Artifacts, young and old, displayed at Lambton Heritage Museum

Not every artifact in a new main exhibit at the renovated Lambton Heritage Museum near Grand Bend is really, really old.

One of curator-supervisor Dana Thorne’s favorite dates back 23 years.

It’s a yellow plastic patio lantern cover Kim Mitchell signed for a local fan when the musician and member of the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame returned to his hometown of Sarnia in 2000 for a concert.

Mitchell left for Toronto at age 17 to chase a music career that included fronting the band Max Webster and a solo career that included hit songs, such as Patio Lanterns released in 1986.

A $1.2 million renovation of the 1970s-era county museum on Highway 21 near Pinery Park was completed in March and staff are preparing a new permanent exhibit to open in June.

Members of Lambton County council were given tours of the unfinished exhibition April 20 after holding their meetings at the site.

Andrew Meyer, the county’s general manager of culture services, said that while many museums focus on periods around the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, “there’s a growing movement to really bring artifacts into the contemporary period so people can connect and relate to them .”

That’s why the new exhibit will include items like Kim Mitchell memorabilia and a re-creation of the Canada Burger served at the former Tab’s Drive-In restaurant in Sarnia, along with more traditional local artifacts from the 1800s and early 1900s.

The patio lantern Mitchell signed will be displayed in the arts and culture section of the exhibit, along with items from the former Lakeview Casino dance hall in Grand Bend, the 1960s Sarnia band The Volcanos, the Rose Gardens roller skating rink, a projector from Forest’s Kineto Theater and memorabilia about Sarnia-born silent era film star Maria Provost.

The renovated gallery has touch screens and other technology so visitors can hear music and see film clips and photos from the community’s past.

Laurie Webb, the county’s manager of museums, said the exhibition is designed so that while the overall themes will remain the same, individual artifacts from the museum’s collection can be switched in and out of the displays.

“People can see new and interesting things every time they come,” she said.

The museum attracts about 11,500 visitors each year.

The renovations at the Lambton Heritage Museum followed similar improvements at the county’s Oil Museum of Canada in Oil Springs and its archives in Plympton-Wyoming.

Grants, bequests and reserves helped to pay for the improvements, Meyer said.

“There was definitely a need to tell new stories to invite residents back to the space. . . by having really interesting and engaging things to interact with,” he said.

Meyer said county staff also wanted to make the museum exhibition more inclusive and include “the Indigenous perspective, so we’ve made a concerted effort to consult with a number of key Indigenous knowledge keepers, Indigenous archeologists,” and residents of nearby Indigenous communities to ensure it “reflects their story, as well.”

The renovated space includes a smaller gallery for touring exhibitions and a space for programs and classes.