A group of volunteers meets every Wednesday in the new Building C of the Manitou Pioneers Museum in Neilburg to restore two old donated tractors and trucks. The project is reviving up interest in the museum, which is open during the summer. Supplied Photo
Wednesday is a wrench day at the Manitou Pioneers Museum in Neilburg, also known locally as shop night.
Shop night is the brainchild of Chris Makey, who works as a foreman for the RM of Buffalo and chairs the museum’s machinery committee.
“We built a shop and we have volunteers come in,” said Makey.
“We restore donated stuff and equipment and get it ready for display.”
High on the interest list for the volunteers is the ongoing restoration of vintage vehicles.
“We’ve got two tractors in there right now and a 1949 REO truck,” said Makey.
“Volunteers are there every Wednesday night helping out.”
Shop night is billed as “a great evening of camaraderie and a sense of accomplishment to see antique tractors and vehicle resume to running condition again” according to minutes from the museum’s AGM in April.
“We started on the first Wednesday in November 2022. We’ve been averaging five to eight guys a night,” said Makey.
He says people donate equipment and they want to see it displayed and fixed.
Makey also has antique tractors at home.
“I’ve got quite a collection and go to tractor shows,” he said.
He says the museum in Neilburg is for the local history, but they’re branching into the farm machinery and stuff to present to the public.
“There’s three projects on the go right now.”
The group is researching and restoring a 1951 Le Roi Tractair once used as a compressor for the airports in the military.
The guys also hope to bring a 1949 Case DC4 tractor back to life and a 1949 REO Speed Wagon truck that Makey says some mistook for the 70s rock band of the same name.
“We brought it in on the second Wednesday night and everybody said, ‘What’s this’ and I said ‘It’s an REO Speed Wagon and everybody goes ‘No, that’s a band,’” he said with a laugh.
“The band named themselves after a truck—they all had their phone on Google to see if I was bullsh*tting them too. It’s quite funny for me anyways.”
The fellowship and work take place inside a new museum wing called Building C that’s been a work in progress itself since the plan was hatched in 2017.
The space will house a barn/agro/4-H area, a school, a general store, a hospital and a garage.
“We’re slowly getting it done. Hopefully, we’ll have it all done this year,” said Makey who headed the building committee at one time.
“The community chipped in and donated all the money for the building too,” said Makey.
He says the goal is to display the restored vehicles in the building.
He says the pandemic put a dent in the progress of Building C along with visitor numbers, but he thinks the shop night projects are actually motivating people to take an interest again.
The museum is known for its Indigenous artifacts, artifacts from the settler families of the district and wood carvings by local artists and is open to the public from July 1 to Aug. 31.
There is also a small RV park with a washroom/shower facility adjacent to the museum.
