Elkhart searches for a long-lost time capsule
Elkhart searches for a long-lost time capsule Save Email Print
Posted: 6:59 PM Sep 11, 2008
Last Updated: 7:16 AM Sep 12, 2008
Reporter: Ryan Famuliner
Email Address: ryan.famuliner@wndu.com

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As Elkhart marks 150 years as a city, event planners hoped to get a peek back at its history by cracking open a time capsule from 1958.

But once they decided to dig it up, they realized they didn't know where it was buried.

Nearly everyone on the sesquicentennial planning committee had seen the marker before.

"Everyone assumed it was over at Lundquist (Bicentennial) Park... Where there is a time capsule," said Mary Jo Weyrick a member of the committee, who is also the Elkhart City Council's administrative assistant.

But the time capsule in the park isn't the one buried in 1958. It was buried there in 1977, and isn't supposed to be opened until 2027.

So, the search began.

"I started calling the most senior people I could think of, and Paul Thomas started tearing up his museum looking for records that he thought were there," Weyrick said.

Paul Thomas runs the Time Was Museum in Elkhart, and has looked everywhere he can think to look.

"The Elkhart Truth covered that centennial like a blanket and there's no mention anywhere; and of course I have booklets that I went through; and no mention," said Thomas, who was a member of the planning committee this year, as well as for the centennial celebration back in 1958.

But some Elkhart residents say they know where it is; some say they were even there when it was buried!

"One person told me he thought it was buried out in front of city hall. Another person said she didn't come down that day, but says without hesitation that it was buried at the corner of Main and High St. in the sidewalk," Weyrick said.

Weyrick says if the latter is true, they likely won't see the capsule for a while. That section of sidewalk was recently re-done, so they likely wouldn't be allowed to dig through it.

But ultimately the problem is really the same reason you need a time capsule: it's that time makes memories fade.

"People remember so surely, but everyone remembers a different place," Weyrick said, laughing.

But instead of chasing each lead they get, and digging for the capsule all over town, they want to have better information to work with.

"We're not going to start making Swiss cheese out of Elkhart; or running up and down the street with a metal detector. Unless there's a photograph or written proof, we're going under the assumption there is no time capsule," Thomas said.

Thomas says even though he was on the planning committee for the event back in 1958 too, he has no memory of the time capsule.

They did find a newspaper article mentioning getting items together for the capsule, but no mention of whether it was ever buried, or where they planned to bury it.

They've even gone through the minutes of meetings for the 1958 centennial planning committee, and found no mention of the time capsule.

However, they are still asking anyone who may have been at the burial of the time capsule, or would have any information as to where it might be, to contact Weyrick in the City Clerk's office at 522-5272, ext. 351

Either way, they're putting together a new time capsule for this year, and are asking for contributions from the community, for the capsule to be opened in 2058. They planned to re-bury the time capsule from 1958 with the one from 2008.

Weyrick says she's going to make sure there are plenty of records of where it's buried this time.

"We're going to cross-reference the heck out of it," Weyrick said.

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Posted by: Patrick Location: In the 21st Century on Sep 18, 2008 at 04:38 PM
Hey Daniel, life was way better in 1958. Blacks couldn't vote, wifebeaters got away with it, and smoking was "just fine" for pregnant women. How about you leave your bigoted ways in the past, and we keep your church out of my schools? That way you won't hate gay people who haven't done anything to you, and people don't have to worry about their kids being abused by priests. I wonder how many minorities will be present in any pictures they find in that capsule? Maybe it's better they don't find it.

Posted by: Slade Location: Mishawaka on Sep 13, 2008 at 12:11 AM
Hey! Elkhart, I know where your time capsule is. Your time capsule is running for President on the Republican party..he's called John Mc Cain. Hey! Did you know he is also a war HERO, and an EX-POW. Find him and you will find your time capsule. Listening to him and his VP candidate, I just want to go out and Napalm somebody. Darn, don't you just love the smell of Napalm early in the morning. If we can't find any Napalm maybe a canister of Agent Orange. John McCain is your time capsule, Elkhart people.

Posted by: Anonymous on Sep 12, 2008 at 05:17 PM
I know where it is.....some mexican dug it up and ran back across the border with it to prove that he made it to america

Posted by: BigBurn420 Location: ThE BeNd on Sep 12, 2008 at 01:26 PM
Some crack head probably dug it up and sold it for a rock...lol

Posted by: Linda Location: Granger on Sep 12, 2008 at 12:54 PM
I agree with Daniel. However, I always thought a time capsule was something to leave for someone to find by accident perhaps a hundred years from now. When my late husband and I built our new home almost 20 years ago, we left small time capsule inside one of the walls. It will be found someday and someone will get a laugh out of the price of a loaf of bread or a gallon of gas and they'll learn when the house was built and by who.

Posted by: Mary Location: formerly Elkhart on Sep 11, 2008 at 11:53 PM
If I'm not mistaken, I believe Ryan Famuliner's reference to Lundquist (Bicentennial) Park was correct as Bicentennial is part of the park's name or it's former name:)

Posted by: Swiggy Location: Elkhart on Sep 11, 2008 at 09:49 PM
While the mention of the Elkhart Truth newspaper article is there, perhaps the actual article for the burial is in one of the other newspapers in the area: the South Bend Tribune, The Goshen News, Wakarusa Tribune or even the Advance News in Nappanee. I don't know if I missed any other local papers, as I didn't live in this area then, and, for that matter, I was only a year old. On other comment: 1958 was not Elkhart's BI-Centenial. Elkhart is celebrating it's 150th birthday right now. The Bi-centenial is 50 years away. I believe the author meant CENTENIAL when it was buried.

Thanks for pointing that out! - WNDU


Posted by: daniel Location: buchanan on Sep 11, 2008 at 06:45 PM
Maybe Govenor D or Federal government can give us a grant to find the capsul. I was around in 1958 and I can tell you that tax money was used wisely- god was still in the schools- a man and a woman could only get married- woman did not abort their children -and life was a lot better- no preservitives. Maybe we ought to try to go back to that way of life instead of all the idiotic senseless stuff that goes on.


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