The Saturday, June 1 opening of the Cochrane Historical Museum marks the beginning of new expanded hours this season.

The museum will be open Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and every other day of the week from 12 noon to 3 p.m. except Monday when it is closed.

Museum Assistant Jade Lewis is returning for her third season and is excited about the summer ahead. In addition to their public hours, they have school visits booked for most of June.

"I think we have one just about every day until school's out, so we're doing a lot of school tours. We're really lucky to have pretty much all of the elementary schools in Cochrane coming here this year. It's nice to have the involvement of the whole community."

On June 23, the museum and Cochrane Ranche will be the site of a special CHAPS Chautauqua. CHAPS is encouraging the involvement of local nonprofit groups. As well, there are multiple anniversaries being celebrated that day, It will mark the 20th anniversary of CHAPS, the fifth anniversary of the Cochrane Historical Museum and the 110th year of the Davies "Hospital" building. 

Next week, the museum hopes to open its new audio-visual room that will feature a number of videos on the Cochrane's area history and some of the people who played a major role in its past. In particular, Lewis points to a series of 2003 video productions on Cochrane history makers.

"There will be a lot of information we can share in this new room very soon."

Speaking of videos, a third original production is in the works from Jade and company. It will complement "The Cochrane Ranche History Play" produced in 2017 and "A Rainy Royal Visit" produced last year.

"We do have a new video in the works and it might involve ice cream," she says.

Also brought on staff to help accommodate the extended hours is Tim Collard, who has Cochrane roots. He now resides in Calgary but lived here for 20 years. He recently graduated with a degree in history and philosophy from St. Mary's University and will be pursuing a master's degree at the University of Calgary in the fall.

He is looking forward to the summer at the museum.

"It seems like a perfect fit with my background in Cochrane and my history degree," says Collard. "I'm looking forward to helping people walk through the history of Cochrane and learn a bit more about it himself along the way."

The museum has become known for holding a series of special days and weeks and several on the drawing board, says Lewis.