Dave Hext is hoping to solve a few mysteries.
Hext is a member of the Petrolia Heritage Committee and is one of the organizers of the group’s open house this Saturday at Victoria Hall.
The Heritage Committee will have a display of Petrolia Line throughout the years to celebrate main street. Hext and the committee hope people will come to town hall and take a look passing along any insights on the photos.
But he’s also hoping people will take some time to look through a pile of photos he’s recently been given from a former local photographer. Hext has been taking the photos to different groups to see if they could identify any of the people in them.
“The old photos are from Robson and Kilbreath…and I think they’re probably from the 1930s or 1940s,” he says. “I’m hoping when people see them, they say ‘that’s my grandfather’ and then we’ll be able to pinpoint the time of the photos.”
Hext is also inviting people to bring their old memorabilia. The Heritage Committee would like to take photographs of it so there is a record of some of the items in the community. Often, he says, people have items in their home that they are not even aware hold historical value.
Recently, someone showed Hext a dance card which had the name of JD Noble on it who was one of Petrolia’s most famous oil drillers.
“We’re encouraging people to bring stuff that excited people, to have people bring stuff in that other people will look at and ask, ‘oh! What’s the story behind that?’”
The Heritage Committee will be set up at Victoria Hall Saturday from 10 am to 2 pm with their photos and taking photos of any memorabilia which is brought in.