Much ado about pretty much nothing.
After months of anticipation, a time capsule discovered buried in a Revolutionary War monument from 1828 at West Point was finally opened on Monday – bringing about a somehow disappointing result.
The little lead box had been discovered in May when work was being done on a monument honoring Thaddeus Kosciuszko, a hero of the American Revolution who used to be an officer in the Continental Army and planned fortifications there along the Hudson River.
Rumors about what may be inside the box had been circulating for months. The prestigious military school even used social media to gather guesses, collecting a wide variety of scenarios – from the map to El Dorado to the original recipe for West Point’s corn chowder.
Observed impatiently by leaders, historians, and military cadets, West Point historians gently opened the top of the capsule. What they eventually fond out, however, was that it was essentially empty, except for some dust and mud.
Paul Hudson, an archaeologist at West Point, noticed that the bottom of the box seemed to be deformed and surmised that moisture may have gotten inside.
“We don’t want to think that they went to all the trouble to put this box in the monument and not put anything in it,” he told the crowd. “We’re going to collect all the silt at a later point. We’ll screen it through a fine mesh screen to see if we can find any remains in it and determine what — if anything — was in here.”
For Brig. Gen. Shane Reeves, however, it is not the result that matters but the process. “It’s not really what’s important, what’s in there,” he said before the handlers even opened the box. “But at the end of the day, what this is really about is an opportunity to reflect upon and be inspired by the history I’ve just briefly discussed … and just pause and realize that we have the immense honor and responsibility to continue the legacy that he has started,” he said.
