Comments on: To my late father: You better not have guessed 382,457.

To my late father: You better not have guessed 382,457.

dw — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 21:20:51 -0800

Previously on MetaFilter, you remember the Plymouth Belvedere that was buried in a downtown Tulsa time capsule 50 years ago? The Tulsarama! folks were going to unveil it on Friday, but on opening the vault today they discovered it's full of standing water. Someone (or his/her descendant) will win this ~~fine car~~ impending environmental disaster if they correctly guessed Tulsa's 2007 population in 1957.

By: dw

dw — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 21:25:05 -0800

Honestly, I don't know if my 10 year old father threw in an entry, but I totally don't want to win it now.

By: Tube

Tube — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 21:28:31 -0800

Perhaps it should have been entoumbed New Orleans style.

By: puke & cry

puke & cry — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 21:35:31 -0800

So they haven't actually uncovered the car yet? They are still expecting the best for the car because it was greased and wrapped in several layers of plastic and canvas. So if the car is still good, you still have to clean off all the grease.

By: the Real Dan

the Real Dan — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 21:43:38 -0800

In 1957, if you told them that the time capsule was going to be opened by a piece of heavy equipment made in Japan and not a Caterpillar, they would have thought you were a communist.

By: Ironmouth

Ironmouth — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 21:50:32 -0800

Wow. I watched the video and that was the top story in Tulsa.

By: Item

Item — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 21:55:15 -0800

Great comment from the Tulsaworld link: 16. 6/13/2007 12:14:42 PM, Tulsan, Now half the country (and some people in other countries, apparently) will all be watching Tulsa remove a heap of rust and rot from the ground. Great publicity. For once, can't we do something good to attract attention?

By: joelf

joelf — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 22:14:23 -0800

Too bad it wasn't a boat.

By: Heywood Mogroot

Heywood Mogroot — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 22:16:12 -0800

By: The Deej

The Deej — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 22:32:44 -0800

Don't clean the grease! That makes it faster!

By: sourwookie

sourwookie — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 23:20:27 -0800

You mean the Ogallala Aquifer is still viable?!?? Hot Damn!!!

By: spacelux

spacelux — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 23:54:00 -0800

Darn! I was kind of anxious to see the revealing of the car and time capsule... I bet most of the stuff inside of the trunk and/or car got messed up too. So much for large time capsules burried underground. But I still hope something cool might happen.

By: maxwelton

maxwelton — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 00:49:01 -0800

Very long odds on any sort of waterproof covering on an object that large being well-prepared enough to withstand being completely submerged. They should have chosen a Fury...it would rebuild itself.

By: anthill

anthill — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 04:50:31 -0800

I bet Tulsa's nuclear waste storage from the 1950s is doing great... just don't open the lid.

By: tommasz

tommasz — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 05:35:23 -0800

It could be a Belvedere, it could be a pile of rust, it's Schrödinger's car!!!!

By: Spatch

Spatch — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 06:35:40 -0800

Watching the equipment clear out industrial archaeological dig site reminded me of David Macaulay's brilliant Motel of the Mysteries, a tale of archaeological speculation (and parody of the Tutankhamen hysteria.) If you haven't read the book, you should. It's a lovely piece. A 1980s-era motel is accidentally unearthed in the year 4022 and the dig team gets to piece together theories as to the meaning behind the rows of identical-looking tombs, the television-shaped shrine where offerings were left, and the porcelain fonts to which people must have prayed "in song." I only wish someone in 4022 could have dug up this Plymouth, and had the wonderful opportunity of trying to determine what this piece of tarp-and-grease-covered machinery was doing submerged in a pit full of water.

By: sy

sy — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 09:36:07 -0800

Anthill, you beat me to thinking immediately about all the geniuses who were burying nuclear waste fifty years ago.

By: winks007

winks007 — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 09:45:07 -0800

I'd take it water and all. My dad had a 66 Belvedere. Raced it at LaPlace Raceways in the late 60's and early 70's. Where I live we bury alot of the dead above ground to prevent just this sort of thing from occuring.

By: stbalbach

stbalbach — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 10:11:46 -0800

A WWII tank was recovered from a lake recently in pretty condition. But I think it was submerged in mud and so no oxygen. A lesson for future vaults.

By: Smedleyman

Smedleyman — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 12:16:48 -0800

So uh, where are the keys?

By: Pollomacho

Pollomacho — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 12:40:03 -0800

I bought a rifle from Russia that had been packed in a tube full of grease since 1943. Once the grease was all cleaned out there was no sign of age, and that was WWII era USSR grease and 50 years of storage in some Russian warehouse as opposed to good old American grease in an all American vault!

By: dw

dw — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 16:42:47 -0800

Wow. I watched the video and that was the top story in Tulsa. That TV station has exclusive rights to the event, so that biases things a bit. OTOH, not a whole hell of a lot going on in Tulsa right now. There's a reason they call it the Detroit of the Southwest. Good news today: The tailfins look to be in good condition. They're showing the unveiling tomorrow online at 12pm CDT.

By: dw

dw — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 20:48:54 -0800

And the verdict is... rustbucket.

By: litlnemo

litlnemo — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 21:46:46 -0800

Aw.

By: spacelux

spacelux — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 23:31:56 -0800

There are some good pictures on flickr.

By: dw

dw — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 23:47:00 -0800

The consolation prize, though, is the time capsule itself held. They extracted the yearbooks and the American flag, all in pristine condition. The capsule was a double-hulled steel container. Now, why didn't they think of doing that instead of using concrete?

By: The Deej

The Deej — Sat, 16 Jun 2007 11:41:12 -0800

"Don't be disheartened by the rust on the covering... that's not the car, it's just rust that has accumulated on the covering..... oh shit."

By: dw

dw — Sat, 16 Jun 2007 22:33:28 -0800

My brother got some pictures today.

By: spacelux

spacelux — Sun, 17 Jun 2007 01:11:58 -0800

Nice pics dw. Thanks!