When Mark Ross couldn’t find any other way to uncap the piece of plastic pipe poking up through the concrete, he grabbed a steel bar.
Workmen who were preparing to move a stone monument at Fort Vancouver National Historic Site figured it was just a drain pipe installed next to the marker.
So, Ross said, “I smacked it.”
Just about the time Ross was ready to bring down the wrecking bar, Joe Adams tossed out a couple of alternatives.
“It could be a flagpole holder,” Adams mused. “Or it could be a time …”
In 1989 ...
• Jan. 20: George Herbert Walker Bush is inaugurated as 41st U.S. president
• March 24: Ruptured tanker Exxon Valdez sends 11 million gallons of crude oil into Alaska's Prince William Sound
• April 19: Tens of thousands of Chinese students take over Beijing's Tiananmen Square in rally for democracy
• Oct. 17: The San Francisco Bay area's World Series earthquake, measuring 7.1 in magnitude, kills 67 and injures more than 3,000.
• Nov. 11: After 28 years, the Berlin Wall is open to the West
• Dec. 17: the first episode of 'The Simpsons' airs
TIME CAPSULES
• If your group is waiting to open a time capsule -- or if it has lost track of one -- let us know at metrodesk@columbian.com
SMACK!
“… capsule.”
It was a time capsule.
Ross didn’t mind the surprise package: He actually thought it was pretty cool.
“I was hoping we’d find something,” Ross said. “There are hundreds of years of history here.”
The time capsule had been a side project when the monument to three Japanese castaways was dedicated in 1989. The sailors were shipwrecked on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula in 1834 and eventually wound up at the Hudson’s Bay Company’s trading center at Fort Vancouver. The monument was dedicated near the park’s Visitors Center, opposite Officers Row.
Since it coincided with Washington’s centennial, the dedication was included in the state’s 100th anniversary festivities. Community members were invited to sign documents to be placed in the capsule, with a chance to include their wishes for the future.
Kelly Puntney was one of the signers, and he included this message: “May we use the next 100 years to protect the Earth we love.”
When he was contacted Tuesday afternoon, Puntney recalled the signing event, but he hadn’t remembered his message: “I said that? Wow! I was pretty philosophical.”
He was surprised to learn that the capsule was found at Fort Vancouver.
“We didn’t know where it was going to go when we signed it,” Puntney said. “There was quite a debate about where it should be put.”
A felt pennant featuring a centennial Sasquatch and a commemorative coin also were placed in the pipe. Most of the foot-long piece of pipe was encased in concrete next to the monument, with sod covering the top of the capped pipe.
And that’s where the centennial keepsakes stayed until Monday, when the three-man crew from SE Services was preparing for the monument’s move to a new site, about 40 feet to the west. That move is just one part of a major remodel of the Fort Vancouver Visitors Center.
“We wanted to move the monument to a more prominent place, with a walking trail leading to the monument from the Visitors Center,” said Doug Wilson, archaeologist at Fort Vancouver.
Built in 1961, the remodeled visitors center is scheduled to reopen in November — just ahead of the National Park Service’s centennial in 2016. Wilson likes the timing. While preparing for the Park Service’s centennial, he said, “We come across the remnants of another centennial.”
The package of artifacts that was buried in 1989 won’t be visible for long, said Pam Graham, owner of SE Services.
“It will go back in the capsule,” Graham said. “It will be better marked this time.”
