About the Museum

The Museum is located in Benny’s Lake Heritage Park on the east side of Highway 41 in the Hamlet of Cloyne. The anticipated official 2023 opening will be on Saturday June 24th, 2023 . It is open seven days a week until it closes on Labour Day. The Museum is open from 10AM to 4PM.

What was life like along the Addington Colonization Road in the latter part of the nineteenth century?

Come into the museum:

  • Sit in an early schoolhouse that has been reconstructed within the building.
  • Marvel at the diorama of the Gilmour Tramway. It moved logs from Lake Mazinaw in the Mississippi River Watershed to Pringle Lake.   They then travelled to Lake Skootamatta in the Moira River Watershed. 
  • Stay a while in the household area to see what an early pioneer kitchen looked like.
  • Pause to see the museum’s copy of Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass. Flora MacDonald Dennison commissioned an inscription from it to be chiseled into Mazinaw Rock.
  • View images of the pictographs on Mazinaw Rock
  • Touch the early tools and implements made by blacksmiths, coopers, and harness makers
  • Browse in the library where many local families have researched their genealogy.
  • Admire the twig furniture crafted by Atewonnarikhon (Johnnie Bay) local artisan and maker of birch bark canoes, baskets, carved bowls and axe handles

The displays are changed frequently, so come back again. 

Admission is free, but we think that you will be so happy with your visit that you will want to contribute to our donation jar. 

CDHS Invites You To Join Us!

Membership allows you to take full advantage of what the Society and Museum have to offer. Members are eligible to vote at all general meetings including the AGM and to run for a position on the Board of Directors. The annual fee is only $10.00 per person.  Sign up today to learn and share our history!

CDHS Invites You To Join Us!

Membership allows you to take full advantage of what the Society and Museum have to offer. Members are eligible to vote at all general meetings including the AGM and to run for a position on the Board of Directors. The annual fee is only $10.00 per person.  Sign up today to learn and share our history!