The Fort Vancouver Visitors Center is being remodeled, and the process has had unexpected results.
When a crew from SE Services worked to prepare to move a monument to a different location, they noticed a plastic pipe protruding from the ground. They thought it might have been placed near the monument to provide drainage, but workman Mark Ross was unable to uncap it. He decided to give it a whack with a steel bar.
About that time, Joe Adams began to speculate that perhaps it was not a drain at all, but possibly a flagpole holder. As it turned out, it was a time capsule.
The capsule was buried in 1989, as a side-project when the monument was dedicated. The latter honors three Japanese sailors who were shipwrecked on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington in 1834, and eventually made their way to Fort Vancouver, where the Hudson’s Bay Company had a trading center.
The renovated visitors’ center is slated to reopen this November, in time for centennial of the National Park Service in 2016. Doug Wilson, a Fort Vancouver archaeologist, remarked upon the timing. In the middle of preparing for the Park Service’s centennial, he appreciated the coincidence of stumbling upon the remnants of another centennial.
Fort Vancouver officials may create Brochures about the discovery to tie in with the upcoming centennial.Get a Free Quote for Brochures
