Historical societies and museums in Inverness County want the municipality to help establish a
central archive.
Representing Inverness County’s heritage and culture sector, John and Cathy Gillies noted that a conference was held on Dec. 2 at Beinn Mhabu that included representation from museums and heritage societies in all six municipal districts.
One idea that arose from the discussions was reviving the Municipal Heritage Advisory Committee, and the conference also developed a three-year plan.
Another recommendation from the conference was to ask the municipality to make a recreation and tourism department employee responsible for heritage and culture, while another topic surrounded the establishment of a municipal fund.
The main recommendation from the conference dealt specifically with an archive that would provide genealogical information, and serve as a gathering place for books written by Inverness County authors.
The Gillies said there are only a few counties in Nova Scotia that have such an archive, and in Cape Breton, the only such facility is the Beaton Institute in Sydney. They said it’s important to preserve local history locally.
If and when such an archive is established, District 5 Councillor Lynn Chisholm suggested it be named in honour of late local historian and author Jim St. Clair.