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A Peek Into the Past

When Bay City, Mich., celebrated its centennial in 1965, the local Defoe Shipbuilding Co. built and buried a time capsule to be dug up and opened in 2065. But locals couldn’t wait 100 years: they wanted it opened for the city’s sesquicentennial — its 150th anniversary. “My dad wrote a letter and paid Defoe $3 to put it in the capsule,” said John McCallum. “I know he left a message for us five kids,” and they wanted to see it. Defoe went out of business in 1976, so officials from the Bay County Historical Museum donned respirators and sawed it open. Unfortunately, they found the capsule was mostly full of water, though some items were still intact thanks to being sealed in plastic. “We’re lucky we got it now,” said Bay County Historical Society chief historian Ron Bloomfield. “If we had gone 100 years, sitting as it is now, there wouldn’t have been much of anything left.” McCallum’s letter has so far not been found, and is presumably in the glob of the water-soaked materials. (RC/Bay City News) ...A shipbuilder couldn’t build something watertight? No wonder they went out of business.