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Double Tree Village adds new buildings
An old-time newspaper office and a restored Depression-era house are the two new attractions at Double Tree Village this year.
“The Bulletin, we’ve been working on it for about two years, and the Thompson building about the same,” said Anna Stanton, who owns and has helped create the historical village near Spruce View with her husband.
The Double Tree Bulletin was built because Stanton got some old but still-functioning equipment.
“The Bulletin started out with me finding some printing letters and a proof press,” Stanton said. She was able to find more equipment and got help from the former publisher of the Innisfail Province, Ray Brinson, getting the machinery set up.
The building itself was constructed from an old donated granary.
The Thompson House is from Calgary.
“It’s an original house that Grandma Thompson lived in,” Stanton said. The house is coming to the Double Tree Village after spending a number of years in a pasture in the Sundre area.
“The Thompson family asked if we’d like to put it in our museum,” Stanton said.
The house itself was in disrepair, with all the windows broken and losing a battle to gophers.
“We had to start right from scratch,” Stanton said. She said she could envision the finished project when they started, which has now been produced. The Thompson family provided pictures and memories of what the inside of the house looked like during their grandmother’s life so the Stantons could replicate the effect closely.
The Stantons do much of the work building and restoring their village themselves and with family and neighbours’ help.
They started the Double Tree Village museum in 1997 with an early 1900s theme, though the buildings have expanded to more recent historical examples.
“There’s about 25 buildings to go through,” Stanton said.
The museum is open year round, “by chance or appointment,” but the annual Wild Rose Draft Horse Field Day and Pioneer Days event will be happening June 2 and 3.
“That’s our biggest day of the year,” Stanton said.
Gates open at 9 a.m. on June 2 and 3. Activities include touring the village museum, wagon rides, handicraft displays and demonstrations, equestrian demonstrations, games, jam sessions, cowboy poetry and more.
The draft horses will be working in a field from plowing it up right up to seeding by the end of the weekend.
Admission for the weekend will be $5 a person or $20 for a family.
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