BETHEL – It was a search intended to unearth memorabilia for Oxford County’s bicentennial celebration, but it yielded something more.

In going through a vault in the basement of the Oxford County Courthouse in Paris about two weeks ago, a crew including Oxford County 2005 Chairman Larry Glatz uncovered the lost records of the former town of Mason.

Glatz was not entirely surprised to find the records – it was last year when he learned they were missing.

“On the other hand,” he said Wednesday, recalling the discovery, “we were surprised to find them because there was no real reason for them to be there.”

According to Glatz, the records were supposed to have been turned over to the town of Bethel when Mason surrendered its charter in 1935. The town was dissolved in 1936, according to the Maine Register, and became an unorganized township.

Mason, said Randall Bennett, assistant director and curator for the Bethel Historical Society Regional History Center, was incorporated in 1843. The records found in the courthouse vault began that year and continued through 1923.

What’s nice about the three volumes, he said, is that they are fairly complete. They do not, however, contain as many vital statistics – records on marriages, births and deaths – as Bennett had hoped.

“We have some original records pertaining to the towns (in the region),” he said Wednesday, “but very few vital records.”

The books do, however, contain detailed minutes from town meetings, including lists of who was present, votes, and expenditures approved.

Glatz said it wasn’t until 1892 that Maine required towns to report vital statistics. As a result, discovering early town records can be a boon for genealogists and historians.

Even without the vital statistics, “These are still a wonderful find,” Bennett said. They will aid anyone doing research on the history of Mason, especially if they are interested in how the town was run, what decisions were being made and how public funds were spent.

County Clerk Carole Mahoney said she is not sure what records are stored in the vault. Some may not be open to the public, she said.

“It’s where we store a lot of old records,” she said, adding that the Superior Court clerk uses the vault, too.

How the Mason records landed in the vault remains a mystery, but where they will soon be stored is clear: “In our vault, where all our other vital records are,” Bethel Town Clerk Christen Mason said Wednesday.

The historical society will photocopy the records for public use before the originals are stored, she said.