A three-year dream to restore a relic that predates Innisfail's earliest days is finally a reality.
The old Poplar Grove log cabin, used as a trading post by pioneer Napoleon Remillard and built more than 125 years ago on a homestead near what is now called Napoleon Lake, is lovingly restored and finally open for public viewing at the Innisfail and District Historical Village.
The plan to preserve the relic for future generations was spearheaded by former curator Dean Jorden, who was passionately determined the old cabin should have a forever home at the village.
“It is the earliest artifact of Poplar Grove we have. There is very little left from that time,” said Debbie Becker Matthie, the village's museum manager. “We are grateful for the collaborative effort from the people who made it possible for the building to be here.”
How the cabin survived the rigours of time and the elements for so long is a mystery.
Before previous owner Howard Milligan agreed in the fall of 2012 to have the village take it off his corner lot property at the intersection of 50th Avenue and 57 Street, the relic was used for storage for about a quarter century. Milligan acquired the property and cabin from the estate of the late Cecil Bioletti, a bachelor and former Town of Innisfail public works employee who was known to be an avid artifacts collector. It is not known how or when Bioletti came into possession of the cabin.
But what is known is that Remillard first journeyed to the area from Montana in 1886. Along with about a half dozen other early pioneers he helped create Poplar Grove, a settlement that existed in the area before Innisfail was even conceived.
Within a few years Remillard left and went to British Columbia. After the railroad came through the area in 1891 the CPR renamed the growing community Innisfail. Poplar Grove was no more. Within a few years every trace of the original settlement had either disappeared or was forgotten – except Remillard's cabin, which eventually caught the eye of Jorden and village officials in 2011.
After an agreement was worked out with Milligan, village officials, with the generous support of many volunteers, moved the cabin to the village in the fall of 2012. Eighteen months later, after countless hours of more volunteer help, the cabin was fully restored to look the way it did more than 125 years ago.
Becker Matthie said volunteers, including Jorden and inmates from Bowden Institution, built a cement pad for the structure and restored the structure's existing logs. The interior was fully renovated and then adorned with artifacts from the village's existing collection.
“There were very few items from that era that came with the cabin. We used artifacts from what we already had to make the interior as historically authentic as possible,” said Becker Matthie, adding Jorden created storyboards to add historical context. “We are going to remove the existing electrical wiring because it was not originally there. We want to take this structure back to the time it originally looked.”
The restored cabin includes the Poplar Grove signage that was on it when it was moved from Milligan's property, as well as Remillard's signature on the interior log wall.
“The work is pretty much done, except maybe some more sidewalk blocks to make it more accessible, particularly for the handicapped,” said Becker Matthie, adding she's convinced the old cabin will be a big attraction for heritage enthusiasts. “There are some historically valuable buildings in town we can move and some we can't. This one we could, and we have to promote as much history as there is available to us.”
