Callander Bay Heritage Museum & Alex Dufresne Gallery Exhibition

It was a common sight for celebrities to be spotted around the Dionne Quintuplet Observatory, or sitting and chatting with Dr. Dafoe in his office, and 80 years ago one such woman came to Callander. In 1937 famed female aviator, author, fashion designer, advocate for the Equal Rights Amendment and columnist for Cosmopolitan magazine Amelia Earhart visited the region to meet Dr. Dafoe and see the Dionne Quintuplets. It was only 6 weeks after this visit to Callander that her plane disappeared in the South Pacific and her fate, while wildly speculated on, has never been proven. It was not her first trip to Canada as she was actually a resident of Toronto in 1918 when she trained as a nurse’s aide to contribute to the war effort and it was here where her lifelong love of aviation was ignited and her life course completely changed.

It was long believed Earhart and her husband, George Putnam, came to Callander for a simple vacation to see the Dionne Quintuplets: however, recent research suggests that Earhart may have had business to discuss in Callander. To discover more about Earhart’s story and her visit to Callander, come see our informational exhibit at the Callander Bay Heritage Museum available starting July 1^st, 2017.