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At 9 o’clock Thursday, July 4, 2024, the opening of the Sesquicentennial Time Capsule happened with a crowd of on lookers. During the celebration of the 150th birthday of Simpson County, a large time capsule was buried in the courthouse lawn. Many citizens contributed to the contents in 1974.
The county crew had unearthed the capsule on Wednesday. Boards were then laid across the opening. Following a welcoming and informational talk, the time had come!!! A large machine was hooked to the medal vault lifting the vault from the ground and swinging the capsule onto an area in front of the Courthouse. Once secured, the lid was removed. There was a gluelike substance holding the vault lid down as well as secured with metal pins. The lid was raised much to the excitement of everyone!
Immediately, an odor came from the capsule…smelled bad. Black mole was attached to the contents. The Bicentennial committee members wore mask as they worked with the items. Men on each end of the capsule began the slow process of removing the contents.
The contents were placed in white baskets and taken to different committee members to unload.
Items from the top seemed to be in better condition than items at the bottom. The vault had leaked (probably what caused the mole). There was not a lot of water, but water was in the vault.
As I observed the items carefully removed, one of the first items I saw was a pair of shoes! (There were several pair of shoes in the capsule.) The shoes belonged to Wesla Sullivan Leach.
Much of what was removed was bundles of papers (letters etc) covered in black mole. But much to my surprise, many letters did survive. Several pieces of clothing (hats mostly) were found but no identification on the items.
The committee diligently checked each item.
According to the bicentennial committee, once all items are taken out of the Capsule and documented, identifiable artifacts will be announced for claim. Artifacts not having identification will be placed in the Simpson County Historical & Genealogy Museum for display and viewing at a later date.
I hope you will take time to watch the MageeNews.com Facebook page video. The process was so interesting.
I understand another capsule will be buried in the fall—I’ll keep ya’ll posted!
MageeNews is the online news source for Simpson and surrounding counties as well as the State of Mississippi and beyond.