Dionne Quints museum attendance dropping
North Bay curator says museum needs to preserve city's 'miracle' heritage
A North Bay museum dedicated to the famous Dionne Quituplets is struggling to attract tourists.
The former Dionne home features artifacts from the lives of the five identical quintuplets born nearly 80 years ago.
The director and curator of the Dionne Quints museum said that, while tourism numbers have dropped, the relevance of the quintuplets hasn't.
"There is no other recorded identical quintuplet alive today that reached adulthood," Kimberley Lyon said.
The quintuplets stole the attention of the world when they were born in 1934.
Lyon said the community needs to protect this heritage, because it brought hope during the Great Depression.
"This seemed like such a miracle, and people were just drawn to wake up every day just to see if they had survived another day," Lyon said.
"It acted as some kind of symbol of hope throughout the world because it just seemed like the only positive thing that was going on at that time."
During the winter months, Lyon said she gives presentations to school children about who the quints are, why they are significant, their importance to North Bay's heritage and so on. She said she tries to encourage the younger generation to take an interest and hopefully bring their families to the museum.
Two of the quintuplets are still alive and are living in Quebec, near Montreal.
Lyon said the women visited the museum in 1989.