The City of Prince Rupert has announced plans to develop a time capsule to commemorate the year 2025 and preserve Prince Rupert’s history.
This will mark the second time capsule to be created, with the last being buried by the Junior Chamber of Commerce at Totem Park in 1971.
When it came time to dig up the time capsule in 2009, nearly 40 years after it was buried, the city was not able to find it.
The city even put out an appeal to the public to try to find the capsule.
Even with all the resources that are available, the city was unable to recover the capsule, said Prince Rupert Mayor Herb Pond.
“We know roughly where [the capsule] is. In spite of all the very best efforts and detection devices, we’ve been unable to locate that time capsule, which defeats the purpose.”
Repeating history is not something that the city wants to do, so this time around, the time capsule will be kept at city hall and visible to anyone walking by.
Having the capsule on display will create a sense of anticipation as it gets closer to the date to open it, said Pond.
“People can walk by it in 10, 15 or 20 years and say, we’re getting closer and closer to the day when we can open that up.”
The city is encouraging residents to create their own time capsule and submit a photo of it to be entered into a prize draw at the end of September.
Pond said with everything going on in Prince Rupert, there has never been a better time for a project like this.
“You can go up and down the streets and find different projects, some of the apartment buildings, the new high school, the new daycare. All of these projects are coming out all at once. It seemed like a great time to capture that and then share it with a generation, 50 years from now, just to show them what we were going through at this critical moment.”
