Animalia exhibit explores how animals helped shape St. Marys – from horses and cows to mink ranches

Barn scene with animals circa 1902-1906.

By Galen Simmons

For nearly a year, visitors to the St. Marys Museum have been able to explore a side of local history that is easy to overlook because it was once so ordinary – the role animals played in building, feeding, clothing and shaping the town.

The museum’s “Animalia” exhibit examines the long relationship between humans and animals in St. Marys, from companionship and decoration in the home to the essential working roles animals played in agriculture, transportation and industry.

Museum curator and archivist Emily Taylor said the exhibit grew out of the museum’s own collection.

“We started to notice that we had a lot of artifacts and photographs in our collection that were related to animals,” Taylor said. “We wanted to pull all of those pieces from our collection and kind of talk about why animals have really kind of captured people’s interests and imaginations.”

The exhibit is split broadly into two themes – animals in the home and animals at work. On one side are paintings, toys and decorative objects featuring animals. On the other are the tools, photographs and artifacts that show how deeply animals were woven into everyday life in early St. Marys.

“That relationship with people … goes back thousands of years in the history of agriculture. Animals have always been important in working alongside humans,” Taylor said. “Those types of relationships are very important in St. Marys history too, especially agriculturally.”

That includes the obvious livestock connections – cows, chickens, horses and geese – but also the draft animals that helped move quarried limestone, pull carts and transport heavy goods through town long before trucks and tractors took over.

“Horses would have been doing a lot of the heavy lifting that people wouldn’t be doing,” Taylor said.

The exhibit also reminds visitors how closely tied animals remain to life in St. Marys today, whether through farming, food production, recreation or family pets.

“It’s so clear that animals have been incredibly important in St. Marys history, and they still are today,” Taylor said. “It’s such a way for people to connect their current lives to people in the past in St. Marys.”

One of the more unusual and more controversial animal stories tied to St. Marys is mink farming, a now lesser-seen but once highly visible agricultural industry in the area.

Town director of culture, tourism and engagement Amy Cubberley said mink ranching is an often-overlooked part of local history despite how prominent it once was.

“Mink ranching has been a major industry in the St. Marys area for a number of years,” Cubberley said. “There still are active mink ranches in the area.”

Historical excerpts preserved in the museum archives show just how significant the industry once was. In December 1947, more than 30 local mink ranchers with St. Marys addresses had sold over 5,000 pelts that season at prices ranging from $15 to $20 each, and by 1950, local ranchers were preparing for Montreal fur auctions while struggling to secure enough frozen fish to feed their animals.

The museum archives also trace the industry back to one of its local pioneers. According to the obituary of James Omar Mitchell, he “pioneered the fox and mink farming industry in this district,” helping launch what was then described as a thriving enterprise in St. Marys and the surrounding area.

Like many farm sectors, mink ranching developed its own culture of competition and recognition. Cubberley said she regularly comes across archival references to local ranchers winning honours for their animals. Even in 1975, the St. Marys Lions Club updated its club pin from one featuring a mink to one that reflected the town’s cement industry, a small but telling symbol of how the town’s identity was shifting.

The industry remains contentious today, particularly amid public concern over fur farming and occasional releases of animals from farms by animal-rights organizations like PETA. But historically, it formed a real and profitable part of the local agricultural economy.

That complexity is part of what makes Animalia interesting. It is not simply an exhibit about beloved pets or pretty objects, it is about the many ways animals helped St. Marys grow – as labourers, food sources, companions and commodities.

Animalia will remain on display at the St. Marys Museum through the spring before a new exhibit takes its place. For more information on the displays and exhibits at the St. Marys Musuem, visit www.townofst marys.com/recreation-community-culture/st-marys-museum-archives/.