‘Keepers’ meet to fill time capsule with latest snapshot of Washington life

Members of a little known organization will meet Tuesday in Olympia to take the next step in a duty that won’t be over for another 376 years.

At dawn they will gather. Three hundred strong, they come together to fulfill the oath their predecessors swore four centuries ago. They are the last links in an unbroken chain.

They look like ordinary people. But underneath they are The Keepers of the Capsule, and this day, November 11, 2389, is their day of glory.

Yes, that sounds like some Da Vinci Code knockoff? But it’s not. It’s a really long-term plan involving a time capsule that was installed in our state capitol 24 years ago.

“We recruited a bunch of 10-year-olds and they took an oath, delivered by the state (that) when they grew up to update the time capsule and to recruit a new generation of what we call, ‘Capsule Keepers,'” says Knute Berger, a capsule organizer.

Berger says one of the big problems with time capsules is they get lost, all the time. Like one in Olympia back in 1953.

“That capsule never got buried. It was a classic example that the state didn’t have money to bury it, and it ended up, basically, in a broom closet. It wasn’t discovered until a few years ago,” he says.

To avoid that, Berger says they took a leaf from a problem the U.S. Energy Department was facing back in the 1980’s.

“How do you mark a radioactive waste site for 10,000 years? Language will change, how will people know it’s dangerous?” asks Berger. “But one of the suggestions was, recruit an atomic priesthood which does sound kind of weird and culty.”

It might just work. Tuesday in Olympia, the now 34-year-old Keepers will meet to begin the process of picking out what will be installed in the time capsule in 2014. The giant safe is designed with smaller safes inside, each to be filled with artifacts and information every 25 years.

“Most time capsules give you just one snapshot in time. This time capsule is more like an archeological site with many layers. It will give you an evolving picture over time when those capsules are opened,” says Berger.

In 1989 items included sealed letters from local sci-fi writers, CD-roms packed with technical information, a phone book, and what Berger liked best of all, thousands of letters from regular people – recorded on microfilm.

“There’s the kind of thing that even 400, 500, 600, 1,000 years from now people will be able to relate to those,” he says.

The current Keepers will also start searching for a new generation – 300 more 10-year-olds who will take the oath and carry the torch for the next 25 years.

I just hope that after all this, when the Keepers finally pop the lock in 376 years, they’re not too disappointed to find a phone book, instead of the Holy Grail.