HISTORY ON DISPLAY

Don and Elva Turner enjoyed collecting all things curling. In fact, they liked it so much they turned their basement into a museum to house all their wares. The artifacts the couple assembled are thought to be the largest collection of curling memorabilia in the world.

The collection began in 1974 when Elva curled in the Canadian Seniors in Halifax and returned home to Weyburn, Saskatchewan, with a small collection of pins and some curling photos. From there, the collecting became voracious and soon the couple’s basement was turned into a museum. School groups and avid curlers used to come by to see the displays.

That was great for a while, but eventually the collection outgrew their home. That’s when their home city of Weyburn stepped up and allowed them to create the Turner Curling Museum in a 2,600-square-foot building attached to the city’s recreation centre. The operation is the world’s first curling museum.

Inside, visitors see rarities such as a set of circular curling irons with iron handles, used in the late 1800s in the Ottawa Valley. There is also an early rock sharpener used by the Queen City Curling Stone Co. of Regina in the 1930s. A prized possession is a pair of rocks awarded as a prize in the 1927 Brier, the first Canadian championship.

But undoubtedly the most impressive display is the massive collection of pins, collected through years and years of attending major curling events, especially the world championship. It’s estimated there are 18,000 curling pins, and no one is quite sure if that is the largest collection in the world, but it is certainly impressive.

Don Turner passed away in 2006, and Elva maintains the museum.