Gem of the West Museum

The Gem of the West features over 15 unique exhibits focusing on the history and heritage of Coaldale and the surrounding area. Learn about the various cultures which settled in the area and helped establish and develop the town. Visit their Indigenous exhibit to see a visual timeline of stone points, including a 12,000-year-old Clovis point. Discover Main Street Coaldale through exhibits that reconstruct historic general stores, café, and one-room school house exhibits. Peek into the CPR exhibit and see the typewriter used by B.B. Janz, who helped over 21,000 Mennonites flee religious persecution in the Soviet Union during the 1920’s and 30’s. Or their Butcher Shop exhibit and see a variety of equipment used in Coaldale’s butcher shop, in business for over 95 years! Tour their on-site operational blacksmith shop and see the various historic tools which were used. Take in the unique architectural features of our building, a former Mennonite Brethren Church built in 1939.