Unearthing Tulsaâ€™s History

One of the most curious events of Oklahoma's Centennial celebration will be the unearthing of Tulsa's Time capsule that contains a 1957 Plymouth Belvedere. It will all be dug up on June 15, and

Tuesday, April 17th 2007, 5:00 pm

By: News On 6

One of the most curious events of Oklahoma's Centennial celebration will be the unearthing of Tulsa's Time capsule that contains a 1957 Plymouth Belvedere. It will all be dug up on June 15, and The News On 6â€™s Rick Wells reports interest is growing from around the world.

"This gets bigger by the day," said Sharon King Davis.

Sharon King Davis is the Chair of the Tulsa Centennial Committee, which has been planning for the unearthing of the time capsule containing the car for a year and a half.

"There are literally thousands of people coming from all over the world," Davis said.

All the hullabaloo is about a brand new 1957 Plymouth Belvedere, buried back on June 15, 1957, along with a time capsule. It was all part of the state's 50th anniversary, the car and the time capsule have been under the grounds of the Tulsa County Courthouse ever since.

Curious about the condition of the vault, a crew dug down to expose a corner last weekend, just to see.

"What was so exciting Saturday was to see this,â€ said Davis. â€œThere are no cracks anywhere."

So she anticipates the car inside could be in wonderful shape.

Along with the car there were pictures and papers, typical time capsule stuff that would tell Tulsans of the future what it was like in the past.

Tulsa Band leader Clarence Love put a case of beer in the trunk of the Plymouth before it was buried, years later he told interviewers he was curious about his beer.

"I hope my beer's all right, I promised a lot of people I'd give â€˜em a can," Love said in a 1991 interview.

"I don't know what shape they'll be in,â€ Davis said. â€œThat's another of the fascinating questions that we've got, we don't know."

Clarence Love didn't live long enough to see his Schlitz unearthed, but thousand of us will be there to check on both his beer and the Belvedere.

Some lucky Tulsan or a relative will win the car. There was a contest 50 years ago to guess the city's population in 2007. Whatever the Census Bureau says it is, the closest 50 year old guess wins the car.

To view a 1991 Oklahoma Memories story by Jack Frank about the Tulsa time capsule, click here.

To find out more about the time capsule, visit www.buriedcar.com.

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2/15/2007 - Car Show Entries Sought