Grey Owl’s Beaver Lodge……..is now a reality. At the Friends of the Park Annual General meeting in the summer of 2004 the Board passed a motion to set up a Grey Owl Display in the building that housed the bookstore. The park offered their support. Grit McCreath and Ken Norman were appointed to co-chair the project.

In January 2005, our Friends Administrator Judie Graham began the project. She envisioned a room set up as a duplication of Grey Owl’s home on Ajawaan Lake. She decided the name of the room would be Grey Owl’s Beaver Lodge since that was what Grey Owl always called his home. She contacted Doug Taylor, an artist/exhibit technician. Together they came up with a plan. Since the building where the bookstore is located had been designated a Heritage Building they had some additional challenges. They decide to suspend the walls and ceiling so that they wouldn’t alter the structure of the buildings in any way. Judie found some wood slabs (her husband’s) that Doug thought would be ideal for the walls. They found a catalogue that PANP had compiled years ago that had itemized all of Grey Owl’s possessions. The catalogue also contained pictures of inside his cabin. Doug then set to work. He had the walls, floor and ceiling completed in less than two weeks. His wife Maryanne Janssen arrived and Doug, Judie and Maryann began hunting for items that would duplicate Grey Owl’s possessions. They went everywhere; Al and Judie’s home, Moose Jaw, Mayview, Regina and Prince Albert. The project took about a month to complete. The last item to arrive was a stove, similar to the one in the beaver lodge. When you enter the room you are transported back into time. Seeing is believing.

Special thanks to Carla Flaman, the Friends liaison with PANP. She smoothed many paths and offered encouragement every step of the way. Thank you to everyone who donated over time to the Grey Owl NatureTrust Fund. We could not have done this project without your generosity. And lastly thank you to the Saskatchewan’s Centennial Heritage Commemoration Program for their $2000.00 grant. Rest assured, your money was well spent.

The official opening will be held on July 16.