History of the Watrous and Manitou Beach area will soon be moving from the digital world to a physical location.

In January, a capital campaign began to fundraise for the new Watrous Manitou Heritage Centre, which will be located on Main Street in the town.

Kathy Bergen says that this will be a first for the region.

"There has never been a facility where it has all been gathered, so that's part of our concern is that our history is going to be lost if we don't create a place for it."

The Heritage Centre will be located in the current SaskWater building.

Discussions on taking over the location began two years ago and in December, the two sides reached a purchasing agreement.

Bergen says they are looking forward to sharing their history.

"The Watrous Manitou Beach communities have such a rich history with so many aspects and we want to feature that," she noted. "This is a pretty popular tourist destination, so it would add to that."

Included in the capital campaign is an opportunity for donors to provide $50,000, which will land them in the Heritage Founder's Club.

George and Marlene Squires were the first to join the club. They no longer live in Watrous, but are proud members of the area and still consider it as home.

The most recent founders are the Amendt family, who own Centennial Ford. Earl Amendt Jr. said that with their business turning 50 in 2018, it seemed fitting to donate that amount to the project.

"The interesting thing about those donations is that they are basically families that have grown up here and loved this community and wanted to give back," Bergen said.

She added that they are hoping to open the building in time for next summer.

"We have given ourselves the goal of a year to complete the capital campaign. We hope to have the building purchased long before then and we will use the funds to begin our renovations," she explained. "We would love to see the building open for public by the summer of 2018, even if it won't be fully completed."

Bergen says that they are looking to provide something different as a Heritage Centre.

"We want to focus on the history of this area and have lots of modern technology in it."

Some of the items or history that will be showcased in the Heritage Centre include the CBK Transmitter, Orin McIntosh scale models and history of families and Manitou Beach.

You can hear more from Bergen below.