Issue link: http://publications.winnipegfreepress.com/i/161247
Museum Mania Manitoba's history is as rich and colourful as the people who live here. Explore the province's natural and cultural heritage through our collection of distinctive museums. The Manitoba Museum 6-StopHistoryTourofManitoba M u lt i - D ay D e s t i n at i o n P l a n n e r 62 DAY 1 Discover Winnipeg's history through its museums. First stop, The Manitoba Museum, which follows Manitoba's history from 600 million years ago as the Ancient Seas exhibit explores Manitoba's prehistory covered in water to boomtown Winnipeg in the 1920s. After lunch, head over to the city's French Quarter, St. Boniface and visit Le Musée de Saint-Boniface, the oldest building in Winnipeg. Built for the Grey Nuns between 1846 and 1851, the museum serves now as a showcase of Manitoba's Métis and French-Canadian history. DAY 2 Head west to Brandon to learn about this province's military history. The Central Museum of the Royal Regiment of Canadian Artillery (RCA Museum) on CFB Shilo is home to some of the most important guns in Canada's history. The museum features the nation's largest collection of artillery artifacts, from smaller cannons used by Selkirk Settlers to rocket launchers used in the Gulf War. The Commonwealth Air Training Plan Museum located at the Brandon International Airport boasts an impressive collection of aircraft, artifacts and memorabilia from Canada's role in the Allied victory in World War II. DAY 3 Arrive in Dauphin for a look at the Parkland's past from prehistoric times to the arrival of early explorers. The Fort Dauphin Museum, open through September and by appointment until April, is surrounded by a wooden palisade and features a trapper's cabin, trading post, blacksmith's shop, a pioneer log house and a one-room schoolhouse from the early 1890s. The site is also home the Parkland Archaeological Society, which has catalogued over 80,000 artifacts, including a 90-million-year-old marine reptile fossil found in the hills near Dauphin. Musée de Saint-Boniface Central Museum of the Royal Regiment of Canadian Artillery (RCA Museum) PHOTO: The RCA Museum Shilo