Almost four years have passed since the original Drumheller High School (DHS) burned, and this week the date stone from the building was returned to its rightful owner.
On March 4, 2008, the school building, which was vacant at the time, caught fire at about 2:30 in the afternoon. By nightfall the site was in ruins, walls had collapsed and rubble was strewn about.
The school, through its history, served as a high school, the East End Elementary School and housed the Big Country Educational Consortium.
During the clean up a few relics from the building were set aside, including the approximately one yard long rock with the date 1928 engraved in it. The items were left on the edge of the lot. Not long after, the stone went missing.
Liana Obuck owned the building and was incensed when the stone went missing.
“I am not a greedy person, but of the many things that have been stolen, it hurts they took that,” she told The Mail in its April 8, 2009 edition upon learning of the stone’s disappearance.
Obuck also owns the Waldorf Hotel and recently the business received an anonymous phone call with information about the whereabouts of the stone.
The information was passed onto the RCMP, and this week two RCMP officers hauled the stone to the Waldorf.
Obuck said they probably are not going to proceed with criminal charges.
She is grateful the stone was returned intact. With it missing for so long there could have been a range of outcomes. Someone could have stolen it to sell or vandals could have simply smashed it.
When The Mail originally spoke to Obuck about the stone in 2009 her intentions were to donate the stone to the Town of Drumheller to be preserved, and her wish has not changed. She has already been in contact with the Town for future plans to preserve and display the relic.
