This Friday at noon, after 50 years underground, a 1957 Plymouth Belvedere will be unearthed from a time capsule at Sixth Street and Denver Avenue in downtown Tulsa, Okla.
Later that day, the Belvedere will be unveiled before an audience at the Tulsa Convention Center and live on television and the Internet.
The car was buried in June 1957 during the Tulsarama celebration, in honor of the Oklahoma’s 50th birthday.
The person who came closest in 1957 to guessing Tulsa’s 2007 population — or his or her heirs — will be awarded the Belvedere. It was new when it was buried; it’s unknown what its condition will be now. If it’s in good shape, it will reportedly fetch $75,000 and probably more because it is the Tulsarama Plymouth.
The time capsule is not on Route 66, but the nostalgia factor and the sheer uniqueness of the event has scores of Route 66 aficionados from all over the world traveling to Tulsa.
Excavation will begin Tuesday in preparation for the automobile’s official unearthing from the vault on Friday. Examinations in recent weeks of the concrete vault showed it is in good condition, so officials are relatively optimistic the car will be in good shape, too. A sealer also was used in 1957 to lock the inside of the vault from moisture.
Of course, there will be plenty of activities surrounding the unearthing site, including lots of classic cars on display.
The official Internet site of the 2007 Tulsarama event is buriedcar.com, which has a photo gallery and plenty of information about the event for out-of-town visitors.
The Tulsa World has a special online section with schedules, video, a slideshow and all the articles leading up to the unearthing.
KOTV of Tulsa will televise the unveiling live at 7 p.m. Central time Friday and live on KOTV.com.
Here’s another Web site about the buried Plymouth.
There has been no shortage of news stories about the impending exhumation, as this Google News search shows.
Here is video of the original 1957 burial: