Courtenay and District Museum & Palaeontology Centre

Elasmosaur’s Birthday Party
2025-11-15 11:00 - 14:00 (America/Vancouver) | Courtenay & District Museum, 207 Fourth Street, Courtenay, BC, V9N 1G7, Canada
Courtenay’s very own Puntledge River elasmosaur is turning 80,000,037 this November!
Join us at the museum on Saturday, November 15th from 11:00am – 2:00pm for a special birthday party for the elasmosaur and celebrate its official designation as the provincial fossil of BC.
Come and join us for cake, treats and celebration.

Sold Out Lecture: Bats in our Midst
2025-11-18 19:00 - 20:30 | Courtenay & District Museum, 207 Fourth Street, Courtenay, BC, V9N 1G7, Canada
Event type: In-person
Time and Date: 7 PM, Tuesday, November 18, 2025. Doors open 6:30 PM
Location: Rotary Gallery of the Courtenay and District Museum
Speakers: Heather Thomson and Meaghan Cursons
Tickets: This lecture has sold out and there are no tickets available at the door.
Bats are a critical part of our local ecosystems, and their habitat is all around us in the Comox Valley.
Come and learn about bat evolution, biology, roosts and reproduction, habitat, myths and legends, fears and superstitions, local monitoring projects, and the science of bat conservation!
Join Cumberland Community Forest Society (CCFS) and BC Community Bat Program local coordinator Heather Thomson and CCFS Executive Director Meaghan Cursons to learn all about the bats in our midst.
The CCFS is the local coordinating organization for the BC Community Bat Program providing public education about these fascinating species at risk.

Members-Only Sale
2025-12-02 10:00 - 2025-12-24 13:00 | BC
Our annual Members-Only Gift Shop Sale begins this month! From December 2nd until December 24 at 1:00 PM, members will receive a 25% off holiday discount on most products in the gift shop. This offer does not apply to items already marked down or on consignment.
Your valid membership card must be shown at the time of purchase. Not a member? No worries! Purchase a membership at the museum or online, and you immediately qualify for the discount

Holiday Closure
2025-12-24 13:00 - 2026-01-01 17:00 | Courtenay & District Museum, 207 Fourth Street, Courtenay, BC, V9N 1G7, Canada
The museum will be closed from Wednesday, December 24 at 1:00 PM through Thursday, January 1, 2026. The museum will reopen on Friday, January 2 at 10:00 AM and resume its regular hours.

First Day Open After the Holidays
2026-01-02 10:00 - 16:00 | Courtenay & District Museum, 207 Fourth Street, Courtenay, BC, V9N 1G7, Canada

Exhibit: New Acquisitions
2026-01-10 - 2026-02-25 | BC
Have you ever wondered what’s recently been donated to your local museum? In celebration of the Comox Valley, New Acquisitions will shine a spotlight on some of the donations that haven’t yet been seen by the public.
This Courtenay and District Museum curated exhibit is only possible because of this community; the families, descendants and donors who trust the museum to preserve and interpret the natural and cultural heritage of this region. From decoy brants to deco lamps and anything in between, this exhibit has something for everyone.
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Event: Something to Write Home About
2026-01-17 11:00 - 14:00 | Courtenay & District Museum, 207 Fourth Street, Courtenay, BC, V9N 1G7, Canada
Saturday, January 17th from 11 AM to 2 PM

The former Post Office building, now home to the Courtenay Museum, turns 100 years old in January 2026.
Celebrate this anniversary by participating in Universal Letter Writing Week on Saturday, January 17 at the museum. Drop in from 11 AM to 2 PM and put pen to paper.
The museum will provide pens, paper, envelopes and Canadian stamps. You take a few moments to express yourself in handwritten words and, before you know it, you’ve got a letter to post!
Letter writing in the old post office is a perfect activity to commemorate the centennial.
The distinctive brick building is located on the corner of 4th Street and Cliffe Avenue in downtown Courtenay. Work on the structure began in late 1924, and the Post Office quietly opened for business in January 1926.
In 1954, the building was doubled in size to provide more space. If you look at the front exterior, you can see the line of bricks that marks the addition. In 2000, the Post Office building was completely revitalized by the Courtenay and District Historical Society and City of Courtenay to create an expanded home for the Courtenay Museum.

Event: Stir the Pot
2026-02-21 11:00 - 14:00 | Courtenay & District Museum, 207 Fourth Street, Courtenay, BC, V9N 1G7, Canada
The theme for BC Heritage Week this year is Stir the Pot, so get your soup recipes ready! The museum will be hosting a drop-in recipe sharing table on Saturday, February 21 from 11:00 AM until 1:00 PM. Bring a copy of your favourite french onion or grandma’s minestrone, and the museum will make photocopies for everyone to share and take home.
If you’re unavailable but would still like to participate, feel free to submit your recipes to info@courtenaymuseum.ca and staff will include your printouts. The museum will also be supplying a few complimentary recipes from the archival collection.
Click Here for the Full Recipe

