A time capsule buried by Chugiak High School's class of 1976 will be opened on Friday, revealing secrets sealed 50 years ago.
CHUGIAK, Alaska - A rusted, mud-covered time capsule buried by Chugiak High School ’s class of 1976 will be opened Friday, revealing secrets sealed 50 years ago.
“50 years ago they had a teacher named Andy Kirk who was very inspirational and their class together put together this, and it’s been sitting in the memorial Andy Kirk courtyard underneath 6, a bunch of concrete, waiting for the night class of 1976 to have a 50th year reunion with the intent to open it,” Megan Hatswell, Chugiak High School principal, said. The decades-long time capsule was removed from the high school courtyard after it was buried in the 1980s.
The contents inside have been sealed tightly away since 1976.
“We definitely like to preserve the history of our community,” Hatswell said. “Based on the difficulty of getting it out, I am wondering if there are state or national secrets buried in there. ” The contents inside remain a mystery, even for Hatswell, who graduated from Chugiak High School in 1998. She told Alaska’s News Source she remembers the time capsule being in the ground when she attended high school.
“I don’t know that we really talked about it, but we walked by it all of the time, and we walked over it and through it, and it was always just something that was in the courtyard,” Hatswell said. It was not until this school year, though, Hatswell said, that she started getting calls from the class of 1976 asking what the plan was regarding opening up the time capsule.
According to old yearbook passages describing the time capsule, it was meant to be part of the bicentennial.
“The time capsule was important in making the students and the community members more aware of their own future in connection with our country’s 200th anniversary,” Hatswell read from an old yearbook. On Friday, the community will welcome back the class of 1976 and give the class the opportunity to open their time capsule for the first time since it’s been sealed.
“We wanted to do a preview and take a peek to make sure everything was still intact, but in honor of the class of ‘76, it is their time capsule, we want to give them the opportunity to open it themselves and share with all of us to see if they remember what they entered in the ground 50 years ago,” Hatswell said. As the class of 1976’s capsule is set to open on Friday, current seniors are also leaving their own mark.
This week, they painted their senior bricks, one of their last messages to their school as a class. The class of 2026 will bury their own time capsule to be opened in 50 years.
“They will be bringing the items that they themselves want to place in the new time capsule,” Hatswell said. Plane crashes near Knik Glacier, pilot seriously injuredAnchorage woman appears in court on murder charge in mother’s death‘It’s a calling’: 70 UAA students earn nursing degrees days before National Nurse WeekAnchorage florists prepare for Mother’s Day rush as shipping costs rise1 in 5 Alaska kids face food insecurity; Food Bank urges summer support
Time Capsule Chugiak High School Class Of 1976 Andy Kirk Memorial Courtyard Preserve History State Secrets
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