Predictions, pennies and pictures buried in Alberta Time Capsule

Carefully preserved items won’t be unearthed until 2112

Stone mason Steve Lalancette accepts the time capsule from Speaker of the Legislative Assembly Gene Zwozdesky and Infastructure Minister Wayne Drysdale.

EDMONTON - When Brooke Paiha imagines Alberta a century from today she hopes for a province that has made simple but meaningful advances.

“I want there to be more environmental stability. I want people to be able to walk down the street and not have others judge them for what they look like or what they’re wearing or what race they are,” said the Grade 9 student from Strathmore. “They seem so simple right now but society has a big issue with them.”

The 14-year-old was among eight Alberta students who wrote letters that were buried Wednesday along with more than 50 other items in a time capsule celebrating the Alberta Legislature’s centennial.

Paiha read an excerpt from her letter to the roughly 150 people gathered under the dome for the time capsule ceremony Wednesday in the legislature rotunda, hosted by Speaker of the House Gene Zwozdesky.

“I was pretty excited to be able to do that,” Paiha said afterward, beaming.

The students mused about a variety of things in their letters to the future — everything from floating cars and flying houses, to teleportation devices that would instantly send us anywhere in the world, discovering intelligent life on other planets.

In her hand-written letter decorated with drawings of a butterfly and flower, nine-year-old Brenna Jolly from Langdon wrote of her hope that the future will have “fewer poor people (and) fewer rich people.”

Earlier this year, Albertans voted for what they thought should be included in the container now buried in the legislature’s cornerstone. The students’ letters proved the most popular item included in the capsule, which will also include a roll of 2012 pennies and a 2012 coin set, newspapers from across the province, photos and a penny from the 1909 time capsule and photos of students from the legislature school program.

Each of the items inside the capsule were carefully preserved, Zwozdesky said, as two legislature pages carefully unveiled the double-walled, stainless steel box that won’t be opened until 2112. When the 1909 time capsule was unearthed in June 2012, many of the items, including newspapers, legislature blueprints and a bible, had degraded significantly because of water damage.

As Zwozdesky led a procession outside the historic building to the capsule’s burial site, he told a tale of a potential second, yet to be unearthed time capsule, hidden somewhere in the legislature by two New York vaudevillians who were working in the province.

“Now whether that’s true or not remains to be seen, I suppose. But whatever it is, and whatever they might have done, ... it’s never been found or seen,” he said, adding a researcher happened upon the story while digging into Alberta’s past in advance of Wednesday’s ceremonies.

The capsule also includes Alberta emblems, First Nations artifacts — including a pair of moccasins, an Inuit soapstone carving of a bear and a Métis sash — along with messages from leaders of the four political parties that make up the province’s legislative assembly. Replicas of some of the items will be on display in the legislature rotunda for the public to view until Oct. 11.

Courtesy:- Edmonton Journal

For more info:- http://www.albertacentennial.ca/timecapsule/default.html

Alberta Time Capsule Tour Route