It was kind of cool when they buried all these 60's and 70's cars under the asphalt, but since then it hasn't been maintained and skateboarders have been skating over them and other stuff... and now it is an eyesore...
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."
I hate to spoil the party, but if there was water in the vault with that car for 50 years, then it wasn’t buried, it was submerged and is now a very soggy, rusty paperweight.
Back then you might not have needed a prescription. By todays laws now the DEA will consider it a felony possession.
Somehow GW will be blamed for burying and digging up this gas guzzling, chrome covered monster of the past. The $2.47 in the purse wont even guy a gallon of gas!
I do hope it runs. Maybe they can auction the car and use proceeds for some local charity?
Yes it would. That is sort of cheating to not let the townsfolk see what it looked like after it came up. Having to pay for a ticket to see it after its been cleaned up sort of takes away the exitement of it.
“Maybe they can auction the car and use proceeds for some local charity?”
Look at the story again - it goes to the contest winner or their heirs. As long as Boyd is there, he can restore it!
It was supposedly examined while it was still in the vault and some expert who restores cars (can’t remember his name) was on the news saying that he was anxious to get it started and running (i.e., the engine) and apparently thought it was possible — by 7 PM tonight. It’s going to be on the news, showing it fully uncovered. We’ll see what condition it’s in and if it actually starts or not.
So, someone who is supposed to apparently know about these things has examined it and says that it’s possible to get it running by tonight. We’ll see...
And, by the way, someone is going to win that car, from an estimate of the population of Tulsa by this year (from 50 years ago). That’s supposed to be revealed tonight, too.
There was another estimate, that I heard on TV, that the car is probably worth at least $25,000 and maybe $50,000. So, we’ll see about that.
It was kind of cool when they buried all these 60's and 70's cars under the asphalt, but since then it hasn't been maintained and skateboarders have been skating over them and other stuff... and now it is an eyesore...
That fact was known ahead of time, before tickets were sold for the event (of the “raising” of the car). So, if someone didn’t want to get a ticket because of that fact, they would have known that ahead of time. Those tickets, by the way, were sold out a long time back. Tonight we’ll see a lot more people involved, at the Convention Center. I’m just going to watch it on TV... :-)
I would like to have that car now.
Can you post us some pics tonight? We would be so greatful. I have been following this story ever since I heard about it. Thanks.
Here are some websites right now that have some pictures..., and quite a few.
http://www.buriedcar.com/
[I think several are submitting pictures here, plus the ones they have...]
http://www.tulsaworld.com/webextra/content/2007/buriedcarunearthed/default.aspx
[some nice older pictures here...]
http://www.oklatravelnet.com/
[don’t know if they have very much here...]
http://www.kotv.com/
[supposed to be live feed to tonight’s event at 7PM, Central Time]
As far as pictures from me, I’m just seeing this stuff on TV... :-)
bttt
ok. thanks. I will go to the links you provided. This is just so fascinating!
Here’s another website I came across...
http://telstarlogistics.typepad.com/telstarlogistics/2007/06/1957_plymouth_t.html
Cool article. My grandfather and his brother owned a junkyard/car repair shop in the Boston area from the 1920s until about 1970. My brother and I happened to go by there last summer and were talking to the current owner of the property. Seems he unearthed a transmission while digging a post hole once, and, while trying to dig another hole to put in a tree, found the hood of a car.
Needless to say, you can imagine what ELSE might still be in the ground there...
Now it may be lost forever!
Ping to self to come check back this evening.
Pontiac Belvedere is very rare.
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