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1971 Time Capsule Unearthed, Contents Discovered Damaged

1971 Time Capsule Unearthing
1971 Time Capsule Unearthing

A time capsule buried in the Fossil Station Museum front lawn in Russell in 1971 was unearthed Tuesday morning ahead of this year's Prairiesta.

A plaque above the buried capsule noted it was buried in 1971 during Prairiesta, Russell's centennial, and was to be unearthed in 2021, Russell's sesquicentennial.

City of Russell crews dug up the capsule Tuesday morning and the capsule was opened later Tuesday by members of the Russell County Historical Society.

The following statement was posted on the Russell County Historical Society's social media page:

"RCHS Board Member Tim Boxberger notified the Russell residents and those involved in the unearthing that the Historical Society was opening the time capsule later in the morning of April 6.

It sadly was discovered to be a total loss. Items were sitting in an inch of water with extensive damage and a toxic odor.

We are going to learn from this in our approach to future time capsules. We will spend time researching better options of burial or storage for future development.

The Russell County Historical Society has many of the items from the 1971 Prairiesta archives donated to the Historical Society over the past 50 years that we will be creating a display at our new museum for everyone to enjoy during Prairiesta time in June 2021."

(Information and photos courtesy Russell County Historical Society.)

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1971 Time Capsule Unearthing 2
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1971 Time Capsule Unearthing 4
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1971 Time Capsule Contents 1
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1971 Time Capsule Contents 2