Hello all!

We've been having a very interesting a busy week...which is why I'm pumping out two post back to back. Actually I had just failed to press publish on my last post and due to the pace around here forgot to get back and publish it. Anyway, we here at the museum are happy to announce that we have received the green light on our farmers market which will be starting July 11 and running till the end of summer. This is great news as all the work getting the grounds ready for some local vendors has really paid off. With that said we invite everyone out to enjoy some local produce and goods every Friday from 4:30 until 8:00 pm starting July 11th.

Other exciting news is that we've been getting things organised for Panther Valley Day both Starbucks and Re/max have both agreed to help support the day providing tents and coffee. We are still figuring out a few other details but at the moment we already have live music, petting zoo, blacksmith, gold panning, butter churning, balloon animals and much more all lined up.

Finally getting around to a bit of history is the fact that we have just received, on loan, this beautifully restored 1905 White steam delivery van.

While the van is circa 1905 parts from 1905 to 1910 were used along with a photo from a 1952 book on steam cars to complete an authentic restoration. These vehicles were built by the White Sewing Machine Company in Cleveland Ohio. The earliest version of this steam van was built in 1903 which White continued to build until 1910 when it was decided that the future was gasoline powered internal combustion engines. The company eventually gave up producing automobiles in 1918, and concentrated on trucks at which time it became White Trucks. White later became Freightliner. Therefore, this may be the world's oldest Freightliner!

Steam vehicles were quite popular during their introduction in urban centres as they were silent and therefore did not bother horses. However, they were heavy on fuel and needed to be refilled with water frequently, because of this they were not suitable for long trips. Additional problems arose for the steam van with the fall of the horse for urban transportation as there were no longer horse troughs from which to load up on water. With fewer and fewer horses to be found in urban centres the louder but longer running gasoline powered internal combustion engine was able to push the Steam van, and other steam driven vehicles, out of popular use.