Blast From the Past in Tulsa, Oklahoma

June 07, 2007

Blast From the Past in Tulsa, Oklahoma

If you're plotting a cross-county road trip this summer you might want to plan on being in Tulsa on the 15th of this month. To amaze the Earth's future inhabitants the residents of Tulsa decided to build a time capsule containing a 1957 Plymouth Belvedere Sports Coup, a case of Schlitz beer, and a bunch of other products. The Tulsa Tribune relates the story from June, 15th 1957:

A 1957 automobile was buried in the courthouse lawn today - with a bottle of tranquilizer pills in the glove compartment.

Into the hole with the new Plymouth hardtop went a steel "time capsule'' containing assorted documents and artifacts of Oklahoma's semi-centennial year.

The car, mounted on a steel skid and swathed in a plastic and paper wrapping, was lowered into the concrete-lined well no the southeast corner of the lawn during dedicatory ceremonies marking the observance of Golden Jubilee Week here.

"This is the sort of thing that could happen only in Tulsa,'' commented Chairman Lewis Roberts Sr. "We have been amazed - although I guess we shouldn't have been - by the cooperation of every one concerned in making this event possible.

"Although the cost of the automobile is a major item, of course, Tulsans have contributed time, machinery and materials and services far beyond the initial cost.''

The vault will be opened in 2007. The automobile will be awarded then to the person who guessed nearest to the city's population figure at that time. If he or she is not living, the award goes to the heirs, along with the proceeds from a $100 trust fund. Guesses have been microfilmed and are sealed in the steel capsule.

Many are worried that the Plymouth may have turned into a rustbox over the intervening years. Below is a video of the time capsule from 1957.