As One Time Capsule Is Buried, Another Disappears

by NPR Staff, NPR

Kent State University buried a laptop computer, Ramen noodles and a wooden black squirrel in a stainless-steel time capsule on Tuesday, as mystery continued to swirl around another time capsule supposedly buried at the Ohio school 50 years ago.

At the time, the student newspaper made multiple references to it, but now that the time has come to dig it up, no one has been able to find it.

Pamela Jones, a member of Kent State's Centennial Committee who led this year's time capsule project, tells NPR's Melissa Block she's beginning to think the 1960 time capsule might just be a legend.

She says she and several students working with her contacted alumni who served on Kent State's semicentennial committee, and each of them stated that they remembered having a time capsule.

"But when the drum-roll question was asked -- where's it buried? -- no one was able to remember," Jones says.

Articles in the student newspaper in 1960 contain information on the semicentennial, but at a certain point, Jones says, there's no further discussion about the time capsule.

"We found that to be a little odd," she says.

University and city records did not shed light on the time capsule, either, so Jones and her team have suspended the search.

If all goes according to plan, in 2060, students will have no trouble unearthing the box buried Tuesday: It's on campus under Risman Plaza, near the Kent Student Center Kiva.

Broadcast Dates

• All Things Considered, August 11, 2010