export_ofoct.com (2)

[00:00.41] Officials at the U.S. Military Academy West Point in New York state recently opened a time capsule that is 195 years old live on the internet.

[00:17.94] The event on August 28 caused disappointment because the container appeared to contain nothing more than dirt.

[00:30.96] But West Point officials said last Wednesday that the box did contain hidden treasure after all.

[00:41.05] A time capsule is a container that is filled with objects and buried or hidden.

[00:49.02] The capsule is meant to be opened by people living many years in the future.

[00:56.99] The lead box is believed to have been put in place by West Point military students.

[01:05.75] It was discovered inside the base of a memorial to Revolutionary War hero Thaddeus Kosciuszko.

[01:17.17] The capsule contained six silver American coins dating from 1795 and 1828 and a medal, West Point said in a news release.

[01:32.58] The ceremonial opening of the box happened at the military school in New York state.

[01:41.34] Speaking of the event, West Point archeologist Paul Hudson said: “When I first found these, I thought, man, you know, it would have been great to have found these on stage.”

[01:57.55] After the opening, he took the box back to his laboratory and began carefully looking through the remains.

[02:07.90] He said he then found the edge of a coin in the dust inside the box. “I thought, well that’s OK.

[02:18.00] That’s something, that’s a start,” Hudson said.

[02:22.25] He said he felt let down like everyone else by the lack of results from the live opening.

[02:30.75] The crowd that gathered at the U.S. Military Academy hoped to see historical military objects or documents when experts opened the top and pointed a camera inside.

[02:46.42] It was probably better to remove the coins and medal in a controlled setting, added Hudson.

[02:54.39] He still plans to study the remains for possible answers to what else might be inside.

[03:02.36] It appears that moisture and possibly dirt entered the box through a damaged edge.

[03:10.33] The conditions could have destroyed materials like paper or wood.

[03:16.17] What did survive was a five-cent coin from the year 1795, an 1800 Liberty Dollar, an 1818 25-cent coin, 10-cent, and 1-cent coins from 1827, and an 1828 50-cent coin.

[03:39.28] There was also a medal remembering the Erie Canal from 1826.

[03:46.45] The discoveries seem to confirm school officials’ theory that the box was put in place by military students in 1828 or 1829.

[03:59.73] The monument to Kosciuszko, which included a statue of him, was completed at about that time.

[04:08.76] A group of five military students, or cadets, was involved in the ceremony dedicating the monument.

[04:17.53] One of them was U.S. Civil War general Robert E. Lee who graduated in 1829.

[04:27.36] Kosciuszko had designed wartime fortifications for the Continental Army at West Point during the Revolutionary War.

[04:38.51] He died in 1817.

[04:42.23] The statue of Kosciuszko was added to the monument in 1913.

[04:49.94] The historical preservation and research of the time capsule will continue.

[04:56.84] “I think there’s more that we can learn from this,” Hudson said.