Library recovers and opens 2009 time capsule

Abover, Janel Mosey, from left, Sue Sigler, Cliff Mosley and Joan Scott peruse the contents of the time capsule buried on the Mound City Library grounds. Below, city superintendent John Bruns raises the time capsule vault. (Photos by Regina Casner)

As a prelude to Saturday’s Christmas celebration in Mound City, a time capsule buried in 2002 was unearthed near the foundation at the Mound City Library.

The time capsule was buried on the occasion of the library board securing a loan to build a new library. It was at a time when Lena Dick was library director and Naomi “Skip” Childress was library board president.

Enclosed in a cremation vault, the contents, mostly papers, were then spread out of tables in a section of the library so that interested Mound City residents could look through them on Saturday, Dec. 3.

Regina Casner, library director, said that the items inside were damp and musty but otherwise in very good condition. And while some of the items were personal and returned to the people who put them in the vault, most of them will be stored in a plastic container in the library’s genealogy section.

She said people could come in and request to see the materials, including several newspaper clippings.

There are no plans to bury another capsule at present.

Casner said she was grateful for the help of Mound City public works head John Bruns using equipment to dig up the vault and for Schneider Funeral Home for assisting with opening the vault.