In 1975, They Sealed a Brand-New Car as a Time Capsule—50 Years Later, It Resurfaces, and the Problems Did Too

Sealed beneath a pyramid for 50 years, a forgotten American car has just been unearthed—and it’s nothing like what experts expected. Once mocked, this buried relic has stunned a small town and reignited a national obsession.

On Independence Day 2025, a sealed concrete vault beneath a small-town pyramid in Seward, Nebraska opened to reveal an unexpected relic: a 1975 Chevrolet Vega, untouched for 50 years and preserved in striking condition. The unveiling drew thousands, offering a rare collision of automotive history, American nostalgia, and small-town spectacle.

The car emerged from what is now being recognized as the largest time capsule in the world, originally constructed by local businessman Harold Davisson. Enclosed within the vault was not just the Vega, but a Kawasaki motorcycle, 1970s consumer goods, handwritten letters, toys, and other period ephemera meant to capture daily American life in 1975.

The event has since sparked a spike in online searches for the Chevy Vega and the Seward time capsule, reflecting a renewed public curiosity around forgotten vehicles and long-term preservation. For a car once ridiculed for poor quality, its resurrection now raises a very different question: What survives when a product outlives its reputation?

A Notorious Model, Unexpectedly Preserved When the Chevrolet Vega was released, it was meant to signal a bold new era for General Motors. Instead, it became infamous for engine problems, corrosion, and manufacturing shortcuts, particularly with its aluminum block and unlined cylinder bores. The car quickly fell out of favor and onto “worst cars” lists across the automotive press.

The bright yellow 1975 Vega, sealed in a climate-stable chamber since the country’s Bicentennial era, emerged with zero miles on the odometer, a nearly immaculate interior, and only light rust on the hood. In an interview with KETV Omaha, Trish Davisson Johnson, the daughter of the capsule’s creator, said, “It was unbelievable to me that after 50 years, the colors were that bright and that the whole car was in that good of shape.”

Brief footage shared by GM Authority shows the Vega as a two-door notchback with a brown interior and a 4-speed manual transmission. Its base engine in 1975, the 2.3L I4 L13, delivered 78 horsepower—though it’s still unclear which version sits in this particular vehicle. More remarkable is that, once pulled from the vault, the car was started and driven in Seward’s July 4th parade, completing a symbolic journey from cold storage into American roads once again.

Beyond the car, the capsule contained over 5,000 objects from 1975, intended to reflect the “everyday American experience.” Items ranged from cassette tapes and Pet Rocks to a Teflon frying pan and a 1975 Barbie doll. The vault, buried under a concrete pyramid behind Davisson’s former furniture store, was meant to be a lasting monument to the era.

KLKN-TV Lincoln reported that while most items remained intact, some paper documents showed signs of water damage. Complicating the retrieval, the original inventory list was lost in 1991, and a box of ownership receipts was stolen in the late 1990s. Without this documentation, efforts to return certain items to original contributors or their families have become difficult.

The motorcycle stored alongside the Vega—a blue Kawasaki enduro—also emerged in surprisingly good condition, further validating the capsule’s engineering design. In fact, this attention to durability may be what sets the Seward time capsule apart from similar efforts.

In 2007, Tulsa, Oklahoma unearthed a 1957 Plymouth Belvedere buried for 50 years, only to discover it had been completely compromised by water. That failed preservation effort has since become a cautionary tale in the time capsule community—one that makes Seward’s outcome all the more exceptional.

Since the unsealing, the Vega has triggered a surge in online interest, with search traffic for “Chevrolet Vega” spiking sharply over the summer, as shown in Google Trends. On platforms like YouTube and Reddit, footage of the car’s reveal has gone viral, with users debating whether the Vega deserves reconsideration in light of its well-preserved condition.

That momentum has made Seward’s time capsule a case study in unintentional branding. A vehicle once dismissed for its flaws is now the centerpiece of an event drawing national media, heritage enthusiasts, and even automotive historians.

Whether the Vega will be displayed in a museum, restored, or kept in occasional driving condition remains unclear. For now, the car is being housed near Davisson’s former storefront while preservation experts weigh next steps.

Of possible interest, but for documentation purposes at minimum. YMMV, but how often do you see a fallen nun along the roadside of America, marking a grave that became an empty tomb?

The solar apex, or the apex of the Sun's way, refers to the direction that the Sun travels with respect to the local standard of rest...
The solar apex is in the constellation of Hercules near the star Vega.[1]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_apex

Know your surnames!

