Land of Thundering Snow won the award for Outstanding Achievement for a Science Exhibition at the Canadian Museum Association’s annual conference in Halifax earlier this month.
The exhibit by the Revelstoke Museum & Archives looks at the history of avalanches and snow science in Canada.
Cathy English, the museum’s curator, was in Halifax to accept the award at a ceremony at the Canadian Museum of Immigration.
The jury praised the exhibit for its national significance and for going beyond a conventional approach. “It is admirable that a small local museum would undertake such an ambitious plan for research and education,” they wrote.
Land of Thundering Snow features both a physical exhibit at the Revelstoke Museum & Archives, and an online exhibit at landofthunderingsnow.ca. It includes displays on the history of avalanche research, snow study equipment and significant avalanche deaths.
The most notable aspect is the interactive map that tracks all recorded avalanche deaths in Canadian history, going back to a deadly slide that killed 22 people in Labrador in 1782.
The exhibit was created almost entirely by Revelstokians, with Dr. John Woods, a retired Parks Canada biologist, serving as the lead researcher.