Posted on 06/15/2007 12:26:27 PM PDT by Kaslin
TULSA, Okla. - Hundreds watched Friday as a crane lifted a muddy package from a hole in the courthouse lawn: a 1957 Plymouth Belvedere buried to celebrate Oklahoma's 50 years of statehood.
The wrapped car — a gold and white two-door hardtop — appeared brown and red as it came out of the hole, but it was unclear whether the color represented dirt or rust. A bit of shiny chrome was visible on the bumper.
The car spent the last half-century covered in three layers of protective material and encased in a 12-by-20-foot concrete vault, supposedly tough enough to withstand a nuclear attack.
But event officials already had to pump out several feet of water from its crypt.
The car was placed on a flatbed truck so it could be unwrapped, spruced up and officially unveiled Friday evening at the Tulsa Convention Center. Spectators packed the streets to glimpse its journey.
Whether the car will start was unknown. Those who gathered to watch it being pulled out of the ground did not seem to care.
"I just need to see it," said Marc Montague of Auckland, New Zealand, among the couple hundred spectators amassed at the downtown site Thursday afternoon. "I've been waiting 15 years for this."
Also buried with it were 10 gallons of gasoline — in case internal combustion engines became obsolete by 2007 — a case of beer, and the contents of a typical woman's handbag placed in the glove compartment: 14 bobby pins, a bottle of tranquilizers, a lipstick, a pack of gum, tissues, a pack of cigarettes, matches and $2.43.
There was also a spool of microfilm that recorded the entries of a contest to determine who would win the car: the person who guessed the closest of what Tulsa's population would be in 2007 — 382,457 — would win.
That person, or his or her heirs, will get the car and a $100 savings account, worth about $1,200 today with interest.
Thursday afternoon, legendary hot rod builder Boyd Coddington inspected the vault and what he was able to see of the car with his crew.
The task will fall to Coddington, host of the TV series American Hot Rod on The Learning Channel, to try to start the thing up at a ceremony Thursday evening. Tens of thousands of tickets were sold for the event.
"We're optimistic," Coddington said. "I'm really concerned about the rust on the bottom of the car."
Back on the day the Belvedere was buried, all Bixby resident Marlene Parker wanted to do was find a photographer for her wedding. Catching a glimpse of the car being lowered into the ground was the last thing on her priority list.
Unfortunately, not for the photographer: He was shooting the burial.
This weekend, the 70-year-old will celebrate 50 years of marriage and may come downtown to see what all the fuss was about back then.
"Probably across the pond people know about it," Parker said. "If nobody knew where Tulsa, Oklahoma was before, they do now."
Uh-oh... someone opened a can of beer... LOL...
Still trying to get the door open, the window is open but the door is not yet...
They’re looking for the microfilm that was left in there, because it has the contestants for what the population of Tulsa was going to be in 2007. Whoever gets the number right (from back then), gets the car...
Saran Wrap and waxed paper! (It ain't gonna start Jim.)
Saran Wrap and waxed paper! (It's not gonna start Jim.)
There's salvage yards all over Arizona filled with incomparably better examples than that car from the same time period that were just left out in the open dry desert air.
Oh well. What a disappointment.
They’ve got a “time capsule” that was buried along with the car in the “vault”. There are all sorts of documents in the “tank”. It’s some kind of tank, supplied by a boiler manufacture, I think..., so the contents are probably preserved a bit better than the car...
They’re opening it up now..., cutting through it...
They’ve found the contents of the “time capsule” all preserved perfectly. A “United States 46-star flag” is preserved inside...
wow im watching this - an old flag
That is sad. We just didn’t have the material to contain it back then, I guess.
:-(
The crypt should have been completely waterproof
It's really their dumb mistake. Back in '57 they probably didn't even think there would BE an America in 2007 much less anyone alive and around to open the vault.
The emcee called it a 46-star flag!
Commercial break right now..., the “time capsule” looks like a small tank, which was completely sealed (supplied by a boiler manufacturer, I believe), and everything in there is perfectly preserved. They’ve got all sorts of old documents, like a city map, a school yearbook from some local school.
They’re showing an original postcard which was mailed in for the contest of guessing the population of Tulsa in 2007 (from that time of 1957).
382,000 is the official population that is going to be used for the contest, as to who is going to win the car.... (established from the U.S. government census data, I believe they said...).
Yep, I remember when we went to 49 and 50 states... back when I was a kid...
I notice that the Egyptians can seal a vault with 5,500 year old technology, but Tulsans can’t even manage 50 years. ;-)
They’re going to get the Tulsa Historical Society gather up the postcards for the guesses of the population of Tulsa in 2007 and allow them to find the winner. I’m not sure how long that is going to take. They haven’t found the microfilm yet, that has the guesses.
The contents of the car does not go with the winner, they just made a point of this...
Next Friday, they will announce the winner. If the winner does not come forward in five years, after that announcement, then I guess the winner forfeits winning the car. It would be the actual person or their heirs, who can come forward.
Where’s Geraldo?
Looks like they found the “purse” (a really “ratty” looking thing...). The mayor asks, “Did anybody lose a purse?” LOL...
They’re looking at the white-sidewall tires and reading the names that were written on those white sidewall.
They found a “lighter”... (from the contents of the purse, perhaps)....
Where are the keys to the car? Are they in the ignition...? They think the key is still in the ignition, but they can’t get it out...
Some of the guys are polishing off the chrome bumper..., at least the chrome is still capable of being polished up...
No water in the god-forsaken dry environment. I would imagine they wouldn’t even have to wrap that 1957 Plymouth Belvedere and it would be intact... It would probably even start up right now... in Egypt...
A newspaper pulled out of the “time capsule”.... said something about S&H Green Stamps....
Ahhh..., they found the “guesses”.... for the population of Tulsa... They found one guess close to the current population but they’re not going any further and not saying anything about the rest of the guesses (until they verify it for sure...).
Just reading the newspaper of the day, comparing it today’s papers....
Where does “Miss Belvedere” go next? It’s going to a car show (apparently left as it is and not clean up, I guess...)...
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