Time Capsule Located Water-Soaked

Mary Jane Farmer | January 26, 2024 | Reply

By Mary Jane Farmer, for the Van Alstyne News, SceneInTown.com

Recently, the unexpected uncovering of a time capsule has city volunteers searching for answers.

Teddie Ann Salmon, former Van Alstyne mayor and current Van Alstyne Historical Museum director, said that she was at the museum when someone from the Van Alstyne Parks Department called her saying that they had found a time capsule on the land which is to be used in to house the city’s future Police and Fire Departments. This land is at and near North Park off of North Waco (SH 5), near Blassingame.

Salmon said that was the area the workers found the time capsule. They were, she said, attempting to move the plaque and flag pole when they struck the time capsule. As the vault was being lifted, water gushed out and the vault cracked open.

The hard-working workers delivered the time capsule to the museum, leaving it in a safe place where it could discharge all the water that had seeped in — something time capsules are not supposed to do. “There is no way to know how long the vault has been full of water,” she said. Everything inside it was, of course, soaked to the core. She added that the time capsule was buried there about 1975 or ’76.

It is now dried out, and she and Grayson County Historical Commission President Dusty Williams (also a V.A. City Council member), will begin the tedious task of identifying, sorting, and deciding what can be salvaged for future museum use.

City Manager Lane Jones confirmed that the new “Public Safety Facility will be located at Waco and Blassingame. The project still in the design stages, with no start or finish date determined.” Mayor Jim Atchison added, regarding the location, that the area includes the old high school football field, and that there might be a community meeting room.

The museum is normally open from 1-3 p.m. on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. “At this time,” Salmon said, “the museum is not open for the public,” due to the inclement weather. This could be re-opened in mid-February, she said.

The city’s Historical Commission will meet again at 3 p.m. on Sunday, February 25 at the new museum, 130 Waco St, which is at the NW corner of Waco and Jefferson streets. Williams said that curious and/or potential new members as welcome to meet with the group’s membership.