Nine Out of Ten Time Capsules Vanish—Including 22 Million Americans' Signatures
Burying the Evidence: nine out of every 10 time capsules go missing
In 1976, the Bicentennial Wagon Train carried some 917,000 rededication scrolls signed by 22 million Americans toward Valley Forge, bound for an aluminum time capsule meant to be opened in 2076. The scrolls reached Pennsylvania—then vanished. Historian Paul Hudson, cofounder of the International Time Capsule Society, says roughly nine in ten time capsules are lost, stolen, or forgotten, because they're really about the people who bury them, not the future.
We like the heady buzz of seeing our trivial existence through the exotic lens of the future; we crave the intoxicating but ultimately imaginary thrill of designing our own legacy.
- MarkusWandel
A story from my dad that is probably the typical fate of such things: They were doing renovations (in the 1960s) on our then 280 year old farm house (in southern Germany). Cutting up the the wooden beam that had been a door lintel for firewood, suddenly there was a shower of paper confetti. Someone in the distant past had bored a hole, inserted a paper scroll and plugged it. Ooops. But what difference did that make, really, to the unknown individual who wrote and stashed the scroll?
Some years later, my dad was building a new house. We kids were allowed to play in the unfinished house. Scribble and write on drywall that would be painted anyway, etc. Well, 50-ish years after that, renovations were done, and behind some paneling they found a letter to future readers by early teenage me! Happily they sent me a picture of it. I had no recollection of writing it.
- pfdietz
I remember a quote from Bruce Sterling in Wired some years ago:
"Real futurism means staring directly into your own grave and accepting the slow but thorough obliteration of everyone and everything you know and love."
The sufficiently distant future is a place where you (and they) won't be. Time capsules can be seen as a cry into this abyss.
- nubinetwork
I often wonder what happened to the time capsule that we planted back in elementary school... I distinctly remember it being planted near the flag pole. Unfortunately that school closed a decade ago, and was torn up. I guess it could still be there, but its likely been crushed or pilfered.
- alnwlsn
Just a few weeks ago I helped dig up and relocate several time capsules. These are short term ones, they were all buried / will be opened within 10 years - but in just that short of a timeframe, there was worry that the place we buried them would soon become inaccessible.
Even at that, it took more than a year after learning about it for anyone to bother recovering them, even though plenty of people know where they are and all you need is one regular shovel. They aren't really anyone's top priority. And why should they be? The whole point is for them to be forgotten. If you already know what's in there, you don't really need to keep a physical capsule at all.
- JoeDaDude
Speaking of Valley Forge... it is known - but not advertised - that there is a time capsule placed there during a ceremony in 1878. If you ask a park ranger, they will admit to its existence but generally, they would rather it remain in obscurity to prevent someone from digging it up in the middle of the night.
So far, there are no plans to open it and there is no documentation on its contents. How long until this time capsule is forgotten too?