A muddy reveal for mysterious West Point time capsule from 1820s
Staff and students at West Point, the famed US military academy, gathered on Monday for what was supposed to be a historic moment: the opening of a mysterious 1820s time capsule, discovered months ago at the base of a campus monument.
The event was live-streamed, starting with pre-recorded remarks from academy historian Jennifer Voigtschild, inviting the audience to “literally uncover a piece of West Point history”. Cadets were filmed offering their own predictions for what was inside the nearly 200-year-old lead box: an American flag, boots, or maybe a class ring.
But instead, there was mud. […]
The box had been found a few months earlier, during the removal of a bronze statue of war hero Thaddeus Kosciuszko. Underneath the marble face of the monument the box was discovered, apparently placed there during the completion of the statute in 1829.
“We’re guessing that it’s an artefact, or what we would call today a time capsule, put there when the monument was completed in 1829,” Ms Voigtschild said from stage.
But they were just guessing, she explained, because West Point researchers could find no reference to a box, artefact, time capsule or any other object being placed inside the base of the Kosciuszko statue. And because the box was made of lead, an x-ray of the suspected time capsule showed only some “anomalies” in the interior – taken a sign of something, though no one was sure what.
Oh dear. Somewhere Geraldo Rivera is reading this and having flashbacks to the Al Capone vault. Assuming this was a time capsule (and I feel that assumption may have been the first mistake), then someone in 1829 had a somewhat advanced sense of humour… though I don’t suppose they ever imagined that if their box of mud was discovered, it would be reported on by a British news source so that a guy in Australia could be amused by it…
