Background
The Souris Valley Museum in Estevan, Saskatchewan, sits in a region whose identity was shaped by coal mining. Director Melanie Memory says visitors regularly arrive asking to tour a mine, but the underground tours that once existed are no longer available. The museum's answer is a virtual reality mine tour that recreates that experience without anyone stepping underground, preserving access to a piece of local industrial heritage.
A local partnership
The project came together through a partnership between the museum, a post-secondary institution, and the local mining industry. Students in a computer science program filmed inside a working mine and assembled the footage into a virtual experience viewed through VR headsets. The work was completed as part of their coursework and funded through grants the college secured, which both reduced the museum's costs and gave the students hands-on production experience.
An exhibit pairing immersive tech with real history
The VR tour anchors a broader mining-focused exhibit. Enlarged photographs taken by mine employee David Grass and provided by Kevin Toombs are displayed alongside the headsets, together with donated artifacts, books, awards, and personal accounts from former mine workers. The intent is to give visitors both a visual and a personal connection to the industry that built the region.
Launch and visitor experience
Visitors sit while using the headsets, as the immersive footage can be disorienting. The museum expects to open the tour to the public around July 1, 2026, once school tours and its annual Heritage Day programming wrap up.
