HISTORY:
The Club started in Ninga, initially a group of men who had restored their father's old tractors. They decided to have a show & at $1.00 per head, 800 people showed up...and everyone had a grand time. This was in 1976, and shortly after they outgrew Ninga.
(A small town about 6 miles west of Killarney)
In 1979 they moved to Killarney, securing space on the Agricultural Grounds which is still used for their summer show called "Prairie Pioneer Days". The Club continued to grow, and was incorporated on July 29, 1987. The undertaking of the corporation is restricted to "AN UNDERTAKING OF AN EDUCATIONAL, AGRICULTURAL, AND HISTORICAL NATURE, NAMELY THE RESTORATION, ACQUISITION & EXHIBITION OF AGRICULTURAL MACHINERY AND EQUIPMENT".
We subsequently were authorized by the federal government to be a Registered Charity, and are authorized to give Tax Receipts for donations from interested supporters to our cause. We secured some six acres of land within Killarney limits, fronting on Highway #3 - and just to the west of Highway18. We built the Lawson Building, 56' x 42' & later a 67' x 42' building adjoining the first to display our internal combustion stationary engines; the forerunners of modern piston operated engines used in cars, trucks, small aircraft & such to this day.
Our museum is a member of The Assocaition Of Manitoba Museums, and is starting into its fourth year of operation. Beside some one-of-a-kind machinery, our grounds are also home to a Heritage Villiage, including an old time hay barn & wind mill.
We have gone to this expense, because we have found a tremendous gulf of mis-understanding had developed between rural & urbanite dwellers. Two generations ago, many city people still had a garden; now it seems there is no space & the gardens of today are the local grocery stores. The food is still grown by the farmers & ranchers, you just don't see them. Manitoba, and Canada for that matter, still need rural growers & urbanites who provide services. Together we compliment each other, but this is no longer taught in Social Sciences in the schools, so it's unknown from K-12.
Our entire effort is to show that the sweat & tears of our great-grandfathers have provided us all with the good things in life that have taken for granted...and this has happened in just over one hundred years here on the prairies. We are a young country!
