Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Time capsule reveals 50-year-old bounty
Plaque on building instructed that copper box be opened in 2019
A baby-blue touch-tone telephone, a list of state Department of Health personnel from 1969, a few journals and a Sunday Arkansas Gazette newspaper from Feb. 23, 1969 — available for 20 cents at the time — are among items found tightly packed into a time capsule enclosed at the state Department of Health building for the past 50 years.
The time capsule, taken from an outside wall at the building’s front about two weeks ago, had its contents displayed for the first time Friday in connection with today marking the 200th anniversary of Arkansas being established as a territory.
A ceremony recognizing the territorial bicentennial itself was held separately at the state Capitol on Friday morning. Arkansas achieved statehood in 1836.
The plaque outside the Health Department, dated January 1969, contains instructions the time capsule is “to be opened March 2, 2019, the Bicentennial of the Territory of Arkansas.” The time capsule is dedicated to the “future citizens of Arkansas.”
Despite having that information and instructions for the time capsule engraved on the front of the building for
the past 50 years, the time capsule had remained a mystery of sorts, said Maria Jones, the department’s special projects director.
“We have yet to find any mention of the time capsule in any documents, except on the plaque on the front of the building,” Jones said during a program at the Health Department auditorium where the items were shown. “There’s not one mention of anything about the Arkansas Territory that was in the contents of that thing.”
“We just didn’t know what was in there,” Jones said after the program. “The list of contents was inside the time capsule.”
Nate Smith, the Health Department director and state health officer, told those gathered the “reveal” had been done previously “rather than having a [public] reveal, not knowing what is in there, not knowing if anything was in there, or if there was something radioactive in there.
“We thought it was prudent to go ahead and remove the items,” he said.
The copper box was also welded shut, Smith said. So two archivists from the Historic Arkansas Museum were tasked with opening the box “without damaging or destroying the contents,” Smith said.
Among items inside: A program of the building’s groundbreaking from May 16, 1967; a toy Atlas moving van, representing the company used to move the department to its new building; and an article and photo from the Feb. 23, 1969, building dedication published in the former Arkansas Gazette.
The Arkansas Gazette was closed in October 1991 by parent Gannett Co. and its assets purchased by the parent company of the Arkansas Democrat. The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette began publishing Oct. 19, 1991.
The blue touch-tone phone represented the Health Department’s phone system that allowed calls to be made without going through a switchboard, something unique in the state at that time, Jones said.
“With the opening of this time capsule, we’re provided with an opportunity to look back 50 years and note some of the changes,” Smith said, including the differences in what would be envisioned to become public health issues today, such as the obesity issue.
“I think you’d probably have to have had a crystal ball to figure that one out,” Smith said. “I think, standing where we are now, in 50 years probably some of the major public health issues are not ones that we would even imagine at this point.”