Rocanville Museum Threshing Day this Saturday
September 8, 2025, 9:05 am
Kelsey Selby
Taking a step back in time to appreciate how far we have come since the days of threshing is the perfect way to understand the importance of learning from those who have passed down their traditions.
The Rocanville Museum’s Threshing Days has taken place in September every year since the ‘60s when the museum first started, with a small hiatus during the pandemic. This year’s threshing day is coming up this Saturday, September 13.
The World-Spectator sat down with Jerry and Ron Hilgers in one of the old buildings at the museum to reminisce about the memories that are shared from generation to generation because of the work that the museum’s board members and employees put in.
When asked how many volunteers it takes to make one of their events go off so well, Jerry replied with “A lot more than what we have, we’re really running into a problem that way. The breakfast, lunch and the supper is all volunteers. You see that camper out there? That fella comes a week before museum days to get all the tractors and stuff running. They all need some TLC every year and he’s from Carberry.”
“And then there’s a husband and wife that run the steam engine and they come from Moose Jaw,” says Ron.
Running the steam engine requires a special license that not many people possess and there are fewer and fewer people as time passes.
“We lost one of our main ones, Doug Ireland, a few years ago,” says Jerry. “He was known far and wide for his expertise.”
Many of the contents in the museum have come from other museums, donations and networking between other passionate historians.
“It’s kind of a network and we help each other out,” says Jerry.
The event on Saturday will boast hayrides, threshing, a pancake breakfast, vendors market and lunch. Jerry also noted, “We do the wood sawing, that’s with the big old buzz saw, the blacksmith shop will be operational and we’re up to about 18 tractors that we line up along the quonset here, pretty near all 100 years old plus.”
“They fire them up and take them for a drive around,” Ron added. “There’s an old Caterpillar 20 I’m sure we will be doing.”
The Cat was restored and brought to the museum by Cameron Duncan last winter, once again showing how it truly takes a region to make a place like the museum run.
Threshing Days can host up to 400 people most years with a highlight being the smoked beef supper. Rick and Deenie Goulden and their helpers cook enough meat for typically 200 people with guests being able to order to-go meals making it the perfect place to get supper in the field. The day is mostly run on donations for the museum with entry by donation only. The wheat that is used in the demonstrations doesn’t go to waste, it is used to mill flour. The museum’s summer staff made 50 bags of flour this year that are also available by donation.
In comparison to the real thing back in the day Jerry states, “Threshing crews were pretty big. Small horse-drawn carts were used and your fuel was your waste and that way you don’t have to clean up the drop pile.”
There are very few steam engines left like the one used at the museum in Rocanville.
“All day long the machines would go one place to another, not everybody would have one. There was a lot of small farms, not like now,” says Ron.
Rocanville’s Threshing Day draws people from all around the province. With Indigenous features, an old timey vibe and lots of great food, you will find connections to the past and the present on September 13 in Rocanville.
The pancake breakfast starts at 8 am, demonstrations start at 10 am and run through the day, luch is served at 11:30 am and threshing starts at 1 pm. The market runs 10 am to 3 pm and there will be musical entertainment in the afternoon. The beef supper starts at 5 pm.
