Somerton time capsule to be opened

It's said that wine improves with age, but does that apply to brandy as well?

Somerton officials may find out during the Somerton Greater Days celebration Saturday when they dig up and open a time capsule buried in concrete in 1985.

One of the contents is a bottle of brandy from Mexico that has remained sealed all these years and presumably is ready to be savored - unless they decide to put the bottle in a new time capsule the city plans to bury for another quarter-century.

The original capsule was a metal canister in which city employees and residents had placed mementos from that era, among them personal letters from residents, city documents and photographs.

In an interview in 1985, then-City Administrator Marshall Bingham explained that the time capsule was an idea he had borrowed from other communities that wanted to provide a way for their residents to communicate with future generations.

"The common man just wants immortality," he said at the time, "and that can be done by leaving behind mementos from one's own era for residents who follow.

"You are reaching out to people in the future. This is a way to say to mankind, 'You are part of the community,'" said Bingham, who died in 1987.

The capsule was encased in concrete along Somerton's Main Street with instructions that it not be retrieved and opened until 2010. City officials today have decided to open it on the occasion of Saturday's annual celebration of Somerton's 1898 founding.

The opening is scheduled to take place at about 11 a.m. after the traditional Greater Days parade ends up near the site of the capsule, on the north side of Main between State and Somerton avenues, said city Parks and Recreation Director Louie Galaviz.

Among those who plan to be present for the unveiling are Francisco Soto, a public works supervisor for the city, and four surviving members of the city council in 1985 that approved the capsule idea: Sam Colton, Linda Contreras, Reed Kempton and Jay Vance.

Soto, then a public works employee, helped bury the capsule, but not before he and a co-worker split the cost of the bottle of brandy and placed it inside.

Soto said he and the co-worker had speculated that bottle might be of increased monetary value at the time of the capsule's opening if, in the meantime, the brandy maker were to go out of the business.

He doesn't remember which of two brands he and his friend bought — either El Presidente or Viejo Vergel, both of which remain on store shelves today.

The co-worker has since passed away, but Soto says he doesn't plan on claiming the bottle Saturday. He prefers that it be placed in a new canister the city plans to bury in October.

"Then it's going to be 50 years old," he said.

Soto said some photographs of the city and a booklet about Somerton's municipal government were also placed in capsule, but after a quarter-century, neither he nor Kempton recall many of the other contents.

"I know we put in some papers and some documents and I don't know what else," said Kempton. "I don't think we put anything of earthly value in it."

Galaviz said city officials are considering putting the contents of the capsule on display at City Hall or the Parks and Recreation Department after Saturday's opening.

In the new capsule scheduled to be buried in October in Sanguinetti Park, Galaviz would like to include letters written by current Somerton elementary school students to one another. The plan is to bring them together to read those letters when that capsule is opened in another 25 years.

Among the items from today Galaviz would also like to include is a cell phone, which would have to be donated by someone.

"I don't know how cell phones will be different in 25 years, but in 1985, I don't think anyone had a cell phone."

Somerton, Arizona. March 11, 2010/ By John Vaughn- Bajo el Sol Editor.

(Thanks to E.M.)