National Sock Day is Thursday, Dec. 4, and volunteers at the Keizer Heritage Museum are using the occasion to encourage people to stop by the Keizer Heritage Museum to witness a special object.

Tucked into a corner of the museum is a 212-year-old pair of socks – a relic of Keizer’s past.

“We just want people to know that we have the ultimate pair of socks,” said Lore Christopher, a volunteer at the cultural center. “And to generate interest in the museum.”

The socks, which now look frail and tattered, were a wedding heirloom from the founding family of the Keizer area.

Thomas Dove Keizur led his family by wagon train from Missouri to Oregon in 1843. According to museum exhibits, the Keizur family spent its first winter in Oregon on the west bank of the Willamette River.

A decade later, the family acquired land in the present-day Keizer.

A descendant of Keizur donated the wedding socks to the Oregon Historical Society in 1903. Last year, they were transferred to the Keizer museum.

This is the first year that the wedding socks will be displayed in Keizer on National Sock Day. In two years, the socks will be removed from display and preserved in total darkness for a year to protect them from light damage.

They are currently on display and can be seen for free at the museum, which is open Monday through Friday from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m., and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

The museum is located at the Keizer Cultural Center at 980 Chemawa Road N.E.

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