Washington‘s Centennial Time Capsule will be sealed for the next 25 years during a Feb. 22 ceremony at the State Capitol in which letters and artifacts collected last year will be added to the capsule.
The sealing event takes place at 1 p.m. at the Centennial Time Capsule, located at the south entrance of the Legislative Building. Secretary of State Kim Wyman and members of the Keepers of the Capsule Board will take part.
“Another 25 years of Washington history is being added to the Time Capsule so that Washingtonians in the future can someday learn what mattered to us and how we lived,” Wyman said. “The fact that this ceremony takes place on George Washington‘s birthday only adds to this event. I encourage history lovers and other Washingtonians to join us as we close up the capsule until 2039.”
The contents of the 2014 addition to the time capsule include:
– Hundreds of “Messages to the Future” from ordinary citizens.
– Music recordings from iconic Washington bands.
– Seattle Seahawks and Seattle Mariners memorabilia.
– New stories capturing the events, people and culture of Washington from the past 25 years.
– An Amazon Kindle loaded with more than 100 titles from Washington authors or about Washington state. Book titles include The Good Rain by Tim Egan, Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson and The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown.
– An original glass art piece by Ginny Ruffner and a glass artifact and letter from Dale Chihuly.
The Washington Centennial Time Capsule Project was developed in 1989 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Washington‘s admission to the United States as the 42nd state on Nov. 11, 1889.
The Centennial Time Capsule is a 3,000-pound green safe that contains a series of 16 individual stainless steel mini time capsules that will be filled with new items every 25 years. The 2014 Time Capsule is the second one filled as part of the project. All of the filled capsules are slated to be opened in November 2389, the state‘s 500th birthday, providing a very long look of Washington history spanning four centuries.
The time capsule project is guided by a group called the Keepers of the Capsule. Every 25 years, hundreds of Washington children are recruited to act as guardians or “Keepers” of the Centennial Time Capsule Project. The Keepers have pledged to preserve the time capsule and enlist new generations of Keepers every 25 years.
The Keepers‘ main responsibility is to remind the state (through the Office of Secretary of State) of the existence and location of the official Centennial Time Capsule in 2039. That is when new material will be added to the capsule and another generation of Capsule Keepers is chosen and sworn in.
For more information about the time capsule sealing ceremony, contact Erica Gordon at (425) 894-7290 or erica_mortensen@hotmail.com .
To learn more about the Keepers of the Capsule and the Washington Centennial Time Capsule Project, visit www.capsulekeepers.org or visit their Facebook page at: www.facebook.com/WACapsuleKeepers.
