Petrolia’s past, present connected by time capsule
PARKER — When Petrolia was an oil boom town, it boasted 17 bars.
At least, that’s how the local legend goes, said Eugene Blair, longtime Petrolia resident, former fire police chief and the last living committee man of Petrolia’s 1973 centennial celebration.
His wife, Bonnie, described the town from her youth as “active,” with a lively social scene: people would often go out to Petrolia’s duckpin bowling alley or the roller rink, she said, and most of them worked in the petroleum refineries.
Today, Petrolia is home to about 240 residents. The U.S. census lists Petrolia as having 432 residents in 1970. With the shuttering of a petroleum plant in 2017 and industrial changes over the past decades, the town’s population has stagnated.
On Saturday, July 29, Petrolia will celebrate 150 years since its founding. Its history will be unsealed with the opening of a time capsule buried at Petrolia’s ‘73 centennial.
“It’s a small-town thing,” Bonnie Blair said. “You know, at one time, it was a booming oil town and is no longer, but that’s what it was. I grew up there.”
The opening of the time capsule will be a reunion in more ways than one, bringing stalwarts of the community like Eugene and Bonnie Blair together with a second and third generation of residents who remember the time capsule being buried when they were young. The children and teenagers of 1973 are now all grown up, and are returning to Petrolia for the celebration from places as far-flung as Texas and North Carolina, said Eugene Blair.
“It’s kind of a way to say we are still here,” he said.
The event will be replete with barbecue, kettle corn, hamburgers, hot dogs, pizza, ice cream and lemonade served by vendors and food trucks throughout the afternoon on July 29. A car cruise and cornhole tournament will precede the opening of the time capsule at 4 p.m.. At 3 p.m., special honorees and speakers will address the crowd.
Event Timeline in Petrolia Park — Saturday, July 29
12 p.m. — Car show begins. Registrants check in for the cornhole tournament. The cost to register a team for the cornhole tournament is $20.
1 p.m. — Cornhole tournament begins.
3 p.m. — Special honorees and speakers will address the crowd.
4 p.m. — 1973 time capsule is opened.
5 p.m. — Dusty Roads will perform live.
Food trucks, vendors and memorabilia displays will be set up throughout the afternoon and evening. DJ Frank Kepple will play music during the day.
Eugene Blair wasn’t alone in organizing the centennial celebration and time capsule ceremony in 1973.
According to a Butler Eagle article from 1973, he was one of six committee members that included Lloyd E. Sheakley, Thomas M. Dunn, Arthur Rossiter, Donald (Tops) Shakley and Ardale Stroup.
His wife, Bonnie, said she cooked for days in preparation for the dances and festivities that drew a crowd from around Butler County. Everybody in the region came for the week-long carnival, Eugene Blair said, and residents were joined by local celebrities including Michele McDonald, Miss USA 1971.
At the time capsule ceremony, the clocks were set back to 1873, Eugene Blair’s grandson, Alex Popichak said, and the festival crowds numbered around 5,000 people.
“It’s one of those things that everybody likes to talk about as a family legend,” Popichak said.
The community — and Blair’s family — will come together once more on July 29. The Petrolia Borough Council, bolstered by the support and donations of businesses and community members, have been organizing the event for months. Blair’s grandson and daughter, Melissa Wilson, were instrumental in organizing the opening of the time capsule and the celebration of Petrolia’s 150-year anniversary.
Popichak, who grew up in Carnegie, likened the event to a “family passion project.” He said that the tight-knit feel of Petrolia paints a “picture of small-town America” that persists today, sometimes to the perplexity of outsiders.
“It’s a really cool homespun thing they got going,” said. “We’re really all doing this for my granddad, for Pappy.”
He said he remembers his grandfather, who was heavily involved in Petrolia’s fire department, showing him the fire trucks as a child; on the way, Blair would point to the spot where the 1973 time capsule was buried, and tell his grandson he’d be there for its opening in 2023.
Popichak said that he made a promise to his grandfather that he would attend the celebration when he was about six years old. Now 26, Popichak is helping his aunt and the Petrolia Borough Council promote the event.
“It’s kind of come full circle,” he said.
Popichak designed the flyers promoting the celebration, as well as the shirts being sold. He said he drew inspiration from the original 1973 design and historical fixtures around town, including the petroleum plant and the train tracks that run right in the middle of town.
“These are all elements of what makes Petrolia, Petrolia,” Popichak said.
The event will be ‘70s-themed, paying homage to the centennial celebration and the year the time capsule was buried. In 1973, the theme of the centennial was 1873, the year of Petrolia’s founding, Wilson said.
The contents of the time capsule, ranging from letters, to yearbooks and artifacts also point to Petrolia’s history, as well as to the relationships that formed within the community, and in turn, formed the town.
“I’m really curious as a history nerd to what they thought to put in there,“ Popichak said. ”Did everything survive the 50 years being buried in the middle of town? What can we learn from from folks who are with us and no longer with us?“
