Posted by Dennis Herrick [pool-71-161-66-228.cncdnh.east.verizon.net at 71.161.66.228] on July 15, 2008 at 08:58:24:
We're on the verge of getting a Cement Plant shoved down our throats and what does Town Hall do? They come out with more Saki, Saki, Happy, Happy stories like the one below and the earlier one about Plaistow's mythical train station. Stories like these keeps us docile and content, when we should be furious with the folks running the town.
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Hoping for time on their hands Town continues search for 1908 capsule
By Meghan Carey
Staff writer
PLAISTOW — There's still a piece of history missing in Plaistow.
Officials have spent more than a year searching for a copper box that was filled with letters at the 1908 dedication of the Civil War monument. Last week, they got what may be some bad news — time may have eaten away at the artifact.
Selectman Dan Poliquin drilled a tiny hole in the copper base of the statue, just below the soldier's feet. When he and resident Norm Major peered inside, they thought they had found where the time capsule once had been, but was no more.
"We're really not sure what we found," Major said, "but there's debris in there."
Fearing the time capsule may have disintegrated, Poliquin, Major and members of the historical society returned on Thursday morning to make a larger hole in the pedestal and take digital photographs of the inside. Major is bringing photos to the state archivist today to determine if it's possible something may have once been inside.
"We're not going to touch anything," Major said. "I want the state archivist to see the condition and find out if it stands a chance of surviving."
There are few clues as to where the copper box may have been hidden, but one newspaper article from the dedication said it's in the base of the statue. There are seven sections below the soldier, and no one has yet figured out to which section the newspaper was referring.
In May 2007, a geophysicist spent a day searching the 10-foot high granite section of the statue by sending a laser beam through the granite. If it had hit something other than air and more granite, a curve would have come up on a screen attached to the equipment. But all they got were straight lines.
Major and the rest of his Civil War committee want to unveil the contents of the time capsule at a centennial celebration planned for Sept. 13. That is, if it exists.
"My summation is that there's nothing in there," Major said, after examining the digital photos again Thursday.
A piece officials thought may have been a handle to the copper box ended up being a buttress to the statue once the image was enlarged. Still, Major will seek the help of an expert today, just in case.
He doesn't know where else to look. The entire monument has been searched now and the ground was dug up on all four sides, he said.
If the time capsule did disintegrate, it wouldn't be the first failed attempt at taking a peek at life in Plaistow 100 years ago.
A similar situation happened 13 years ago when officials tried to remove an 1895 time capsule from the cornerstone of Town Hall. When they opened the box, the inside was filled with moisture and the papers were mush, Major said.
When officials replaced the time capsule with a new one, they encased it in three inches of wax and put a wrench on top so whoever opens it in 2095 will have an easier time, he said.