It’s 100 years old, and there are ones just like it all across rural Canada, but this one belongs to Hinton. The plaster is falling off the walls and the upstairs is cluttered with memorabilia waiting to go on display. The downstairs, however, is almost ready to welcome the public. 

Hinton is celebrating 100 years as a community, and to mark that milestone, the Historical Tracks and Trails Society is hoping to have their modified train station museum up and chugging along by August.

The society has been hard at work on its new museum, says President Lorraine MacKay, adding that members of the society have been studying hard to get certified under the Alberta Museum Association, and learning the ins and outs of running a museum in 2011. 

MacKay said they are aiming for a summer public opening of the museum, possibly in August, but the building has already been used by the society. On Jan. 11, the society held its monthly meeting inside the basement of the station for the first time. While there is no public access to the fixer-upper building just yet, MacKay is excited to at least be using it. 

“We’re all just tickled,” MacKay said, as she provided a tour of the building that overlooks the valley and the still bustling CN railway tracks. 

This past summer a deck was raised around the outer edge. It juts out over the basement level and provides a spectacular view of Hinton’s surrounding area as far as the eye can see. While it’s cloudy the day MacKay shows off the society’s new pad, the view still inspires a bit of awe. 

One of the best parts of the former rail station is the ancient VIA signs, still affixed to the deck level wall where the train platform would have welcomed new passengers. A swinging sign hanging down from the eaves troughs still informs visitors that they have arrived in Hinton. 

“It’s been a lot of work,” MacKay said. 

The society went through a round of nay-sayers who believed the task of moving a decrepit old building would be too much. With little support from the municipality, the society did the impossible – they rounded up the funds and got the building set up on an approved piece of land. 

The basement of the old train station is newly renovated with drywall and brand new flooring. The windows are new with rail-inspired grates over them on the outside. Inside a bank of three windows, MacKay has installed a Christmas tree set on a timer to provide some cheer to the traffic along Hwy. 16 outside. 

Upstairs, things get a bit chaotic, to say the least. The plan is to renovate the bottom first and get visitors in, then slowly work on the upstairs – the original portion of the station. There are bits of history all over the main floor. MacKay shows the rooms where the station manager and his family used to live; where he would sleep if there was an incoming train, and the tiny waiting room where passengers would sit out a lay-over. Old rail signs clutter up the rooms, and original furniture is waiting to be revamped. 

There’s no heat or electricity on the main floor yet, so the tour is quickly moved back into the warmer, heated basement. Donations from the community have poured in to offset the costs, and it seems the August deadline is within reach.

MacKay said it’s important for the society that the museum is sustainable once the doors open to the public. The courses with the Alberta Museum Association are teaching the members how to run a museum in the age of technology. The station has already been wired with cables to support interactive exhibits. The hope is that the new museum will be as current as possible. The society wants to welcome travelling exhibits so that Hintonites don’t feel like visiting once is enough. “Evolve or Die,” is the motto right now for museums, MacKay says. 

The new way of museums is through technology. People no longer want to go to a museum and read the history. They want to have it read to them through oral histories. MacKay said they have a bank of recorded interviews with historical figures from the past that they hope to integrate into the exhibits. 

MacKay is working on securing another grant that would go towards fixing up the plaster in the upstairs and the electricity. The old plaster is made out of horse hair, which was used to cling the material together. MacKay shows the strands mixed in with the material. Sometimes straw was used in those days as well. 

An August re-opening of the train station as a museum would be the perfect way to top a year of celebrating the 100th anniversary of Hinton.

“I think that would be very special,” MacKay said. “It’s what started our community.”