Folklore, true crime, buried treasure and Elvis.

These are among the stories Oxford County residents have recounted as the southwestern Ontario regional municipality celebrates its 175th anniversary. 

To mark the special milestone, Oxford County has launched a new book titled, Growing Stronger Together: A Celebration of Oxford County's Past. The project was born during the COVID pandemic, when the county's archivists started a blog to gather stories of the region's past. As the blog continued to grow, they decided to put it all into a unique local history book. 

CBC's Afternoon Drive guest host Kate Adach spoke to Oxford County archivist Liz Dommasch to learn more about the project. 

The following has been edited for length and clarity: 

Kate Adach: What has it been like to see these stories pour in, and to work on this project?

Liz Dommasch: Honestly, this has been a long time coming and since the pandemic, essentially when we started our blog, we kind of knew we wanted to pull it together into a book. But we also knew that although we're experts of the county's history, I wouldn't say we know everything about it. Hence why we reached out to others to collaborate on this project. 

There were some we knew, there were some that were obviously new to us, which is always exciting because we're always learning new things. And I just think overall it's a great representation of the county as a whole and some of the really unique stories within it.

KA: Can you tell me how it works? People submit a story and then, as an archivist, do you look for documents to kind of verify their story?

LD: We left it up to the contributors. Many were already in the heritage field — local museums or heritage groups — so they kind of already knew what they were doing. And then some of the articles are honestly people's personal recollections of growing up in the county. So we kind of left it to them to provide the accuracy. But we have an inkling about most of the stories, so we knew we were on the right track.

KA: What surprised you the most about what you heard?

LD: There's definitely a lot of really quirky stories, which are kind of neat things that you wouldn't necessarily think about. I mean, we had a supposed pond monster in Ingersoll in the 1800s. We have not one, but two stories of buried treasure. Obviously we have a lot of stories about some of the crimes that happen in the county — some really gruesome — and then some on the funnier side.

And then we also have generic histories of the county itself, so the county's government, buildings like the courthouse and the jail, and famous people, or maybe not-so-famous that will hopefully become famous after people read the book.

KA: You mentioned two stories of buried treasure?

LD: Yes! We have one story of alleged buried gold near Springford, which is in the south part of the county, and then another similar story but up near Beachville. Both claim that there was gold during the War of 1812 that was buried by soldiers. Another one was gold that was stolen sometime during the night when soldiers were supposed to be looking over it.

Over the years, people have claimed to come look for it. We had one gentleman with a story about 1929 who claimed he had psychic abilities and one of the deceased soldiers told him where the treasure was buried if he ever were to find it. I don't know if it's ever been found or if it's still there.

KA: It's funny, on one hand you left the stories up to people to share. But at the same time, I hear you say "alleged," as if the archivist in you wonders about the stories' credibility?

LD: Well, when it comes to the folklore stories, they're great just as stories. But again, a lot of them are kind of up there with the facts. For example, the one we've been teasing with the book is about Elvis. And people often think, what does Elvis have to do with Oxford County? But in our county courthouse, in the tower, there are hundreds of signatures on the wall from people who visited the courthouse over the years. And one of those so-called signatures up there is "Elvis Presley," and it's dated September 1957. 

Now, we know for a fact that he actually was in Canada in 1957, he had a show in Toronto. However, the signature says Elvis Presley September 1957, but he performed in Toronto in April. So, I mean, it's a very far stretch to think that he stopped in Oxford. The fable has gone so far as to say that he came in town in his pink Cadillac, had been arrested for speeding and spent the night in jail. But again, there is no way of knowing, but it's a fun story to share. 

KA: For people who want to check out the book, where can they do that and learn more?

LD: The book is for sale at the archives as well as the Ingersoll and Tillsonburg branches of the Oxford County library, and then it's also on sale at our county administration building.