Collections

• Observatory

  Inspired by the impending return of Halley’s Comet in 1910, a group of Regina amateur astronomers formed the Saskatchewan Astronomical Society. In 1913, an observatory (WDM-1989-MJ-7), the first of its...

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• CF-Sam

  CF-SAM (WDM-1975-MJ-3), an airplane in the Western Development Museum collection, represents a milestone in Saskatchewan and Canada’s aviation history. It belonged to the fledgling Saskatchewan Air Ambulance Service (SAAS), the...

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• ATM

  The first ATMs and the first debit cards in Canada were introduced by Saskatchewan Credit Unions. The first ATM in Canada was introduced in 1976 by Sherwood Credit Union (now...

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• Cheshire View Camper

  This unique-looking camper was built in Manchester, England, between 1946 and 1948 from materials salvaged from bombed buildings during the Second World War. Constructed by brothers Norman and Victor Thane,...

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• Fudge Snowplane

  A snowplane is much like an early model of a snowmobile. In Saskatchewan, before snowplows and elevated highways were common, roads would easily become blocked with snow in the winter....

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• Railway Coach

  Built by the Barney and Smith Car Manufacturing Company of Dayton, Ohio as a sleeping car for the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1884, this train car (WDM-NB-345) went through many...

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• Vickers Vedette

  When the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) needed an airplane for aerial mapping and forest fire patrols in Canada’s north, it turned to Canadian Vickers, a boat building company in...

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• Blowtorch The Mechanical Horse

  Blowtorch (WDM-1979-S-260), a life size mechanical horse, was the pet project and creation of W.J. McIntyre, a Swift Current, Saskatchewan inventor. Described by former employees as “rather eccentric with a...

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