{"id":146604,"date":"2023-08-30T08:00:59","date_gmt":"2023-08-30T12:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=146604"},"modified":"2023-08-29T10:35:52","modified_gmt":"2023-08-29T14:35:52","slug":"west-point-opens-1828-time-capsule","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=146604","title":{"rendered":"West Point opens 1828 time capsule"},"content":{"rendered":"
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200 years of waiting<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

West Point recently opened a lead time capsule that’s been sealed for nearly 200 years. Believed to have been placed in 1828, there was much fanfare in finding out just what was left by our ancestors. Would there be letters from history? Washington’s dentures? A copy of the original Declaration of Independence? Rumor has it that Nic Cage was in the bushes waiting to steal it if there were.<\/p>\n

Well…taking a cue from Geraldo…they found it empty except for dust and dirt. From Army Times<\/a>;<\/p>\n

The tension Monday in West Point\u2019s Robinson Auditorium could be cut with a knife. A nearly 200-year-old lead time capsule sat center stage in a room brimming with anxious onlookers, its sealed lid slowly prying open as an archaeologist slid a gleaming blade from one side to the other.<\/p>\n

A symphony of whispers and nervous laughter reached a crescendo as the surgeon\u2019s tool approached its final cut. Inside the box\u2019s mysterious one square foot of space could be anything \u2014 personal tokens of Thaddeus Kosciuszko, under whose monument the capsule was found, antiquated medals or coins, human remains, even a Christmastime leg lamp to proudly display in one\u2019s bay window.<\/p>\n

With one last incision, the lid wiggled free. The archaeologist reached for a flashlight, the cube\u2019s dark interior preserving its final moments of secrecy. Top officers, senior historians, libraries, archivists and museum curators leaned forward, the oxygen in the room suddenly in short supply.<\/p>\n

\u201cSilt,\u201d the archaeologist said. Just silt.<\/p>\n

In what could either be the most dazzling illustration of an anticlimactic \u201churry up and wait\u201d gathering or one of the best pranks in military history \u2014 perhaps both \u2014 the culmination of a centuries-old mystery at the U.S. Military Academy amounted to little more than some dirt.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe box didn\u2019t quite meet expectations,\u201d the container\u2019s glove- and mask-clad handler said, sheepishly, as the auditorium\u2019s tension swiftly relented to profound awkwardness. \u201cPotentially, it was something small and organic that may have come apart over time, but we\u2019re just not certain.\u201d<\/p>\n

The cube, which in recent months became the subject of numerous announcements, an unsealing save-the-date video and a YouTube livestream, was discovered during renovations earlier this year in the base of the campus\u2019 Thaddeus Kosciuszko monument. The shrine stands as an homage to the Polish general and engineer who helped strengthen American defenses during the American Revolutionary War.<\/p>\n

X-rays of the box conducted by the institution\u2019s Department of Physics and Nuclear Engineering after its discovery were inconclusive, the academy said, adding to the intrigue of Monday\u2019s sediment-rich unveiling. The lead object is believed to have been placed there in 1828, just 26 years after the academy was founded.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis time capsule is truly a unique discovery, and we are excited to open it and see what the cadets left us nearly two centuries ago,\u201d U.S. Military Academy Superintendent Lt. Gen. Steve Gilland said ahead of Monday\u2019s deflating unveiling. \u201cThe capsule\u2019s contents will certainly add to the West Point story and is another example of past generations of cadets gripping hands with present and future generations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Academy staff said they expect to sift through the silt and will research a marking on the underside of the container\u2019s lid in the near future, but for now, it appears as if the container\u2019s contents \u2014 and its generational ties \u2014 are merely dust in the wind.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I think the answer is obvious. Our Army’s earliest engineers left us a message. It just broke down over the centuries, as things tend to do, so we can’t read it any more. That message? Why it’s the same message soldiers have been leaving us for millennia<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

West Point recently opened a lead time capsule that’s been sealed for nearly 200 years. Believed … West Point opens 1828 time capsule<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":664,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[359,386],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-146604","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-army","category-west-point"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146604","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/664"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=146604"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146604\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":146606,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146604\/revisions\/146606"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=146604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=146604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=146604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}