As we count down to the 200th anniversary of the Canada Company settling Guelph in just three years, you can expect to hear more about how we’re honouring our history in Guelph, both pre- and post-settlement. Between that moment John Galt cut down that first tree and this moment listening to this podcast, there’s been a whole lot of Guelph history, and one man has published a new collection about some of those lesser known bits that you should definitely know.

This week, we’re joined by Ed Butts, a local author and historian. Butts has dedicated much of the last decade inspecting all of Guelph’s nooks and crannies, looking at all the forgotten tales, the forgotten celebrities, the newsmakers and royals who came to town, and all the times that no one liked what was in the headlines. Butts has taken all this and woven weekly adventures through Royal City history for Guelph Today, and the Guelph Mercury before that.

Now, Butt’s collected some of those tales in a new booked appropriately called Guelph Stories. From the origin of certain Guelph landmarks, to all the mysterious and still unsolved crimes in Guelph’s underbelly; from that time after World War II when Guelph City Council banned midnight movies to Anne Jamison who lived in Guelph between her birth in Ireland and Hollywood fame on the radio, Guelph Stories is 300 pages of local character that money can’t buy (although buying a copy of the book will cost you $30).

On this week’s podcast, we will go behind the pages, as it were, to talk to Butts about how the book, and the history, came together. He will tell us about how his Guelph Story started, how he seeks out the history he tells and how, sometimes, the history comes to him. We will also talk about how he knows when he’s found a good story, and how he separates fact from legend when he’s doing research. Also, which local history nerd would win a round of Jeopardy! that focuses on Guelph history?

So let’s dig into the story behind Guelph Stories on this week’s Guelph Politicast!

You can get your copy of Guelph Stories at The Bookshelf independent bookstore downtown, and at the gift shop of the Guelph Civic Museum. You can also email Butts about getting your copy by sending your order to edpbutts [at] yahoo.com. You can also stay up-to-date, so to speak, with all of Butt’s latest insights into Guelph’s rich and varied history by reading his weekly column at Guelph Today.

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Also, when you subscribe to the Guelph Politicast channel and you will also get an episode of Open Sources Guelph every Monday, and an episode of End Credits every Friday.