AMHERST - The Nova Scotia Highlanders Regimental Museum is going digital.
For the past two-and-a-half months, Mike McCoag has been documenting artifact after artifact to help the museum reach more of those interested.
"Going digital means we can finally get out to the rest of the world. Sadly not many people know we exist," McCoag said two days before finishing his summer job.
Since the beginning of June, McCoag has been working at getting the museum better equipped for the digital world, with his first task being high speed internet for the facility.
He's also been working with the museum's website guru to update the web, and created a Facebook group.
"The information that I've been documenting should be on the website, but we obviously don't want to give it all away. We still want people to visit the museum and make donations because it takes money to do this."
With roughly 70 artifacts documented, the project is far from being finished.
"One of the things I'd really like to be able to document before I finish here is all the guns in the gun room, which I think is one of the most interesting things here," he said.
"It's sad to admit, but the most I knew about the museum was the gun room because of all the video games these days. There's about 60 guns in there."
To document the museum's pieces, McCoag has been photographing the pieces, or scanning photographs if the case may be, and documenting what it is, where it came from, what year it was from and its use.
He says one of the most interesting pieces he's come across is from 1953.
"It's an American entrenching tool. It's a tool with a foldable shovel and a pickax attachment to it," he said, adding he had to find out the meanings on the tool and verify it was made when it was said to have been made.
"I'm probably the only 20-year-old that knows this much about the Nova Scotia Highlanders in Canada," he said with a laugh.
While going through the artifacts, there's one piece that McCoag said surprised him.
"In the officers towering room, there's a cello that was made in a World War I prisoner of war camp where Casey Concrete used to be," he said. "A prisoner would have made that in his spare time."
Since McCoag finishes his summer position with the museum today, he's not sure who will take over the project, but says someone will work on it.
To visit the Nova Scotia Highlanders Regimental Museum online, visit http://novascotiahighlanders.tk. On Facebook, the group is titled Nova Scotia Highlanders Regimental Museum.
rtetanish@amherstdaily.com
