Sask. village’s 50-year-old time capsule vanishes

A community celebration to open up a 50-year-old time capsule didn’t go to plan in the village of Alvena.

Mayor Ernie Sawitsky went to the stone cairn meant to mark its spot at Alvena Lake a few days before the June 23 event and discovered the time capsule was not inside.

“We were told that there was one rock that you must take out and behind that rock was a cavern that had all the memorabilia,” Sawitsky told 650 CKOM.

“We chipped away at it and chipped away at it and we weren’t getting anywhere.”

The group tried a metal detector before Sawitsky got a backhoe.

The only thing they found inside the cairn was a glass jar with a metal lid.

Instead of the notes, coins and keepsakes that were supposed to be tucked away in the time capsule, all that was found inside the jar was some village and R.M. paperwork from 1968.

“There is no vault, there is no memorabilia it’s just non-existent,” Sawitsky said. “It was a huge disappointment.”

On June 23 he had to tell a crowd of around 300 people that the time capsule was gone.

The Alvena resident of 30 years called it embarrassing, especially after people had travelled back to the community to see items they’d left inside it.

“We were hoping at the last moment someone would pull a fast one on us and walk into the hall with all the stuff, but that didn’t happen.”

Sawitsky said there is already a plan to start a new time capsule tradition.

Council has decided to build a new cairn in the community’s park with a time capsule inside that will be opened every 25 years.

With no sign of the original 1968 capsule, Sawitsky said they’ll include the glass jar and the paperwork in the new one set to be complete in 2019.