Manitoba's Canadian Fossil Discovery Centre unveils new interpretive theatre
Just outside the city of Morden, on the Manitoba Escarpment, a local organization is extracting a natural resource from the earth to bring energy to the community. That resource isn’t fossil fuel, it’s history — prehistory, to be exact.
Morden, Man., is home to the Canadian Fossil Discovery Centre, which houses Canada’s largest collection of marine reptile fossils — the dinosaurs of the sea. Last year, more than 18,000 visitors and researchers from around the world visited and took part in programs through the centre.
At first blush, a small community in southwestern Manitoba seems an unlikely place for an international tourist attraction – and an even less likely place to find the geological spoils of a 65-million-year-old inland seaway. That’s why the staff at the Canadian Fossil Discovery Centre want to invest in sharing the story of this special place.
This spring, through a $10,000 community investment grant from Enbridge, the centre will be able to share its story in a fully equipped interpretive theatre with seating for 50 to 75 people.
“We’re thrilled by the grant from Enbridge, as it gives us the opportunity to augment an already fantastic museum with an interactive theatre space,” says executive director Peter Cantelon.
The interactive theatre will supplement the information and experience offered at the centre using films, seminars, lectures and interactive programming sourced globally. It will add value to an already important local resource, says Les Scott, a senior community relations advisor with Enbridge.
“The theatre will really step up the kind of programming they’re able to provide in the museum. And since the museum already is a big drawing card for tourism in the community, and a benefit to local schools, it feels like funds well utilized,” says Scott.
Currently, the museum has more than 1,200 fossils in its collection – including a Guinness world record-holding, 43-foot long mosasaur named Bruce. Visitors not only get to see this collection, but join staff paleontologists in the search for more fossils on the centre’s 109-acre property on the escarpment.
The Canadian Fossil Discovery Centre’s displays and programs haven’t gone unnoticed. Since 1997, more than 120,000 people have visited the museum, representing $8 million in tourism revenue for the community, and Maclean’s magazine has named the centre one of Manitoba’s top five tourism destinations.
It’s a window to the world that Cantelon says the centre couldn’t have opened without the financial support from Enbridge.
“This Enbridge grant truly represents an opportunity that we wouldn’t be able to pursue if we didn’t receive it,” he says.
