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Taylor J-2 Cub CF-BEE displayed in the Aviation Museum at Wetaskiwin Alberta. Photo by: RuthAS- Wikimedia

Top 10 Interesting Facts about Reynolds Alberta Museum

You’ll enjoy the Reynolds-Alberta Museum if you like vintage cars, motorcycles, airplanes, tractors, machines, and signs. It is world-renowned and has received numerous international awards. It has an excellent array of machines and is extremely well-equipped.

The showcases are lovely, and there are plenty of interesting signs to read along the way. They provide information and tell unique stories about the machines’ use in the past. At the indoor Starlight Drive-In, you can watch videos to learn how cars are made, learn about grain elevators, and even sit in vintage cars.

The collection was started by Stan Reynolds, a local car salesman and collector who advertised that he would take ANY kind of trade in.

Automatically, he accumulated an odd collection of vehicles and machinery. This didn’t bother him because he was also a collector of common machinery. According to one story, while serving in London during WWII, he collected shrapnel and brought it home for his collection.

Stan, a pilot, was known to cruise the area farmlands looking down for interesting machinery that he would try to buy from the farmer. Stan gave his collection to the museum in the mid-1980s, and it officially opened in 1992.

1. Experience a Drive-In 

Sitting in the seats of an antique car, you can watch a series of Canadian Shorts aimed at children. We watched movies like “The Hockey Sweater” and “Jonathan Cleaned Up.” The films were short enough to keep the kids’ attention while also allowing them to experience some of the familiar stories they’d heard read to them at home.

2. Consider a pink convertible road trip 

1911 Franklin automobile. Aircooled four cylinder engine. On display in Reynolds Alberta Museum in Wetaskiwin. Photo by: Flickr photographer- Wikimedia

According to the children who have visited the museum, the pink convertible near the Starlite Drive In was magnificent. It could be the ability to imagine road trips to wherever their imagination could take them, or the fact that it’s pink, but they were smitten with the convertible – or, at the age of five and eight, their dream car.

3. Experience a biplane ride

For $110, you can take your experience to a whole new by chartering a Biplane ride. Look into the Biplane tours; there are three options available to choose for tourists who come to the museum.

4. Discover the Farm House Play Zone 

Reynolds Alberta Museum. Photo by: Wilson Hui- Wikimedia

You may well be astonished at how many toys are made in Canada if you start exploring the Farm House Play Zone. Play with the giant blocks, look at the puzzles and toys, and learn about the history of the toys we’ve been playing with for years.

5. The museum has more than just cars inside it

The museum is not just for machine and vehicle enthusiasts. The collection of transportation, aviation, agricultural, and industrial machinery spans the years 1890 to 1970 and uncovers Alberta’s legacy, providing a glimpse into a changing Canadian environment.

The museum traces the industrialization and mechanization of Canada’s Alberta region, from horse-drawn buggies to cars and wagons, from the local blacksmith to a massive factory, from horses to tractors.

The museum houses over 400 vehicles, 95 aircraft, thousands of pieces of farm equipment, a library of farm and vehicle publications, a grain lift from the 1920s, a service station from the 1930s, and a drive-in from the 1950s.

A one-of-a-kind 1929 Duesenberg Phaeton Royale Model J, a Bucyrus Class-24 dragline (built in 1917 and the world’s oldest dragline), and a 1928 American Eagle biplane – the only surviving Canadian example are among the museum’s prized possessions.

6. What are the most interesting machines in the museum?

CF-100 Canuck a1ll-weather interceptor aircraft at Reynolds-Alberta Museum Wetaskiwin. Photo by: Ceasol- Wikimedia

The most fascinating items in the museum, nevertheless, are not the rarest, but the most commonplace, such as “a home built wire weeder, one farmer’s answer to the soil erosion that daily severely damaged his family’s farm, and future” and “a tractor with a wash basin hammered into a wheel to repair it.”

These were also said to be Stan Reynolds’ top picks, machines that showed signs of use through the daily wear and tear on their parts.

Reynolds died in early 2012, but he left behind a lifetime of passionate collecting.

7. The Reynolds-Alberta Museum transports you back in time

The storage unit will allow tourists to see old items and other items they would not have known about otherwise. Some items, such as a recently acquired white 1981 K-Car, will be immediately recognizable.

“We have a fascinating relationship with cars, and cars really define us in some ways,” Ratch says. “And people find that link here.”

8. Mail a postcard

To commemorate Canada 150, you can color and customize a McLaughlin post-card and fill out an address. Drop it in the craft area mailbox and wait for it to arrive in the mail!

9. Learn how airplanes fly

Fleet Fawn Mk II CF-CHF (c/n 58 RCAF 220) on display at the Reynolds-Alberta Aviation Museum. Photo by: Bzuk- Wikimedia

There are many kid-friendly activities at Canada’s Aviation Hall of Fame. Your children will enjoy participating in the experiments, from sitting in the helicopter or airplane to a play station in the back for toddlers to play with flight themed toys and learning how airplanes fly with interactive exhibits explaining currents in the air. Our tip? Save them for last because the kids will want to stay there.

10. Play McLaughlin’s pursuit

Exploring the museum is made even more exciting by the addition of a challenging task. Pick up your game board when you arrive at the museum.

There are six riddles scattered throughout the gallery, and you can answer them by using the information panels located throughout the museum. When you have completed the circle, return it to the information desk to receive a prize.

Furthermore, the museum has a guest book where visitors can put down their names showing their appreciation for the fie work in the museum.