Day campers at Science Timmins also had a history lesson on Friday.
At the official opening of the exhibit “Beyond Human Limits” from Science North, the kids were told by Mayor George Pirie that an early plan by the province was to locate Science North in Timmins.
He said it goes back to the late 1960s or early 70s, when the province was considering the Hollinger Mine headframe and the crusher house – that’s the dome behind the headframe.
“The proposal was to put Science North in there and they would have had a floatplane, amphibious plane exhibit,” Pirie recounted. “They would have hung them from the ceiling. It was quite a proposal. But for some reason, I don’t know exactly why, it fell through and it (Science North) went to Sudbury.”
Pirie is not one to hold a grudge. He credits Science Timmins with doing a great job with limited resources, in the basement of the former St. Mary’s Hospital. And he commends Science North for cooperating with the Timmins facility, sharing exhibits like “Beyond Human Limits”.
“I think that the partnership has been very collaborative,” Mayor Pirie told My Timmins Now Dot Com. “I think it’s worked. We’d just like to have more of it.”
Science North opened 35 years ago. Pirie notes that it’s the anchor to Sudbury having developed into a tourism centre.