Re Harold Keith Davisson --

Did he consult with the local mekubalim for designing and expanding his "world's largest time capsule", you think? Vega (α Lyrae) is the Weaver Girl. (KPSI)

Considering all of the related signage that came to me yesterday (and I only became aware of this time capsule and Daily Galaxy article today here on FR), I really don't think so.

Brandon in Galaxy Quest had been snubbed and treated with abject contempt, but when a mighty rescue was desperately needed, he was the one with the power of knowledge to effect a great deliverance.

It's like that.

After seeing this article, I searched FR for various title words to see if this had been reported here back in July. I couldn't find one, but oddly on July 5th was an article that pinged on my "capsule" search word. It had to do with a "Mission Possible" capsule on its "Perseverance Flight":

and receive their returned flight capsule as a celestial keepsake --

Space capsule carrying ashes of 166 people - and cannabis seeds - lost after crashing into Pacific Ocean

***

Sealed beneath a pyramid for 50 years, a forgotten American car has just been unearthed -- and it's nothing like what experts expected. Once mocked, this buried relic has stunned a small town and reignited a national obsession.

Maybe Vega is like the Messiah -- not just a leper in a state of isolation, but paradoxically considered to be the only Stradivarius in existence in as "new" state.

(Stradivarius, 5 stars!)

The wall art inside the capsule certainly is interesting.

On the wall in front of the Vega is the Camp Fire Girls emblem.
On the back wall is the word from Boy Scout Troup 256. It's not just that one byte [בית, house] can represent 256 distinct values (0-255)...

I've compared many photos and videos. The tomb needs to be empty in order to read the whole message:

TROUP
256
BOY SCOUT
MOTTO
BE PREPARED
SLOGAN
DO A GOOD TURN DAILY

Concerning T'chiyat HaMeitim (תְּחִיַּת הַמֵּתִים), "revival/resurrection of the dead"...

There's a peculiar detail in the first photo from the Daily Galaxy. It's the license plate. It appears to be a hand-written 423, when it should be a "2025" Bicentennial (200) plate.

Then and now on one page. 2025.

Why was that 423 placed there? In any case, we know Who writes the script. There's that large Sigma-like statue next to the pyramid. It was added sometime in the 80s.

Random number?

Σ (=200) is for summation, so here's the math:

2025 + 423 = 2448

423
מִפְגָּשׁ mifgash -- meeting, gathering, reunion; meeting place, venue; intersection, junction, crossing
תְּחִיָּה Techiya -- revival/girl's name
השינה הגדולה The Big Sleep
Gordon Lightfoot [גורדון לייטפוט]

Gordon Lightfoot???

It's so nice to meet an old friend and pass the time of day
And talk about the hometown a million miles away...
Is the home team still on fire? Do they still win all the games? (SEWARD BLUEJAYS WIN AGAIN, time capsule wall art seen in this article)

Is the landlord still a loser? Do his signs hang in the hall?
Are the young girls still as pretty in the city in the fall?...

Is the old roof still leaking when the late snow turns to rain?...
And looking at the rain, do you remember if she dropped a name or two?
Won't you say hello from someone? They'll be no need to explain
And by the way, did she mention my name?
Did She Mention My Name

Deneb -- the third star of the Summer Triangle -- represents the magpie bridge for the pair of lovers to cross the river (the Milky Way galaxy) to meet on July 7th.

"It is said that if it rains on Tanabata, the magpies cannot come because of the rise of the river and the two lovers must wait until another year to meet. The rain of this day is called "The tears of Orihime and Hikoboshi"."

On Independence Day 2025, a sealed concrete vault beneath a small-town pyramid in Seward, Nebraska opened to reveal an unexpected relic: a 1975 Chevrolet Vega, untouched for 50 years and preserved in striking condition.

50, the value of the letter nun:

In Aramaic, nun means a fish. Another meaning of nun is a bar nafli, one who has fallen, or a miscarriage. In the Torah portion entitled Balak,¹⁸ the prophet Bilaam prophesied the coming of two kings. The first one is King David. The second is King Moshiach, who will rise from David's descendants in the final days.
https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/137086/jewish/Nun.htm

Where would we all be without the fishing industry?

