The Kaatza Station Museum and Archives, governed by the Kaatza Historical Society, is housed in a 1913 Esquimalt & Nanaimo Railway Station. We collect, conserve, catalogue, research, display and interpret the history of the Cowichan Lake area. The museum and archives place special emphasis on logging, lumbering, railroading, mining and pioneer life.
The Society was formed in 1975 by a group of interested people who wished to see the rich history of our community preserved. They met for several years looking for a site in which to house a museum. In 1979 the old CPR train station became available. It was moved to its present site and work began on restoring it.In 1983, through the hard work of many volunteers and the use of several government grants, as well as the generosity of local government and businesses, the museum opened to the public. An archives was established at this time and has grown considerably. We now have 796 separate photograph categories with approximately 5,000 photographs. Our archives has 1434 collections of newspapers, documents, books and maps. Our 948 artifact collections range from spools of thread to complete train sets and entire buildings. We are still actively collecting materials related to the Cowichan Lake area.
Initially we were open on a very limited schedule at the beginning, but over the years have extended our hours. We now have a full time curator/manager and we hire a student to help out in the summer.