Car Sized Time Capsule

[Miasma]

I thought this was a neat story.  I'm not sure it that link needs registration so I'll quote it.

Tulsa’s Buried Belvedere Sees the Sun Again

By Patrick J. Lyons


So maybe that back fin is a little rusty. Wouldn’t you be, too, after 50 years in the ground? (AP photo)

The eyes of an anxious world have been trained on Tulsa, Okla., today, in hopes of learning once and for all who won the brand-new 1957 Plymouth Belvedere coupe that has been buried under the courthouse lawn for 50 years — not to mention whether the dang thing will turn over.

Well, they’ve gotten the car up out of the ground, but some of the answers will have to wait a little longer.

Rather like the basement of every house The Lede has ever lived in, the 12-by-20-foot concrete vault containing the car turned out to be no match for groundwater, and crews had to pump out several feet of mud before the car could be lifted up.

The car itself was wrapped up in canvas and coated with cosmoline, a Vaseline-like protective goop, so there’s still hope that it hasn’t been reduced to a lump of rust. The vehicle is being whisked off by flatbed to be cleaned up and checked over (and not, one trusts, to be quietly switched with some car collector’s cherried-up twin for appearance’s sake). But the ignition key won’t be turned in public until this evening, if at all, when it will be publicly unveiled in whatever glory it still possesses.

The unearthing of the car (video recap here), interred on June 15, 1957, as part of the city’s celebration of 50 years of Oklahoma statehood, is now the centerpiece of Tulsarama, another big civic shindig. Dan Barry of The New York Times devoted his column on Monday to the car and to some of the people who saw it go into the ground, and there’s a nifty accompanying slide show featuring Dan’s narration, photographs by Angel Franco and some historic images. (Times Select subscription required.)

Who gets the Belvedere to keep? In the glovebox is some microfilm showing all the entries in a contest to guess what the city’s population would be in 2007. Closest guess wins. (The right answer would be around 380,000, almost four times the 1957 headcount.)

Some of the other artifacts buried along with the car in 1957 are almost as intriguing — for instance, 10 gallons of gasoline, just in case the fuel had become obsolete by now. And in a way it has: We may not all be zooming about in Jetson-esque atomic saucers by now (more’s the pity), but that Belvedere was designed to run on leaded gas.

The winner is also supposed to get the proceeds from a $100 savings account. That was a good week’s pay in 1957, and with 50 years’ accumulated interest, ought to be about $1,200 now — perhaps even enough, counting penalties and late fees and so on, to take care of the unpaid parking ticket that was also buried with the car.

[schild]

There's a 40 year old car I have the key to buried in the forest in Richmond VA. I remember EXACTLY where it is and will be going to back there in a few more years. When I found it, I crawler in through the sunroof that we pried open and got the key out of the ignition. I didn't look around the car because it was night time and I was like 13 years old. Scared the hell to even get the key (What? I was double dared!).

[Riggswolfe]

Sounds like Schild found Jimmy Hoffa!

[Selby]

That box has been full of water who knows how many times over the last 50 years.  It's probably no more than a rusty hulk.  Even if the body was protected by the cosmoline they put on it, the interior is likely ruined as is the motor.  Someone's going to be very disappointed with a 50 year old pile of rust.

[Miasma]

I guess that TV show "American Hot Rod" is in on this so even if it is a rusted a hulk they will probably rebuild the hell out of it.  By the time they're done it will probably have dvd players in the back of the seats.

[Miasma]

Hmm, that didn't work out so well.



I blame the shoddy 1950s "nuclear blast proof" vault builders.

[Selby]

I blame the shoddy 1950s "nuclear blast proof" vault builders.

The fact that they didn't provide ANY drains in it, and used concrete (which is just a giant porous sponge) is proof that they didn't exactly execute this strategy as effectively as they had intended to...

[Lantyssa]

So who won?

[Paelos]

So who won?

Rusty.

[Gutboy Barrelhouse]

Relax, all right? My old man is a television repairman, he's got this ultimate set of tools. I can fix it.

[Righ]

We should bury PT Cruisers in time capsules for future generations. Not one. All of them.

[Murgos]

They're plastic and wont rust.  Is what you really want a world inhabited by PT Cruisers when you are 90?  Huh?  Well, Is it punk?

[Lantyssa]

With acetone.

[Signe]

Acetone is one of my favourite substances.  Without it, my fingers would be permanently stuck together on my face.

[Chimpy]

Acetone is one of my favourite substances.  Without it, my fingers would be permanently stuck together on my face.

Use enough of it and they will become that way.

And your children will all be flipper babies.

[Signe]

Flipper babies! 

[Miasma]

So who won?

The winner died in 1979, wife died in 1988, no children, probably going to a sister.  Wow, this story went from cute hopeful event to very depressing disaster fast...

I mean how does that conversation go?  Hiya I'm Steve from Tulsa, your long dead brother has won a rusted out shell of a car, since his wife is also dead we figure you'd want it, hope this isn't bringing up any bad old memories.

[Lantyssa]

Yeah.  Some things should stay buried.

[Furiously]

I actuallly groaned there.... WELL DONE!!!!

[Merusk]

From what I found, that saving bond is worth...A whopping 799.00.

Woo hoo!