Q&A: The time capsule at Chinook Mall turned 25. What's in it?
Time capsule container designed with energy industry help
A pencil and its sharpener. A few CDs. A hat from the Calgary Stampede. A tampon.
What do all of these items have in common?
They're all part of a well-known landmark in Calgary's largest mall: a time capsule that's set to be opened in 975 years.
Buried six feet under CF Chinook Centre's main entrance on Dec. 31, 1999, the time capsule is officially a quarter of a century old this New Year's Eve.
Canadian sculptor and artist Russell Zeid is one of the people who helped create the time capsule. He chatted with CBC Radio's the Calgary Eyeopener on Tuesday morning about what items are in the time capsule and what opening it could reveal to Calgarians living in 2999.
The following has been edited for length and clarity.
CBC: How did this time capsule come to be 25 years ago? How did you get involved?
Russel Zeid: I had the opportunity to put a bid into making some features for the Chinook Centre when it was being renovated. And I proposed I think 16 different things that could have been done, and they picked six of them.
Because it was at the millennia and I've always had a fascination with time, I thought "I'll propose a time capsule." And that's a long one.
CBC: Who made the thing?
RZ: I had it made in Calgary, the capsule itself, at a company that specialized in oil industry piping. So it's three-eighths stainless steel, it's about three feet tall, two feet wide. And I designed it to last 1000 years.
CBC: It's significant that the energy industry contributed to it. How easy is it going to be to open?
RZ: Well, it's under a beautiful bronze cap which was made by an artist in Toronto … which has some depictions on it. And because it's been walked over and hopefully it's got some very nice ... wear marks.
It's got a 36-bolt seal on the top, double-O ring. It's full of nitrogen gas rather than air, so nothing will oxidize. I was an engineer in a former life, so I designed it to last.
CBC: You're an artist, but I hear the side of you that's a technician for sure. Let's say there's still a city here in 975 years, what will Calgarians of the future be able to find inside the capsule?
RZ: That's a great question. What is going to be there in 1000 years? The idea was: what was there 1000 years ago, where the Chinook Centre sits right now?
Because it's an artifact — a true artifact — it's dated and it's got its position on Earth with a GPS coordinate, I think it'll be somewhere on Earth in somebody's collection somewhere. And some of these things inside, people scratch their heads and say, "What did they use this for?"
CBC: Right. For example?
RZ: A pencil and pencil sharpener. Something very practical we're quite used to here.
This is an odd thing: I'd asked a lot of people about what they would put into a time capsule … a lot of people said put a CD in there, a newspaper. My son's mother came up with — excuse me, the best suggestion — because it was to do with a feminine hygiene product because she said, "What will women be using in 1000 years? What would they think this thing was for?"
So I thought that it was a beautifully indicative thing of our culture at this time.
CBC: You're going to make me guess: is that a tampon that's in there?
RZ: Yes there is.
There's a hat from the Calgary Stampede in there. There's something from the mayor at the time. There's a gold Maple Leaf from the TD Bank. There's an artifact from a First Nation which was put in by an artist called Rocky Barstad from High River.
CBC: I have a note here — and this will mean something to a certain generation of our listeners — that one of the CDs is a copy of a Canadian rock compilation called Big Shiny Tunes 4. That already has aged in a very specific way, but even now, it's like it's a snapshot of 25 years ago.
RZ: Oh that's excellent.
CBC: You mentioned your fascination with time — what is it about time and time capsules that capture your imagination?
RZ: I had a 20 year career teaching at the Ontario Science Centre and I've always loved physics and astronomy.
I live in southern Ontario, I go outside and I see the Milky Way and it puts into perspective this limited time that we have on this planet.
CBC: Let's imagine that this does get opened in 975 years. What do you hope is the story it tells?
RZ: I hope we've evolved to a better state than we are now. That we do open it — and like any historian — they would look back and say, "How did they survive their barbarity?"
I just hope we survive.
CBC: I hear you very much reflecting on the world from which we dispatch this story, in a way, more than whatever world will receive it.
RZ: I taught for 20 years, students Grade 1 to 12, and I have a lot of faith in these young people. They're clever.