To mark the recent National Park Service centennial, Fort Vancouver is assembling a time capsule.
You might call it a “there’s still time” capsule: People still have an opportunity to submit their comments, even though the local centennial event was held Aug. 27.
Officials at Fort Vancouver National Historic Site have made their own contributions with centennial commemorative items. They include a bandana, agency badge and pin, as well as printed items such as park brochures, postcards, a proclamation from the Vancouver City Council and a copy of Fort Vancouver Superintendent Tracy Fortmann’s welcoming remarks on Aug. 27.
For public input, response cards have been available for several weeks at the Visitor Center, 1501 E. Evergreen Blvd. (Admission to the Visitor Center is free, by the way.)
“We decided not to seal it” on Aug. 27, said Theresa Langford, museum curator at Fort Vancouver. “A lot of people wanted to fill in a card. We will wait at least a week.”
It’s not like there’s a rush, after all, since the time capsule won’t be opened until 2116. Fort Vancouver officials have posed three questions:
• How do you hope the world will change in the next 100 years?
• What would you tell people of the future about life in 2016?
• What do you think is the greatest achievement of the past 100 years?
Of course, another question always comes into play when we send this sort of message into the future: How will the people of 2116 know they have mail?
The issue popped up a few months ago when people were surprised to come across another time capsule near the visitor center. And it only took 26 years to lose track of it. The plastic tube had been buried in 1989, during the dedication of a monument to three castaway Japanese sailors who landed on the Washington coast in 1834.
“It always makes news when an old one is found,” Langford said. “We talked to a few other parks that are doing time capsules. Most decided to catalogue them into their museum collections so they’re not lost; they’re very trackable.”
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