Group chronicling recent Newdale history

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This article was published 16/04/2020 (2029 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

NEWDALE — The Newdale Historical Society is currently putting together a brand-new book that will showcase the community’s most noteworthy people, places and events from the last 20 years.

According to project co-ordinator Cindy Dalke, the group was approached by local resident Jack Lamb in March 2019 about the prospect of continuing on from the town’s last two official volumes, which covered the periods of 1870-1970 and 1970-2000, respectively.

Like those previous books, Dalke told the Sun on April 6 that their latest edition isn’t following the traditional history textbook model.

Instead of writing out the community’s story in a strictly linear fashion, the Newdale Historical Society is soliciting writing and photo submissions from local residents, organizations and businesses to try to get a broader idea of what the last two decades meant to the town as a collective.

Dalke said they also want to recruit former residents to contribute to this book as well, in the hopes of connecting with community members on a much wider scale.

“We’ve had a lot of people who have moved away, so it’s kind of giving them a chance to let everybody know where they’ve ended up in the last couple years, how their family has progressed,” she said.

In between these personal anecdotes, Dalke said this new history book will highlight big local developments that took place between 2000 and 2020 as well.

This could include the massive wind storm locals endured in 2011, a train derailment they witnessed in 2002 and a government designation that people celebrated in 2010 after Newdale Clay Loam was named the province’s official soil.

Local farm families and townsfolk cemented this fact in 2017 by unveiling a sign on Newdale’s Main Street where people can get the dirt on how this soil formed over thousands of years.

Newdale’s more modern history can be traced back to 1878, when Edward Cook and his family set up a trading post in that area before the arrival of the railway.

Throughout the next 142 years, Newdale became increasingly well known for its agricultural landmarks and practices, including the use of the aforementioned soil that bares its name.

Today, Newdale Historical Society chairperson Pat Baker said the community is still an extremely “close-knit” group, despite the fact that the population of small towns across the region are on the decline.

“If something happens, everyone in this community is really good to help out,” she said. “I think that’s true for most small towns, especially the more people you lose.”

For Dalke, she really hopes that this book presents a personalized take of the history of Newdale and provides some finality to stories that were started but never finished in their last two volumes.

“We are doing a cemetery section as well, just to list the people who have passed away … and complete some of that story in case their families aren’t around to put that information in print,” she said.

While the society planned to unveil this new volume at a public celebration in July, the COVID-19 pandemic forced them to slightly change their plans.

Now the group is looking to distribute copies of this book through the mail, and is asking anyone who is interested in owning a copy or writing an entry for the final product, to email Dalke at newdalehistorybook2020@outlook.com.

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