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National Guardsmen discover 113-year-old time capsule in wall of armory

Posted at 4:09 PM, Jul 12, 2013
and last updated 2013-07-12 16:32:23-04

Scranton, Pa. – Members of the Pennsylvania National Guard made a remarkable discovery  in Scranton Wednesday: A time capsule buried in the wall of their old armory that hasn’t seen the light of day in more than a century.

And it could have gone unnoticed if the commander’s Google search hadn’t led him there, according to WNEP.

Colonel Michael A. Konzman thought he knew every corner of the old Watres Armory in Scranton. So imagine his surprise when a Google search found information that a time capsule was buried in its cornerstone. And his worry when soldiers spent four hours trying to get it out.

“My biggest fear was that we were going to have a Geraldo Rivera moment, and open it up and find nothing in it, or water had gotten into it and all the papers were rotted and we’d have a black mess,” Col. Konzman said.

But the copper capsule held up well since it was placed there when the armory was being built in 1900. So Col. Konzman’s lucky hunch turned into an archaeological dig of sorts. Soldiers sifted through documents, books, and newspapers more than a century old.

Read more about what the guardsmen found on WNEP.