High River museum director takes a walk through the town's history

More than 80 per cent of the Museum of the Highwood's archives were destroyed when High River flooded in 2013, just three years after a devastating fire damaged the building.

But, like High River itself, the museum is resilient, and has become a hub for not only local history, but the film and TV productions both past and present that have filmed in the small Alberta town.

Museum of theHighwooddirector Irene Kerr gaveCBCDaybreakAlberta hostRussell Bowers a glimpse of the southern Alberta town's history in advance of the museum's annual historic homes tour on Saturday.

Kerr who is a third-generationCalgarianand worked at theGlenbowMuseum before moving to High River said one of her favourite things about being a museum curator is discovering the charactersthat inhabited the town. And she's not the only one who delighted in the local personalities.

"W.O. Mitchell wrote about them in his books," she said. "When he first moved here, he'd go to the post office and call it mining his trap line he'd meet all these old characters and they'd make their way into his books."

At one time, Kerr said, High River was actually bigger than Calgary, due to its spot on the historicMacleodTrail.

And the town's western heritage never really went away, making it the ideal setting for Mitchell's stories.

The novelist lived in High Riverfor more than two decades, and is buried in the town's cemetery.

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W.O. Mitchell's characters aren't the only ones that have inhabited the town.

Unforgiven, Superman III,and more recently, Tin Star, Fargo, and Heartlandhave all filmed there.

Maggie's Diner from Heartland is actually a log building annexed to one of the town's first stores Bradley's Men's Wear and Leather Works, which was built in 1900.

"Tourists from all over the world make the pilgrimage," said Kerr. "It probably still smells like leather in there."

The museum is open year-round, seven days a week, and admission is free.

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With files from Daybreak Alberta