More news coverage in the Chatham Daily News
Jim and Lisa Gilbert write about DRESDEN 1957 in their local history column
We were delighted to meet Lisa Gilbert at the Heritage Day event in Chatham, Ontario on February 21 this year. She told us about the local history column that she and her husband Jim write and said she'd be interested in writing about DRESDEN 1957. She was true to her word and on March 13 the article appeared. She writes
"Six deaths due to an industrial accident was horrific and even today it remains one of the worst such incidents in Ontario history. But it is a story that is almost unknown. I worked in Dresden for many years and never heard about it."
To be fair, Lisa is not the first historian we've met who hadn't heard of the Dresden disaster. In fact, all but one of the experts we've met (and in some cases interviewed) had not heard of it. The only exception was retired professor Gerrit Gerrits, who knew about it because he was friends with John Hovius in university.
This is why we're making DRESDEN 1957 - and why we give presentations and attend events like Heritage Day. Our mission is to ensure this tragedy is given a place in Canada's history. Thank you Lisa and Jim Gilbert for helping with that by making more people aware of the event and our project.