[Canucklehead]

For those of you up on geography, the title of this thread may make you laugh. Alberta is a totally landlocked province in Canada, so the fact we even have a naval museum is kind of weird. I first found out about the place when I was looking for some pictures of Canadian Sea Furies. I saw that the museum is located in Calgary , just down the road (well 150 miles down the road) from where I live in Edmonton. My girlfriend is going to school in Calgary, so I decided to check it out the next time I was down there for a visit. So check it out I did...

My first thoughts when I walked up to the museum building were rather pessimistic. The place looks like a pre-fab machine shop/barn. Grey metal siding with white trim and not much of anything to let you know that it is in fact a museum. It's located on the Naval Reserve property, so there is an assortment of deck guns and anchors and cenotaphs, but is otherwise quite unassuming.

I paid my $5 (Canadian, so 50 cents for you Yanks) at the door to the kindly old gent at the front desk. He told me to make myself at home. Not ten steps inside the door sits a Hawker Sea Fury. My jaw dropped. My pessimism evaporated into a crap-eatin' grin.



Needless to say I was fairly amazed. Like I said before, from the outside the place doesn't look that great or that big. But once you get in there it's packed full of treasures. Parked right behind the Sea Fury was a McDonnell F-2H3 Banshee from Canada's last aircraft carrier, the HMCS Bonaventure. I don't know much about Naval aircraft after WWII (not that I know tons about WWII stuff, but at least I can tell the planes from each other), but it's still cool to see this stuff.



Then came the piece de resistance. A Supermarine Seafire. I just about freaked. I knew they had this stuff from the website, but it's different when you're standing next to these magnificent machines. I don't even know if I've seen a Spitfire of any kind in person before, so this was a special moment.



One of the volunteers that worked at the museum came out and talked to me as I stood there gawking, and related a story about Spits he had seen flying out when he was stationed in England during the war. They were headed out to give return cover to the bombers coming back from the continent. We both agreed it was beautiful machine. I think his dog liked it too.
There's tons (literally) of other stuff aside from the planes. Uniforms, munitions, models, pictures, memorabilia, etc., but the planes are the stars of the show, and it's great to see them preserved, especially so close to where I live.

So there you go. If you're ever in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, (more than likely you'll be there to see the mountains or something) take a mo and check this place out. They are going to be moving to new, larger, government funded digs sometime this year and I'll check that place out when they're up and running, and pass along the new address.

The Naval Museum of Alberta
"Canada's Largest Naval Museum"
1820-24 Street SW
Calgary, Alberta
T2T 0G6
Canada
Phone: (403) 242-0002 Fax: (402) 240-1966
www.navalmuseum.ab.ca
Email: navalweb(at)navalmuseum.ab.ca

[SKUNKY]

Thanks for the nice piccies there, C-head....Talk about things ya don't expect to find in certain areas - I once lived in Omaha, and was quite amused to find they had a U.S. Coast Guard station there on the edge of the Missouri river.I could just imagine all the poor saps who signed up for service in the C.G. with romantic visions of skimming the waves off Key West or Waikiki, only to discover they were being sent to patrol the 'Muddy Mo' on the scenic coast of Omaha, Nebraska.

[Tyler109]

Thanks for sharing the pics. The seafire would certainly be worth seeing

[Raven]

Thanks for sharing! Its always nice to find little gems like that when you least expect it.

[djjeffhall]

The museum looks like a real treasure. It's always nice to find something a little more intimate like this place. That always makes it feel like it's yours, and your alone.

[STARMAN 352ND]

Great Pictures Canuck,
How many other planes are in there ?
JP

[aeroeng]

Cool museum Canucklehead.

[tank nut]

Hey dude, if you ever in the maritimes you can check out the shearwater naval museum. They have a swordfish on disply that is way cool and a lot of other neat stuff as well. Not far from there is HMCS sackville and then out by the airport theres the maritime avation museum to check out as well. Not bad for a day trip and the city of Haifax is where the worlds bigest explosion happed when two ships ran into each other during the fist world war. Lots of history here for sure and worth checking out if you come down some day! Ps the beer is good down here to lol.

[kabelace]

Het Canucklehead have you been out to the Nanton Lancaster Society Air Museum it is just South of Calgary. My cousin told me about it.Here's a link
http://www.lancastermuseum.ca/

[Canucklehead]

I was out to Nanton about 6 years ago, just passing through on a road trip. I hear that they've done a lot of work since then, but I haven't had a chance to get back down there.

As for the maritimes, I'd like to get back out there, but it doesn't look to be in the cards anytime soon, just like Trenton, Hamilton, Ottawa, et cetera, et cetera. There's lots of great museums all over this country, I'd like to see more of them someday.