After the rediscovery of an 1894 Meade County time capsule, the debate has circled what precisely to do with the relic. Now, the local historical society has an answer – add on and reinstall.
After its discovery in the cornerstone of the original Meade County Courthouse in the mid 1960’s, the time capsule was promptly forgotten in an architectural model of the old courthouse.
Then, nearly 130 years after its initial burial, the capsule was rediscovered, and the community has tangled with what to do with it.
Mark Rambow, president of the local historical society, said they’ve settled on an answer – a living time capsule.
“We’ve added a few more items, we’ve tried to identify things that represent the community at this point in time and add them to the time capsule," Rambow said. "The other thing we’ve tried to do is take the items that were originally in there that were all folded up and jammed into a tin box and put them into an archival safe environment so that they’re in document sleeves. We’ve purchased an archival safe time capsule itself.”
As a living time capsule, it has no clear-cut removal date.
“I think at this point what we’re going to do is let the community decide in the future if they want to open it again," Rambow said. "It was 70 years from the time it was first interred to when it was found in the 1960s, and then it was another 60 years from then to now when we’re putting it back in again.”
Rambow said submissions are still being accepted for the upcoming reinstallation of the capsule and encouraged residents or people with items connected to Meade County to reach out to the local historical society. Those items need to be received by December 13.
The capsule will be installed into the Erskine office building in Sturgis on December 18.