put on display.

"Our barbeque was our fundraiser and that's the only income we have for the year other than donations from organizations and stuff like that," Wiggins shared. "We raised a bit over $1,500 and there were somewhere around 200 people that came out to support us at the grand opening. It turned out to be a beautiful day for it too."

Wiggins added that if they don't preserve the heritage from the past generations the memories will eventually be gone. That is why they decided to build the new museum, in hopes that generations to come will be able to look back fondly on all of the memories from the past in the southeast.

"I think it's very important for us to remember our parents, grandparents, and even further back if we can," expressed Wiggins. "We want to preserve the life that they went through when they sort of broke this country out. It means a lot to me and if we don't do it our children and our grandchildren will never know what happened and how they lived 100 or more years ago."

The museum is completely nonprofit and is run by volunteers from Fillmore mainly by appointment. However, they will be open every Sunday from now until September 5, 2021, from about 1:30 p.m. until 4:30 p.m.

It is free to visit the museum but they will have a jar set out for donations and they would greatly appreciate anything that visitors are willing to contribute to their local cause.

They are also always interested in accepting new items that they can put on display and anyone that may have anything that they would like to contribute can contact Myrna Sanheim who is one of their board members. Her office number is (306) 722-3804 and you can reach her by cell at (306) 861-4377.

Below you can listen to their President Larry Wiggins talking about some of the displays that they currently have in the museum.

The Prairie Memories Museum can be found in the village of Fillmore which is located along Hwy 33, approximately 40km northwest of Stoughton.

The address for the museum is 83 Main Street, Fillmore, Saskatchewan.