Canadian Museum of History (formerly Civilization) Fun for Whole Family
The swooping architecture of the building and jaw-dropping 17 metre-high domed ceiling of Canada Hall are visions you will not easily forget after you have visited the newly named Canadian Museum of History, which covers Canadian life from AD 1000 to 2000.
Instead of complaining about the snow piled up on our streets, from now until Sept 28, 2014, go enjoy the informative exhibit about Snow and the ingenious ways in which we Canadians have adapted to our difficult winter conditions, from sleighs to snow removal. You can participate in a fun quiz at the end.
The museum is a playground for all, as the Children’s Museum takes the kids on travels around the world – including a passport to stamp in each country. All kinds of imaginative play from driving a bus, motorcycle, ship or camel to running a shop, putting on a puppet show, living in a pyramid, moving heavy boxes using a winch, or booking a trip can all be tried out.
In the main galleries, visitors see a Viking family arriving in Newfoundland around AD 1000, discover New France through a farmhouse, inn, hospital, shoemaker’s shop and visit a voyageur camp, a lumber camp, a Métis campsite, British military living quarters and a Maritime shipyard. There’s a stroll past shops along the main street of a small town in late 19th-century Ontario.
Learn about life in a turn-of-the-century prairie railway station and yard, a Saskatchewan grain elevator, an authentic Ukrainian church, a Chinese hand laundry and a 1920s Alberta oil derrick. You can even sit in Yellowknife’s Wildcat Cafe, the town’s first restaurant and a popular gathering spot for prospectors, bush pilots, miners and trappers.
If you love animals, leave time for the up close and personal movie, Kenya 3-D about a safari through Africa.
Location: 100 Laurier St., Gatineau, Quebec K1A 0M8
Phone: 819-776-7000 or 800-555-5621
www.civilization.ca