Forestry Building

Currently Closed (Open Seasonally July – August)
​Located across from the qathet Museum and Archives on the Willingdon Beach Park, is the Forestry Museum. Explore the logging history of qathet and learn about equipment used in the forestry industry. 

History

The Forestry Museum was founded in the early 1980s by a dedicated group of local people including Charlie and Gerri Parsons, Jack McCuish, Bill Finn, Andy Culos, Bill Tuba, and Ken Gordon. They sought and received permission from the City to take over the present Forestry Museum building which had been retired as the Willingdon Beach bathhouse in the 1970s and was then being used by the City for storage. They also worked with MacMillan Bloedel to get permission to use what is now the historic Willingdon Beach Trail as an outdoor display area for logging equipment. 

In 1986, the Powell River Forestry Museum Society was formed and opened the building as the Forestry Museum during Sea Fair 1985. The Foresrty Museum and Willingdon Beach Trail were improved and developed over the next 29 years, including signature projects of the Steam Donkey in 2001 and Trestle in 2003 under the leadership of WFP Forester Rudi van Zwaaij.

At the May 27 members’ meeting, Lee Coulter and Dave Florence sign the agreement to consolidate the Forestry Museum collection with the PRHMA collection to be effective September 1, 2014.

In 2014 the Powell River Forestry Museum Society (PRFHS) members collaborated with the then Powell River Historical Museum and Archive Association (PRHMA) (now qMAS) to consolidate the indoor assets of the Forestry Museum with the qMAS collection. The qathet Museum and Archives Society (qMAS) now owns and operates the Forestry Museum, and is making progress with improving the combined collection. The former PR Forestry Museum Society renamed itself the PR Forestry Heritage Society. 

In 2003, with Municipal District support, the PRFMS commissioned Janet Blair, Powell River’s mural painter, to do the mural on the north side.