What a hot find!
A 118-year-old time capsule was discovered last week in an Ohio fire station marked for demolition.
The Marion Fire Department wanted to remove the cornerstone of the building for preservation, so a small group of off-duty firefighters began hammering and chiseling — until they stumbled upon a copper box inside the cornerstone.
Using tin snips at a public unveiling this week, officials found nine turn-of-the-century firefighter badges, a fire department roster from 1905, and four local newspapers from 118 years ago.
The box also held the original lease for the property from Marion Power Shovel to the City of Marion, an 1878 invitation from the Delphos Fire Department for the Northwestern Ohio Volunteer Fireman’s Association Fireman’s Games, and a letter from the fire chief at the time stating that the cornerstone was set on July 20, 1905, among other items.
“What an amazing find! These items will be kept at the Marion County Historical Society while our new Station 1 is constructed and then eventually placed there in a display case,” department officials wrote Wednesday on Facebook.
“That is so awesome,” one local resident commented.
“Y’all should make a time capsule with similar contents. That would be cool,” another recommended.
“Thank you for allowing us to watch! I was surprised there was so much history in that little box,” a third exclaimed.
“Call me a dork. I love this kind of stuff. I’m so glad you were able to share this find with your folks,” someone else gushed.
“It was great being able to watch the opening and reveal of all this outstanding history!” another shared.
“How exciting. Are there plans to put another box in the new facility?” one wondered.
The fire department replied: “There sure is!”
Other century-old time capsules have been unearthed in recent years under a Robert E. Lee statue in Virginia and a former middle school in Massachusetts.
