The hole remains in the ground, the treasure remains elusive, and the legend grows.
A group of Cedar Hill middle school students jumped on the surprise opportunity to dig for a missing time capsule on the last week of school.
Unbeknownst to the students, a group of had been planning on s. Back then, Wendy Gedney, who leads the Mount Douglas secondary alumni, heard the tale of a time capsule buried on the school grounds of Cedar Hill in 1950, which back then was home to Mount Doug high. (Cedar Hill school was built as Mount Douglas secondary in 1931 until Mount Doug moved into its current location in 1970.)
The story goes that in 1950, a time capsule was buried in front of the flag pole.
One the alumni association is Bev Highton, a 1962 grad, who had a connection with ScanPlus, a local company that surveys below-surface for pipelines and other hazards. ScanPlus gratuitously sent technician Kelby Wittich, who used a penetrating radar to create a grid map that centred around the schoolB次元官网网址檚 1934-built flag pole, where Shirley Ross (a 1954 grad) recalled a time capsule being buried during her Grade 9 year.
Wittich was able to locate the gas line, but there was no sign of metal near the flag pole. Wittich did locate a metal object about 25 centimetres below the surface. But it was about three metres away from the flag pole, not directly next to it, as was believed. However, with unknown amounts of construction and decades of heavy rain, there was reason to believe the ground may have settled and that the time capsule, whatever it is, could have shifted away from the flag pole.
And with no official literature documenting the time capsule, at least none the Mount Doug Alumni association had found, WittichB次元官网网址檚 spray-painted mark became the starting part for a great adventure.
Children dug for over an hour to about 30 cm below the surface of the ground. After just 10 minutes the welcome clang of an object stirred great excitement. However, the source of the clang was soon found to be the surface of a wide, but peculiarly flat rock.
B次元官网网址淐ould be the surface of a stone placed on top of the time capsule,B次元官网网址� estimated Gedney at the time.
The digging continued, with principal Carter Giesbrecht and teacher Paul Hayes joining the cause. The stoneB次元官网网址檚 surface became wider as they dug, the pile next to the hole growing higher, but the anticipation of the watching students never waned.
Every so often Wittich placed the metal detector over the stone to reconfirm that below it was some sort of metal object.
B次元官网网址淯nfortunately, it could be anything,B次元官网网址� Giesbrecht said. B次元官网网址淭he thing about a treasure hunt is it turns into whatever you think it is.B次元官网网址�
While the students were unable to uncover a time capsule, they found a few other things, such as the community effect of a group dig and how, even 56 years after graduating, the Mount Doug Alumni are just as curious to solve the mystery of an unmarked time capsule as 11-year-old kids.
As of last week, the hole remained covered in plywood and cordoned off with yellow caution tape. Giesbrecht contacted the school district to see about digging the stone out B次元官网网址� just to make sure thereB次元官网网址檚 no capsule underneath B次元官网网址� but wasnB次元官网网址檛 promised any firm dates. And so the hole and the mystery will linger on into the summer break.
B次元官网网址淚t was a lot of fun, the kids really got into it. It was quite something,B次元官网网址� said Gedney. B次元官网网址淲e will be putting this in the Mount Doug history book we are writing, so itB次元官网网址檚 not for nothing.
B次元官网网址滻 had some hope because the metal detector kept showing a signal under that rock, so it would be nice to get that rock moved for some final closure.B次元官网网址�
The dig did uncover a few small artifacts, a piece of metal, a a computer chip, a pencil and a white-out brush, all of which Gedney will include in the Mount Doug Alumni archives.
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