Lebanon rescues 1976 time capsule’s treasures, will display them until 2076

Fifty years after the city’s Bicentennial Committee sealed away pieces of Lebanon’s story, residents got their first look at those treasures Monday evening, thanks to a rescue effort by city officials and the Lebanon County Historical Society.

The capsule, buried at the base of the Liberty Pole in Coleman Memorial Park on June 9, 1976, during the nation’s 200th birthday celebration, was unearthed July 1 and its contents unveiled Monday at Lebanon City Hall as part of the city’s semiquincentennial festivities.

Getting inside took some doing. The capsule — a heavy-duty safe built to be set in concrete — emerged from the ground in remarkably good condition, Mayor Sherry Capello said, but its dial mechanism had seized after five decades underground. A technician from Reed’s Lock & Access Control of Annville made a precise cut below the locking mechanism that left the contents untouched, workmanship Capello called “nothing short of exceptional.”

Inside, officials discovered that moisture had seeped in over the decades, affecting most of the items — a common fate for buried time capsules, according to the historical society. Determined to save the collection, Capello and her son James Capello worked alongside historical society archivist Shane Keenan to carefully separate, dry, and stabilize each item.

“It sounds like they did everything they could in 1976 to make sure it was sealed, but when a capsule’s buried in the ground like that, there’s only so much you can do,” said Keenan.

The effort paid off. Many of the contents were preserved and displayed Monday, including letters from community leaders, maps, a $2 bill, a bicentennial wooden nickel, pins, a city seal, and a copy of the Declaration of Independence bearing a rededication clause signed by 1,500 residents. Of three bound volumes that couldn’t be saved, the historical society has already tracked down replacements for some.

“I do want to thank the mayor and her team for the miraculous job they did in preserving what they could that came out of the time capsule,” county commissioner Mike Kuhn said.

The recovery also prompted a change of plans. Rather than rebury the materials and risk a repeat in another 50 years, the city will display the original capsule and a new 2026 capsule — painted by local artist Andrew Zidik with this year’s theme, “Bridging Three Generations” — together in a secure, climate-protected glass enclosure, sealed until the nation’s tricentennial in 2076.

Capello said the decision honors the spirit, if not the letter, of the committee’s wishes.

“Their goal was never simply to bury a container. Their goal was to pass forward the story of Lebanon,” she said. “History has given us a different path than the one imagined in 1976, but it has also given us an opportunity to preserve these memories in a way that will allow future generations to experience them for many decades to come.”

Fred Daubert, the last surviving member of the Bicentennial Committee, joined Capello and Keenan at the event, where county commissioners Kuhn and Jo Ellen Litz presented him with a certificate of appreciation. Guests browsed the artifacts alongside items from Daubert’s personal 1976 collection and listened as Capello played a cassette recording of legendary WLBR radio personality Henry Homan documenting the capsule’s burial.

In an echo of 1976, guests signed their own pledges of “rededication to the Declaration of Independence” — documents that will wait, safely above ground this time, for America’s 300th anniversary in 2076.