Figure 2 Geoscience Outreach Class. Figure 3 Geoscience Open House

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1 Back Canmore Museum and Geoscience Centre Richard Green*, Talisman Energy Inc., rd St. S. W., Calgary, AB, T2P 5C5 rgreen@talisman-energy.com Catherine Nigrini, Canmore Museum and Geoscience Centre, Canmore, AB Jerry Spring, Pioneer Natural Resources Canada Ltd., Calgary, AB Gerry Ward, Queen Elizabeth High School, Calgary, AB Chas Yonge, Canmore Caverns Limited, Canmore, AB Introduction In 1998, the Canmore Geoscience Centre was added to the mandate of the Centennial Museum Society of Canmore and has been developed under the direction of a Geoscience Committee. The name of the museum was later changed to the Canmore Museum and Geoscience Centre. The Museum concentrates on the history of Canmore and its environs, with particular focus on the rich coal mining and railway history. The focus of the Geoscience Centre is on the mountain building processes that led to the present mountain structure. The Society was incorporated as an historical society in 1984 under the laws of the Province of Alberta as a non-profit society. Current facilities include the Museum and the restored barracks of the Northwest Mounted Police. This paper discusses the geoscience aspects of the facilities. Mission Statement The Canmore Geoscience Centre demonstrates the importance of local geology to our community, serving as a full-spectrum educational resource for students, scientists and the public. Activities and Programs In trying to meet the objectives of the mission statement, the centre has undertaken a series of activities that are summarized in the following diagram: Speaker Series Educational Outreach Displays Canmore Geoscience Centre TV Video Field Trips Petro / Coal Geology Presentations Self-guided Geology Hikes Summer Camps

2 As shown in the diagram (Figure 1), the Geoscience committee is involved in a number of activities aimed at presenting geoscience to the public. These activities are described in more detail on our website ( The intent of the Geoscience Centre is to increase the awareness of the public of the fascinating geology of the area. To do this, we have documented the regional geology of the Bow Valley and three areas of geological significance (the Devonian reef at Grassi Lakes, the Exshaw shale outcrop at Jura Creek and the McConnell Thrust at Mount Yamnuska) with posters. Self-guided hike brochures to these three locales have also been made. More self-guided tours are being planned. A number of videos about the geology of the area are regularly shown. Three half-hour AAPG tapes by Grant Mossop show the adult viewer the story of mountain building. Another half-hour tape (Dr. G. O. Morph: Mud to Mountains) is suitable for introducing the younger viewer to the concepts of geology. A Speaker's Series has been organized to discuss interesting aspects of the geology of the Bow Valley. A website (cmags.org) has also been set up. Since the report in the GeoCanada 2000 abstract Canmore Museum and Geoscience Centre, a number of programs have continued and new ones Figure 2 Geoscience Outreach Class Figure 3 Geoscience Open House Figure 4 - Tyrrell Museum Bus Trip

3 added. Funding by PromoScience (NSERC), the Canadian Society of Petroleum Geologists (CSPG), the Town of Canmore and the Centennial Museum Society to hire a geoscientist for the summer has allowed us to continue and improve the Stones and Bones summer camp program and to add an outreach program and an Open House to our list of activities that we support. (The Canadian Society of Exploration Geophysicists (CSEG) has become a sponsor this year.) The Geoscience Outreach program for 5 classes of grade eight students at the Lawrence Grassi Middle School was initiated in May 2001 and continued in 2002 (Figure 2) and again in Our first Geoscience Centre Open House was held on June 1, 2002 (Figure 3) and will be an annual event. The Stones and Bones summer geology camp for year olds has continued since The Stones and Bones Program is much improved since adding the summer geoscientist to our staff. In addition, last year we gave a presentation to a bus tour (Desk and Derrick Club) and we organized a community bus trip to the Tyrrell Museum in Drumheller (Figure 4). The committee is also working on the relationship between the local geology and the nearby oil and gas industry. The Mississippian and Devonian sections in the Canmore area provide students with superb examples of structural geology and stratigraphy. Defining the link to the nearby world-class oil and gas fields in the subsurface of the foothills and plains of Alberta is one of the goals of this committee. A seismic workstation (donated by Pioneer Natural Resources Canada Ltd.), geophysical software (donated by Seismic Micro-Technology Inc.) and seismic data (donated by Talisman Energy Inc. / Husky Oil Operations Ltd., Pulse Data Inc. and Arcis Surveys Corporation) are now available to work on. In addition, we have received some antique geophysical instruments (recording equipment and geophones) from the Geophysical Society of Houston. Displays of the geology associated with the local quarry industries and the past coal mining are being developed. The CMAGC is part of the Province-wide Year of the Coal Miner program October 2003 September 2004 and will be working on displays relating to the geology of coal this summer. New Facility A talk was given at the GeoCanada 2000 convention that discussed our background and our aspirations (see the GeoCanada 2000 abstract Canmore Museum and Geoscience Centre for details). At that time, we were hoping to move to a larger facility sometime in the future. Well the future new facility is coming into being more quickly than anticipated. In February 2002, the Town of Canmore invited us to be part of the new 2-storey Canmore Civic Centre (Figure 5). We will be moving into a new, much larger facility (Figure 6) in the late fall of this year. Our current facility is ~2450 square feet (sf). The new Civic Centre will be 25,543 sf and our nominal share will be ~5000 sf or 20% of the building complex. The actual floor space will be ~3625 sf including 1000 sf for several offices and a gift shop and 800 sf for a workshop and storage area. This leaves

4 Figure 5 about 1800 sf for display space compared with 1300 sf in the current facility. We will also have access to a 500 sf classroom for school outreach programs, summer camp programs, and geological talks. This room will be available to people guiding geological field trips through the Bow Valley area. There is also space in the hallway of the building for temporary movable displays. The display space in the new Canmore Museum and Geoscience Centre will be shared approximately equally between the Museum and the Geoscience Centre. Figure 6 Plans for new Museum and Geoscience Centre

5 The Centennial Museum Society of Canmore is always looking for volunteers to improve or make new geological displays and for sponsors to help fund our new facility. Acknowledgements The Centennial Museum Society of Canmore would like to thank all the volunteers who have worked to make the Canmore Museum and Geoscience Centre what it is today. We would particularly like to thank PromoScience (NSERC), the Canadian Society of Petroleum Geologists (CSPG), the Town of Canmore and the Centennial Museum Society of Canmore for sponsoring the Stones and Bones Program for the last 2 years and the Canadian Society of Exploration Geophysicists (CSEG) for becoming a sponsor this year. We would also like to thank all the sponsors of the Canmore Museum and Geoscience Centre. A complete list of these sponsors can be found on our website.