Fort St. John North Peace Museum

10/21/2026

We still have lots of spaces left for our November 5th Pine Needle Basket Class. This is our final pine needle basket class of 2026 so don't miss out! Tickets can be purchased at the Fort St. John North Peace Museum Monday-Friday 9-5 or Saturday 11-4.

10/21/2026

Halloween is almost here and we have lots of great Halloween items in stock!

Check out our adorable stuffed bats. These bats can be hung from the ceiling using the loop on their back or are happy to hang out on a bed or shelf. For babies and toddlers, we have a finger puppet book - Little Bat - where kids learn about a bat and the finger puppet's head pokes through each page.

Want something gooier? Check out our creepy crawly gloopy gloop (plastic insects in a slime-like gloop).

For those wanting more practical information on bats, check out our folding pocket guides (perfect for hikes as they are light and waterproof). For a more in-depth look at bats in our province, Bats of BC is the go-to resource.

Proceeds from the museum gift shop help the North Peace Historical Society preserve and present local history from photographs of 1950s/1960s Halloween parties in town (featuring bat decorations) to past presentations and educational kits on bats with the Charlie Lake Conservation Society.

10/20/2026

From our Artefact of the Week Vault... Dr. Kearney's camera and the story of a snake bite

This old, well-used camera has quite a history attached to it. It belonged to Dr. G. H. Kearney, who left it in Oliver, B.C. in the late 1920s. After 40 years Frank Venables, who was in possession of the camera at the time, discovered a film in it. One of the pictures was actually of Mr. Venables’ late mother. He donated this camera to the North Peace Museum, as he was a great admirer of Dr. Kearney. While practicing in Oliver, Dr. Kearney saved Mr. Venables’ life after a rattlesnake bite.

This Kodak Folding 3A Pocket camera was manufactured between 1903-1915 and originally sold for $20.

10/16/2026

TWO WEEKS UNTIL HALLOWEEN AT THE MUSEUM!

The museum kitchen and offices have been filling up with Halloween craft supplies, candy, and goodies. I've been getting strange looks at the grocery store with my cart filled with Halloween treats! This year our take home craft kits will consist of ghost rocket STEM kits and make your own cookie bats as well as some other take home paper activities (a witch craft and a Halloween joke cootie catcher).

Thanks to our amazing sponsors City of Fort St. John Ideal Office Solutions Ltd. Image Build & Home Hardware Fort St. John.

10/15/2026

Trivia Thursday #692: Which local grocery story featured amazing displays like this grapefruit display? (If only our grocery stores did feature displays like this nowadays!)

10/15/2026

10/14/2026

Only 2.5 months to go until 2027! We’ve got some gorgeous calendars to see you through next year. They make great gifts as well. Each calendar features the artwork of a Canadian Indigenous Artist – Shelley Davies, Carla Joseph, or Mark Preston. They have captured the people, landscapes, and wildlife of northwest Canada in their own unique and creative style. These calendars are made in Canada.

Proceeds from the museum gift shop help the North Peace Historical Society preserve and present local history from Alaska Highway calendars to historic calendars handed out by local businesses (with business name and contact info on each one).

10/14/2026

Short letters or posters are due tomorrow (Thursday, October 15) to win a free wildlife program for your class or homeschool group. We just need to know your school (or indicate homeschool), grade(s), number of students in your class/group, and a teacher's (or main contact's) name and email. Then choose from one of our three wildlife programs and let us know why you'd like to do this program. You can email your submission to [email protected] or drop it off at the museum.

10/14/2026

TOMORROW NIGHT! Join us to learn what goes on behind the scenes at the Fort St. John North Peace Museum from how we care for archival items to several big projects we have been working on.

10/13/2026

From our Artefact of the Week Vault... to brag or not to brag about your bear encounter...

Encounters with bears are not uncommon in the North Peace. Stories abound from soldiers on the Alaska Highway adopting cubs as pets to tourists getting too close to bears. The most popular story though is that of the bragging hunter.
This photograph (taken by Duncan Cran) shows Bill Kendrick (who came into the Peace Country c.1929) with a bear he shot near Montney. A caption for this photo (which also appears in Peacemakers of North Peace) reads “plenty of steaks on that grizzly!” There’s a proud feeling some people get from hunting such a larger and ferocious animal. We have many hunting trophy pictures (hunters posing with dead bears and other animals) in our collection. Not every hunter was entirely comfortable with the bragging rights thrust upon him though, especially when it wasn’t all due to skill...
Slim Byrnes recalled an encounter he had with a bear in an interview we have in our collection:
“I remember one time in particular this one [bear] come in my porch so I had meaning to get thinking to get that bear ‘cause I thought he might get into the cabin. So I hung a cow bell up on a string and put a piece of bacon on the end of it and when he’d come and eat the bacon, he’d ring that cow bell and away he’d go, galloping. He left in an awful hurry. I never got a chance to shoot him. So one night I thought well, I’m sure going to fool him tonight and I made a trap door in my door coming into my kitchen and I stood there with a gun at night.... [He came] into the porch so I shot him point blank where the shadow [was] I kind of seen in the porch. And he just tumble[d] over off the porch dead, but I was scared to even go out and look ‘cause I just pointed this gun point blank at what I thought would be the middle of the bear.. I hit him right at the butt of the ear and killed him dead first shot and some neighbours’ boys came up afterwards and said “Oh Slim Byrnes is sure a good shot... he shot that bear right in the middle of the night with one shot. Hit him right in the head and killed him.” Well it was nothing but luck.”
What encounters have you had with bears in the North Peace?