What appears to be a 1951 time capsule recently found within a hollowed-out stone in a former school building in Waynesville, Missouri, being demolished will be opened at 4 p.m. Wednesday at Waynesville High School.
The public is invited to the unveiling of the welded copper box’s contents at the school’s Lecture Hall, which is on the east side of the high school at 200 Gw Lane near the entrance to the Ninth Grade Center.
Crews found the box recently during the razing of Roubidoux Center, which once served Waynesville’s elementary, middle and high-school students. Local officials assume the box is a time capsule, but no information about it from the early 1950s has been found so far.
Pulaski County, which owned the property, presented the box to the school superintendent Brian Henry.
According to a story last week in the Waynesville Daily Guide, the stone containing the time capsule had “1951” carved on it. Presiding Commissioner Gene Newkirk said the county has saved the stone as well.
The time capsule was slightly damaged during the demolition and part of the metal box was ripped open. Henry joked that he was “tempted to peek” at the contents before an official opening because he was curious about the contents.
The box, Newkirk noted, was welded all the way around with no hinged opening. The commissioners speculated on how the crafter of the box was able to weld it closed without setting the paper inside on fire. If a member of the reading public is aware of who the crafter was or how that was accomplished, the commission is interested in hearing about it.
The article didn’t make it clear where the old Roubidoux Center was. But according to Jax Welborn, who is based in that area, it was three blocks south of Route 66 in Waynesville.
According to a news release from the school district about the upcoming unveiling:
“This is a once-in-a-lifetime event; we are very grateful for the crew discovering the box and for the commissioners sharing this find with the district,” said Dr. Brian Henry, superintendent of the Waynesville R-VI School District. “Here it is 66 years later and we will be offered a glimpse into an era when Route 66 – the main street of America – was still in its heyday. The timing of this find and the revival of interest Route 66 have generated quite a buzz in the community about its contents.” […]
“At the opening, our students will be taking photos on their cell phones of this event and instantly sharing them with thousands worldwide but in 1951, the first Polaroid instant camera had only been available for about three years,” Henry said. “Time capsules help us step back for a moment and appreciate our history and also to recognize the rapid technological changes we’ve witnessed. I look forward to seeing what today’s students include in their own time capsule.”
Perhaps the most famous time-capsule unveiling in Route 66 history was the so-called Miss Belvedere vault, where a 1957 Plymouth Belvedere and other items from that year were buried in downtown Tulsa and unearthed in 2007. But ground water breached the vault over the years, ruining the car. Other items encased in a protective steel container, however, emerged unscathed.
(Image of the Wayneville time capsule from Wayneville School District Facebook page)