The Petrolia150 committee is looking for long-lost treasures.

The group is celebrating the formation of the Village of Petrolia, the extension of the railway into Petrolia and the first oil gusher in the community which opened up the industry. The three events happened within three weeks of each other and were key to the development of Petrolia.

On May 28, the group will be set up at the Farmers Market starting at 9 am inviting people to bring by some of their unusual Petrolia pictures and artifacts.

Committee Member Dave Hext is hopeful some interesting pictures can be found. “When you’re having a celebration for 150 years, memorabilia is hard to find…we only have about four pictures from 1866.

“We’re hoping to find something unusual that hasn’t been seen yet.”

Hext is hoping to see photos from grandma’s scrap book from around 1910 or tools or objects that might have been found in an old shed.

“It will kind of be like an antique roadshow to share the history of Petrolia,” he says.

The group will be taking photos of the memorabilia and will accept donations if people would like to turn them over.

“We hope to have an event in the fall and have the things on display,” Hext says adding “when people are cleaning up estates, and wonder what was this used for, that old rusty piece of junk may be worth something.”