Village News

In many respects it’s rather quiet at Mennonite Heritage Village at this time of year. Tourists are spending time in warmer locations. Schools are busy in classrooms and are waiting for warmer weather to plan their field trips.

Last Sunday the Steinbach Mennonite Brethren Church, my home congregation, celebrated its ninetieth anniversary. In providing the audience with a brief historical background of the church, Walter Fast referred back to the beginning of the protestant reformation 500 years ago.

As is usually the case at Mennonite Heritage Village, 2016 was a good year in some respects and a difficult year in others.

The Curatorial Department at Mennonite Heritage Village recently participated in a photo shoot. No, we didn’t get glamour shots of ourselves taken among the collection.

When Dominion surveyor Thomas Cheesman was laying out Township 7-6E in 1872, he found three cabins already there on uncharted bushland.

Regular readers of this blog will recall that I spent the first 20 years of my life in the Burwalde School District between Winkler and Morden.

Every morning I receive an email from a clipping service at the Canadian Museums Association providing me with museum-related articles from various media sources.

The Waldheim House, built in 1876 by Julius Dyck (1852-1909) in the former village of Waldheim (near Morden), is the oldest building on the grounds of Mennonite Heritage Village.

It was a pleasure to recently have lunch with a small group of volunteers at Mennonite Heritage Village. Predictably Christmas became a key part of our conversation around the table.

On an exceptionally beautiful November morning, with the sun shining and the temperature well above freezing, approximately 120 interested people gathered near the sawmill on the Mennonite Heritage Village grounds.