Exhibit – Hope Meets Action: Echoes Through the Black Continuum
2026-03-07 - 2026-05-23 | Courtenay & District Museum, 207 Fourth Street, Courtenay, BC, V9N 1G7, Canada
Hope Meets Action: Echoes Through the Black Continuum, a travelling exhibit created by the BC Black History Awareness Society in partnership with the Royal BC Museum, will be on display in our second-floor gallery starting March 7, 2026.
The exhibit reclaims and retells the complicated history of Black British Columbians, and traces an unbroken line of strength and resistance from the distant past to the present and into the future by highlighting the contributions of Black leaders whose actions echo across the centuries.
Hope Meets Action initially debuted in Clifford Carl Hall at the Royal BC Museum in 2021, and was met with an overwhelmingly positive public response. “We are pleased to continue to make this exhibit available publicly, said BCBHAS President, Silvia Mangue Alene. “This exhibit shares and promotes understanding of the history of Black settlers and their legacy, a legacy that contemporary Blacks in BC are very proud of.”
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SOLD OUT: Fishes of the Strait of Georgia
2026-03-17 19:00 - 20:30 | Courtenay & District Museum, 207 Fourth Street, Courtenay, BC, V9N 1G7, Canada
Event type: In-person
Location: Rotary Gallery of the Courtenay and District Museum
Speakers: Marine Scientists Dick Beamish and Jeff Marliave
Tickets: $5 for Historical Society members; $6 for general public. Advance tickets recommended. Tickets can be purchased over the phone by calling 250-334-0686 ext 2.
Nearly three out of every four British Columbians live near the Strait of Georgia. Yet, because human beings are typically good at tuning out the familiar, we often neglect this rich body of water, allowing it to fade into the background. And that is doubly true for the world hidden under the waves—a world that teems with astonishing creatures beyond our notice, even our imaginations, as we jog along its edge or glide over it, dozing on a ferry commute.
Marine scientists Dick Beamish and Jeff Marliave aim to restore our awareness with their expansive and highly readable reference book on the huge array of fish living in the Strait of Georgia—in some cases, ever since the retreat of the last ice age. Here, in entries sure to engage both experts and amateurs, the authors provide fascinating “biographies” of some 243 species, ranging from the flounder—a relatively new work of evolution—to the lamprey, a staggeringly ancient life form with a 360-million-year back story that begins long before the dinosaurs.
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Spring Fling & Easter Magic
2026-03-21 11:00 - 14:00 | Courtenay & District Museum, 207 Fourth Street, Courtenay, BC, V9N 1G7, Canada
The Courtenay Museum invites you to attend the annual Spring Fling and Easter Magic event on Saturday, March 21 from 11:00 AM until 2:00 PM. All three hours will be jam-packed with family fun activities, and admission to the event is by donation.
The special guest this year will be Magician Donald Dunphy, who will be performing two amazing magic shows at 11:45 AM and 12:45 PM. Each show will be different, and audience participation will be essential.
The ever-popular Barnyard Party Animals are back this year, offering visitors to meet ducks, geese, bunnies, chicks, guinea pigs, and hedgehogs at their Waddle to You mobile petting zoo.
You will also have the opportunity to visit with volunteers and a rescue bird from MARS Wildlife Rescue Centre, where you can learn about their amazing wildlife rescues.
In the meantime, you can enter to win door prizes, play a scavenger hunt, make your own Easter kids’ craft, and guess to win a jar of treats. The Easter Elasmosaur mascot will also be posing for photos and handing out delicious chocolate treats throughout the event, so keep your eyes out for a familiar fossil. We’ll see you there!

Lecture: Source Encounters – The Comox Lake Watershed
2026-05-26 19:00 - 20:30 | Courtenay & District Museum, 207 Fourth Street, Courtenay, BC, V9N 1G7, Canada
Source Encounters is a dynamic visual and story-based exploration of the geological origins of Vancouver Island, prehistoric oceans and ice ages, indigenous and settler presence on the landscape, colonial history, coal and logging, land ownership complexities, and the climate change, human impacts, and environmental issues our watershed faces today.
This presentation is part of CVRD Watershed Awareness Days, May 25-30, to help build community, connections, and knowledge in support of watershed protection in the Comox Valley.
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Canada Day Open House
2026-07-01 11:00 - 14:00 | Courtenay & District Museum, 207 Fourth Street, Courtenay, BC, V9N 1G7, Canada
The Courtenay and District Museum will celebrate Canada Day with an open house from 11:00 am to 2:00 pm on Wednesday, July 1. Guests are welcome to enjoy live music by Alan Jossul, enter to win a door prize, and try their hand at kids’ crafts.
There will also be a special one-day-only 50% off sale for the book Step Into Wilderness: A Pictorial History of Outdoor Exploration in and around the Comox Valley (limit of 3 per person).
While you’re at the museum loving the air-conditioned comfort, take a few moments to check out the second-floor exhibit New Acquisitions, an in-house produced display showcasing some of the donations that haven’t yet been seen by the public.

BC Day Closure
2026-08-02 - 2026-08-03 | Courtenay & District Museum, 207 Fourth Street, Courtenay, BC, V9N 1G7, Canada
The museum will be closed on Sunday, August 2 and Monday, August 3. Wishing everyone a safe and happy BC Day holiday.