Seward = "sea guard", the city 's namesake being the Seward of Seward's Folly -- Alaska, the state that is America's crown*, geographically and visually (cf. Calvin Coolidge at the tip of the hat, a gesture of acknowledgement).

The City of Seward continues on with the tradition of celebrating the Fourth of July. In fact, in a proclamation signed by Governor J. James Exon on March 27, 1973, the City of Seward was proclaimed to be "Nebraska's Fourth of July City"; and on May 20, 1979, Senator Edward Zorinsky proclaimed the City of Seward to be "National Fourth of July City - Small Town U.S.A."
https://cityofsewardne.gov/history-of-seward/

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_official_symbol_and_slogan_for_the_State_of_Nebraska.jpg

Rabbi Yochanan asked: Why does Psalm 145 lack a verse with a nun? Because that verse alludes to the downfall of (lit., the enemies of)[3] Israel, as it says: "Fallen, she will rise no more, the virgin of Israel" (Amos 5:2; the verse continues "She is cast out over her land, none can raise her up"). In the West (i.e., Israel, by placing the comma differently)[4] they read the verse thus: "Fallen, (and) she will not (continue to) fall any more, rise O virgin of Israel". Said Rabbi Nachman the son of Isaac: Even so, David prophetically alluded to this [missing] verse with the next verse [following]: "God supports all of "the fallen".
https://seforimblog.com/2022/02/the-missing-nun-verse-in-ashrei/

"Help me -- I've fallen and I can't get up." ~ the letter nun נ:

Your Ticket to an Unforgettable Road Trip Memory

Like David and zahav, gold (and 50th anniversaries are golden), Vega = 14 (the ordinal value of the nun)

וֶגָה f.n. FW Vega (the brightest star in the constellation Syra). [From Med. L. Vega, from Arab. ( an-nasr) al-wāqi (= the falling vulture), compounded of al (= the) and p. part. of wa-qa‘a (= he fell), which is related to BH יָקַע (= was dislocated). See יקע ᴵ.]
Klein's

Vega became the first star to have a car named after it with the French Facel Vega line of cars from 1954 onwards, and later on, in America, Chevrolet launched the Vega in 1971.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vega#Etymology_and_cultural_significance

Back in 1975, Davisson wasn't content with simply writing letters to the future, he wanted his grandchildren to experience his world firsthand, convinced that "reading a book was not as good as seeing and touching."
>>>
When Guinness World Records certified it as the world's largest time capsule in 1977, a dispute arose with Georgia's Oglethorpe University. Davisson's response? Build an even bigger one. In 1983, he constructed a second time capsule directly over the first, encased in a concrete pyramid that still dominates his furniture store's front lawn today.
Meet the Visionary Who Made Time Travel Possible

Davisson's pyramid plaque with the fallen nun shows that the Corolla had been placed in the pyramid, on top of the fallen, disgraced "POS" Vega (just read the thread comments!).

*corolla = "little crown"

Toyota Corolla
As mentioned above, Toyota chose the name "Corolla" in keeping with the "crown" associated naming tradition, corolla being the Latin term for the crowning portion of a flower. According to Toyota's own website, the name was chosen by the product planning division in the hope that the new car would bloom in the overseas automotive market. Bloom it did and is still doing so today, now in its 11th incarnation.
https://www.millertoyota.com/different-toyota-model-names-mean/

It's not the first time we've encountered a fallen nun on a harp/lyra (Vega is α Lyrae) with a corolla on top:

The seal's lyre motif was believed to be the most accurate depiction of the famous lyre of the Bible, the instrument strummed by King David.
>>>
The lyre icon resonated with Israelis: It recalled King David's harp. The biblical lyre is not at all a harp -- that was a mistranslation -- but no matter; Israel hosts an international harp contest inspired by the story of King David, and David's harps are sold as souvenirs in Jerusalem.
What If an Israeli National Symbol Is a Fake?

What if it's not?

2024:

"We are opening the pyramids this year, the pyramid this year because we can't figure out how to get the capsule open with the pyramid on top," said Trish Johnson.
https://www.ketv.com/article/seward-opens-pyramid-that-guards-worlds-largest-time-capsule/61512145

As time revealed, the Davissons succeeded not many days after the fall of the 166 "Mission Possible" souls on their Perseverance Flight.

166₁₆ = 358₁₀

"היה נכון"

That's correct. Cross those Ts:

166, decimal 358:

LATIN CAPITAL LETTER T WITH STROKE

(preserved in striking condition)

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.