Bicentennial's last hurrah takes snapshot of 2005!
Tuesday, October 11, 2005By JOHN PECK
Times Staff Writer jpeck@htimes.com
Dedication ceremony for time capsule will be Nov. 7 downtown
The countdown has begun for the final major event in Huntsville's 2005
bicentennial bash: the dedication of a time capsule commemorating Huntsville's
200th birthday celebration.
The ceremony is officially set for Nov. 7 at 10 a.m. in Bicentennial
Park downtown.
Organizers are making final plans for the contents, all of which must
fit into a container 30 inches high, 16 inches deep and 16 inches wide.
"We want it to be a snapshot of 2005, what is happening this year
that people in 2055 will look back on," Mary Jane Caylor, executive
director of the Huntsville Bicentennial Commission, said Monday.
Items so far include modern aerial photographs of the city, primarily
of downtown with all the construction work, bicentennial memorabilia,
letters from current leaders to their counterparts in 2055, population
estimates from all the senior high school class presidents in Huntsville,
blueprints for Bicentennial Park, and bicentennial commemorative editions
of The Times.
An authentic "sensor" part from the Saturn V rocket display
at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center will represent the massive rocket
refurbishing efforts under way. A copy of the book "The Real Space
Cowboys" by Ed Buckbee and former astronaut Wally Schirra, signed
by famous astronauts and cosmonauts, will also be included. A 2005 city
telephone book will be tossed in, giving every listed citizen a way
to be remembered 50 years from now.
A list of fun facts will also be included, such as the going rate for
cars and houses and fashions in vogue. Dr. Niles Schoening, a University
of Alabama in Huntsville economist, has been asked to predict what Huntsville
will be like in 50 years. Other miscellaneous items will be there, too.
Caylor said organizers are extremely limited on what they can include,
given space constraints.
Unlike the 1955 time capsule, which was buried on the courthouse square
during the sesquicentennial celebration, the new time capsule will be
displayed above ground. Water leaked into the 1955 capsule, which was
unearthed in January, and the Bicentennial Commission had to enlist
a restoration company from New York to save the contents.
Caylor said the leak wasn't the reason planners decided to go with an
above-ground display. A visual display, she said, seemed like a better
way to memorialize the 2005 bicentennial.
"This will leave a mystique, a curiosity among people who will
continuously be reminded there is a time capsule in Bicentennial Park.
As new people come along, they'll know in 50 years from now, it's going
to be opened and have a collection of things that were important to
this city in 2005."
Officials commissioned a California-based company to build a special
container similar to one used in the 40th anniversary of Marshall Space
Flight Center. The capsule will be sealed with state-of-the-art technology
with special instructions to unseal.
Guidelines for the contents were offered by a panel of experts from
Oakwood College, Alabama A&M University, UAH, Redstone Arsenal and
the Huntsville-Madison County Public Library.
Caylor said the public will have a chance to view the capsule stuffed
with contents before it is sealed. The sealing and placement in the
park probably will be several days after the dedication.