Salt Spring Island’s largest source of stories and experiences sharing our island heritage

Stories come to life at the Salt Spring Museum

The Salt Spring Island Museum offers a window into the life of our island. A look at the lives of early settlers from the 1850s to 1950. Consisting entirely of local artifacts, donated or loaned by Salt Spring families, it illustrates many aspects of farming and homesteading on Salt Spring Island.

Admission to the museum is free. We welcome school groups and tour operators: contact us. Donations are appreciated and all go to the maintenance of the museum.

Hours & Location

Starting May 19th, the Salt Spring Museum is open Wednesday to Friday and Sunday from 11am to 3pm.

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Collections

Extraordinary and interactive indoor/outdoor exhibits bring Salt Spring Island’s history to life.

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Education

Bring your class to the Salt Spring Museum for a hands-on, fun day of discovery. Find lesson plans, activities and arrange demonstrations here.

Plan A Visit

The Salt Spring Museum’s main exhibit is located in the Bittancourt House, originally built as a dowry house in 1884 for one of the daughters of the Bittancourt family in Vesuvius Bay. The house was donated to the Farmers' Institute and opened as a museum around 1978.

Volunteers from the Farmers' Institute have now added three extensions to the building to accommodate the expanding collection. Some of the more prominent items are a large model of the HMS Ganges, the warship from the 1800s after which the town of Ganges was named. The uniform and medals belonging to Captain Paul Bion, a Salt Spring farmer who fought for the French army in WW1 and was highly decorated. Two large murals painted by Alfred Temmel depicting the arrival of the first settlers on the island and a large collection of tools and implements used by farmers in the early 1900s. { READ MORE }