Welcome to a trip back in time - a time we often think of as simpler and easier. As you tour Pioneer Acres, it won't take long for you to figure out that the pioneers of Southern Alberta actually had their hands full and maybe life wasn't quite as easy as we think! Conveniences that we take for granted, simply didn't exist in the early 1900's. Appliances like automatic washing machines and clothes dryers are the timesaving replacements for things like scrub boards and outdoor clotheslines. Horses were used to pull farm equipment - not tractors, and even when tractors first arrived in Alberta, they were nothing like the air-conditioned machines that we see today. Recreating those memories of times gone by is what we are all about.
Pioneer Acres is situated on 50 acres of land and is comprised of over a dozen buildings. You should allow a few hours or half a day to get a glimpse at everything. We hope you will want to make many return trips to really get a good look at the artifacts you are most interested in and maybe give us hand in restoring or even operating some piece of equipment.
When you arrive, the first building you will see is Pioneer World. This 6,000 square foot building is home to a half-dozen dioramas showcasing the family life of our early settlers. Among the scenes you can take in are a fully equipped kitchen, a music room, and well-stocked General Store. Continuing on your tour is the first of several "Pole Sheds", which are buildings that are open on one side for easy access to the equipment inside. In them, we store much of our agricultural machinery so it is readily available for operation and demonstration.
Pioneer Acres members play an important role - so much so that there are four buildings filled with tractors and two buildings filled with cars and trucks that members have graciously put on display. The Blacksmiths and Wheelwrights are often on site handcrafting various items to show off their skills. The Steam building holds a huge vertical boiler that generates enough power to drive two giant steam engines and a host of other equipment. The Stationary Engine building contains over one hundred engines from chainsaw size to those with six-foot flywheels.
The Crown School (a one beautiful one-room schoolhouse) and the Long House (so named because it was the home of the nearby Long family) are buildings constructed in the early 1900's and used for decades before being moved to Pioneer Acres for restoration and preservation. Next to the Long House is a display of a typical southern Alberta Beef Ring, and if you are curious, you will have to come for a visit to find out just what that is. No tour would be complete without checking out the horse barn and although we don't keep horses on site all the time, they are there quite often and can be seen actually working the land and giving wagon rides.
Closed for the season. See you in May 2020