A Sweet Find

by Murray Hall, Maitland Valley Region

"As a forestry technician, I worked for nearly 30 years for the MInistry of Natural Resources. After taking early retirement in 1994, I started my own forestry consulting business known as Wingham Forestry Service. Most of my work consists of marking woodlots for timber sales for private landowners. In January of this year, I was asked by a log buyer to mark timber he was hoping to buy in a woodlot near Orangeville. This was a small 4 acre hard maple woodlot where the owner used to make maple syrup. Sure enough, when we went in the woodlot, there was the old sugar house that had sat abandoned and unused for several years.

However, this was no ordinary sugar house!! This one was covered with 22 porcelain White Rose signs in varying conditions. These were the 8 foot long signs that said either gasoline or motor oil. The landowner told me that his uncle had been a White Rose agent in the area. I believe that he told me he was 58 years old and he thinks that the signs were nailed on the building when he was 10years old.The signs that were dated were from 1946 and 1947. We struck a deal and I bought them all. Once word got out that I had them, they sold like hot cakes. However, I do have a few left as a couple were frozen in the ground and I have yet to retrieve them.

One of the better signs had a 3" hole punched through the middle of it where they had run a pipe from an outside feeder tank to the evaporator pan inside. I didn't realize what a big demand there was for these signs and I am happy to see them in collections now where the new owners love and appreciate them. In 39 years of marking woodlots, I have never run across such a treasure, but it sure made my day. Murray Hall, Maitland Valley Region