Jacksonville put its bicentennial time capsule in the ground three weeks after it was sealed with plans to finish burying the capsule after this week’s storms pass.
City staff cited weather concerns in not filling the hole Wednesday morning. Severe weather was forecast for most of the day.
For now, the hole in which the time capsule rests is covered by plywood.
John Green, city hall and plaza maintenance superintendent, said the hole will be filled “maybe (Thursday) if the dirt doesn’t turn to mud after today.”
About a dozen people, all of whom work for the city, attended.
Jacksonville announced the time capsule’s burial the afternoon before.
The youngest person on hand was Owen Geirnaeirt, a recent Routt Catholic High School graduate who’s working with the city’s groundskeeping staff during the summer. Geirnaeirt said he wrote a letter to his sisters, Grace and Lilly, to include in the time capsule.
“It’s kind of kind of cool; hopefully I’m still around for it (to be opened),” he said. “It’s a good thing that Jacksonville does, and it’s the kind of thing (done) to remember the past and also think about the future.”
The time capsule vault, donated by Rex Vaults of Woodson, was designed to circumvent problems that cropped up with time capsule from 1975, like dirt finding its way into the box.
“Up inside of the lid, there’s a groove and there’s a butyl type sealer … it seals it like a tar,” said Carl Elliott, assistant manager of Rex Vaults. “And the bottom has a tongue and it slips over the groove and it just seals the water out, and then we put a elastomeric sealer around the outside and the vault is totally coated with the waterproof coating.”
Mayor Andy Ezard said he’s proud of the work that went into the capsule.
“A lot of people worked a lot of hours on this, and we didn’t get everything right — we weren’t setting out to get everything right,” Ezard said. “What we set out to do is try to give an example of what life in Jacksonville was in 2025, and I think we accomplished that by the contents of what went on in the whole.”
The time capsule burial was supposed to happen at the end of May in the downtown square after a viewing ceremony of its contents. City officials paused that plan after finding unmarked electrical wires buried under the square.
After officials said they also couldn’t use the space left by the time capsule unearthed during the city’s bicentennial celebrations in 2025 — because of logistical issues with tree roots and the new capsule’s weight — it was decided to bury it by the Municipal Building.
Once the hole is filled, a plaque marking the site will be placed over the time capsule’s home for the next 50 years.