1957 Plymouth buried as a time capsule for 50 years! Unveiling in 2007!

allpar.com ^ | March 20, 2007 | Robert Earl Lauer

[decimon]

June 1957 – Residents of Tulsa, Oklahoma are enjoying their city’s anniversary, called “Tulsarama!” Most every city around the country enjoys parties; it’s a big tradition throughout the United States.

Tulsa representatives decided they needed something unique and different in order to compete with Oklahoma City. They decided to entomb an automobile in a time capsule, using a 1957 Plymouth Belvedere as the car of choice.

[OKSooner]

OMG... I'm embarrassed. A bunch of Okies buried something below ground level in EASTERN OKLAHOMA and didn't put in a couple of sump pumps, and a simple float-operated gauge to tell the water level inside?

They had to have been Republicans to be that stupid.

[2Jedismom]

Thank you!

My understanding is that the car is wrapped in several protective layers...maybe it’ll be ok, but water in the vault is worrisome.

[2Jedismom]

I hope, with the emphesis on “hope” to get close enough to walk down there with the boys today or tomorrow...but I don’t have much hope of getting down there on Friday.

Either way, my youngest son is a member of the Oklahoma Route 66 Association and he’s working a booth...I imagine we’ll get to see it indoors eventually anyway.

[Red Badger]

Does anybody know what color it is?........All the pics are BW.......

[2Jedismom]

I think it’s gold.

[2Jedismom]

Didn’t they almost forget all about it? I thought I heard that somewhere. Started to build stuff on top of it!

Can’t remember where I heard that though...

[Red Badger]

Regardless of the condition of the car, who or what organization gets it? Does the city keep it?.......or does it belong to somebody or their heirs?........

[2Jedismom]

I think it’s the person (or their heirs) that came closest to guessing the population of Tulsa in 2007.

[Red Badger]

The video shows that it was wrapped up and sprayed with Gunite, so it may be okay, regardless of the water...........

[uglybiker]

There’s two listed at the link you posted.

[xp38]

Maybe it’s just me but I don’t think burying a car helps preserve it very well. Also the Plymouth brand is now part of the past and no longer made.

[2Jedismom]

I think they’re going to show it live when they actually pull it out. I want to see what they’re doing right now!

;-)

I am really anxious about driving in to town to see, because of the street flooding that’s been going on. But, the radar looks like the rain has cleared.

We’re going! Will check in later.

[Dick Bachert]

Memories!

I drove a new one of those to deliver drugs (for an ethical pharmacy, NOT the Columbians).

It had the cool pushbutton shift panel to the left of the wheel. If you revved her up and pushed “D,” you could get some MAJOR rubber. Glad it belonged to the store. :-))

[OKSooner]

Yeah, I'd heard the same thing. Horrible embarrassment that something that could have been so cool would turn out to be ruined by something that we all know about around here.

At least two sump pumps, and a vent of some kind controlled by a humidstat. Easy for me to say in hindsight, I suppose...

I know that the water table at 6th and Utica is about 2 feet deep. Oh well...

[decimon]

Thanks for the ping. This is certainly more important than anything that’s in the news. :-)

[Kirkwood]

My neighbor who was also my 3rd and 4th grade teacher (it was a 4 room schoolhouse) used to have 2 of these! The first one was yellow and the second one was green. I did get to ride in it once and it was fascinating to me at the time to see a push button tranny. I wanted the yellow one when she got the green one to replace it, because I thought I could fix it up into a sort of batmobile (this was mid-60s). But the engine was shot and it was parked in the woods to rust. Both are probably still there as piles of rust.

[RckyRaCoCo]

Thanks for the ping...hope there’s till something that resembles a car, still looks like a fun event though.

[Osage Orange]

Sorry to say...but if I know Tulsa....this will be a joke.

[the OlLine Rebel]

Thanks. Luckily I remembered all on my own over the weekend, and checked on the website. Funny I was thinking it could be July, but maybe June (JUxx month, anyway). Glad I remembered before this Friday!

[the OlLine Rebel]

That doesn’t make any difference; the car is 50 years old anyway. Any car nut will take it and restore it.

The car is in a vault. Not sure all the prep done for it, but it’s not just dirt. Even if it was, you’d be surprised how well things like this can hold up truly buried.