Oklahoma City is about to send a message a century into the future. A time capsule packed with more than 1,300 postcards and memorabilia is set to be sealed near the Kicks 66 sculpture on November 12, with the contents staying buried until 2126.
The capsule will be placed near the 35-foot-tall red cowboy boot located east of the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum, according to KFOR. A public ceremony to place the capsule is scheduled for 9:30 a.m. that day. As KOCO reports, the burial is planned for roughly a week after the station's report, and once sealed, the capsule is meant to stay in the ground for 100 years.
Thousands of Words for People Not Yet Born
Cameron Eagle, the artist behind the Kicks 66 sculpture, said the capsule was created to let people write personal messages to the future, per the same KOCO report. The postcards range from brief notes to lengthy accounts, and Eagle described the submissions as including prayers, personal reflections and accounts of people's connection to Oklahoma.
Some of what people chose to write down is strikingly ordinary, and some of it is anything but. Eagle said the postcards touch on subjects as mundane as grocery prices and as fantastical as aliens, while other writers left what he called deeply personal messages to the future. Eagle also said people may still show up to add messages on the day the capsule is sealed.
Writers From Far Beyond Oklahoma
The capsule has collected contributions from well outside city limits. More than 1,300 postcards were written to future Oklahoma City residents by people from 33 states and 12 countries, according to the Oklahoma Gazette. Oklahomans contributed alongside strangers from across the country and abroad, all writing to residents they will never meet.
Beyond the postcards, the capsule is expected to include a Key to the City from Mayor David Holt and memorabilia representing life in Oklahoma City today, the Gazette reports. KOCO's reporting adds that the capsule will also include a Key to the City along with items from the Oklahoma City Thunder basketball team, giving future residents a snapshot of the city's civic life and sports culture in 2026.
Tied to Route 66's Hundredth Birthday
The timing is no accident. The project corresponds with the 100th anniversary of the opening of America's Main Street, which happened on November 11, 1926, per KFOR. Cameron Eagle created the Kicks 66 sculpture itself with funding from MAPS 4, specifically to celebrate the Mother Road's centennial.
Residents had until November 5 to write their own postcards for Oklahoma City residents a century from now, KFOR reported. The capsule's eventual 2126 opening has been framed by the Gazette as lining up with Route 66's 200th anniversary, giving the sealed messages a symbolic bookend nearly as significant as the one marking their burial.
It would not be the first time Oklahoma City has reached back through a buried box to hear from its past. A 100-year-old time capsule found in a cornerstone of the city's Heritage Building had its contents revealed in December, according to KOCO. The Kicks 66 capsule now sets up a similar moment for whoever is standing near that big red boot in 2126.
