Exhibitions and Collections

Take a quick tour of a few of our exhibits and plan a visit to the museum soon to savour a unique and exciting part of Owen Sound's history.

A wide variety of displays of artifacts, models and photographs of area's marine and rail transportation heritage are here. A number of artifacts grace the Museum grounds including:

The Ancaster, a log tug built in Owen Sound that was featured on the now nonexistent Canadian one dollar bill.
A caboose transformed from a 1910 Grand Truck box car.
The Kennedy foundry whistle is a working artifact installed on the roof of the museum that sounds Monday to Saturday at noon and 5 p.m.

Other industries that relied on the marine and rail transportation services, and used area natural resources are also exhibited.

The Owen Sound harbour was a bustling waterfront at the turn of the twentieth century and served as the "Gateway to the West". From 1885 to 1911, Owen Sound prospered as the busiest port on the Upper Great Lakes, moving immigrants west to the prairies and bringing prairie grain east.

See some of our General History exhibits as well

Officially opened in 1985, the Museum's collection includes scale models of ships, steamers, trains, a dugout canoe, shipbuilding tools, marine and railway uniforms, various flags and many other items relating to the area's marine and rail past. The displays are rotated on a regular basis, so each Museum visit offers a different glimpse into days gone by.