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."
will it be on tv if so where i’m jn nc
“...the contents of a typical woman’s handbag placed in the glove compartment: ... a bottle of tranquilizers,”
A certain Rolling Stones song comes to mind here.
Back in 1957, you could tell the difference between a ‘57 Pontiac and a ‘57 Plymouth Belvedere a mile away.
And I thought Star Wars fans were nuts for waiting in front of a theater for mere weeks!
Oh, and would somebody check to see if he let his visa & passport expire?
I was wondering myself if they knew where it was buried. Or if they had some kind of marker for it
I hate to say this but I think it is ruined.If the water got inside the vault like they are saying its going to be junk.Maybe they should have sealed it better.
Well, supposedly, there is supposed to be some video online here —
I tried it earlier today, but couldn’t get anything. It could have been overloaded, though. They said on the TV News (at noon today) that this online website would have the video for that car. I can’t verify it, though, since I couldn’t get it to work for me.
They’re supposed to have podcasts on it, but I looked and looked and couldn’t find it there. They haven’t made it very clear, if they intended for other people, outside of the area, to see it.
Good luck...
Well, I guess they are going to try to start it. If it will, is another question
Or park it in a garage?
My favorite line in the article. So that is how women of the past kept it all together.....tranquilizers....LOL!!!
Well, there was some kind of stone marker and metal face plate — saying that there was a car buried and a time capsule there, too — but — it wasn’t clear exactly where the actual vault was.
So, they did have people doing some kind of “ground search” trying to locate the vault (some kind of hi-tech equipment involved). It was on the news that they didn’t know exactly where it was at... LOL...
They did get some company (from another state) to wrap it in three layers of some kind of material to seal it up and supposedly protect it. But, it seems to me that no matter how well you wrap something like that, it’s hard to avoid ground water getting into it. The only other way to have done it would have been to have an “above-ground” vault and protected it that way. As it is, it probably rusted quite a bit, I would guess. We’ll know a lot more in the coming days — and especially by 7 PM tonight.
You beat me to it!
That must have cost about $1.99 back then.
If it was a 57 chevy...it would start!! :-) A Plymouth??
@MDASH won the car, doncha know? $mdash qperf!
Is Heraldo Rivera involved in this ?
ping...
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