This is the last in a series of stories about the contents of the World’s Largest Time Capsule’s pyramid top, which was opened for July 4th this year. The main capsule will be opened July 4th, 2025, 50 years after its creation.
“Oh yeah? I had forgotten all about that.”
Stephanie Nantkes’ first reaction when asked if she remembered when she and her daughter, Danielle, then a third grader, penned their names on the 1975 Toyota Corolla going into the World’s Largest Time Capsule in 1985 was followed by a pause in the telephone conversation.
But as her mind connected the dots from the recent opening of the pyramid top of Harold “Budd” Davisson’s time capsule to the day she and Danielle (Nantkes) Conrad were in Seward and visited the time capsule and the pyramid built to top it off, the experience came back to her.
“I remember being all excited about it to tell you the truth,” she said. “We were excited to leave (the signatures) behind so future generations could see, or if your family was still around. It’s all about a remembrance.”
Nantkes, a longtime teacher, said it must have been a school day because then-four-year-old Ross Nantkes would otherwise have been with them.
For several months, people apparently had the option to sign their name to the car, while others submitted letters or other items – like a sample of the first fiberglass rod produced at Hughes Brothers, Inc., on April 28, 1985, a set of 16-county license plates, junk mail, advertising flyers, and movie posters – to be sealed away for a future day.
Since Davisson’s daughter, Trish Johnson, and others opened the pyramid portion of the time capsule before July 4 and began pulling things out, the reality that time capsules are part history, part romance, part packaging and part science experiment has shown in the varied survival rate of the items.
The original time capsule will be opened on July 4, 2025, as planned, but the pyramid was opened this past July 4 to help the family figure out the best way to open the larger section. The pyramid was added to help preserve the flat-topped capsule.
The license plates are disintegrating. The fiberglass rod looks perfect.
But the signatures on the car seem to have held up well.
Bill Matzke, who now lives in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, with his wife Becky (Behrens) Matzke, was 17 when he signed the car and added July 4, 1985, to it. He remembered signing around July 4 before seeing the date, maybe because he was then a student member of the Fourth of July Committee.
“I remember them building the pyramid on top of the capsule, and I remember signing the car,” Matzke said. “I remember when they did the original time capsule, and I remember being there with my friend.”
But he never imagined what would happen when someone found his signature years later. Even in 1985 when the second round of submissions to the 1975 capsule were added, the year 2025 seemed a long distance into the future.
“This has taken me by surprise. I’m kind of speechless,” he said.
He has fond memories of bringing friends from other places back to Seward and hearing their reactions when they noticed the pyramid – something local residents have long been used to driving by.
“It’s kind of neat that he did that,” Matzke said.
Lynn Naber also signed the car but has an insider’s view of the pyramid because Davisson contracted him to build it following the designs of the ancient pyramids of the Middle East. In addition to protecting the capsule below it, the pyramid portion cemented Davisson’s hold on the “world’s largest” claim at that time.
Naber had done a lot of construction work on Davisson’s properties, and enlisted the help of Dick O’Dell, who did the original concrete work on the time capsule, to help plan how they could “pour concrete uphill” to create a pyramid.
He never really thought about whether he would be around when it was opened, but he liked doing projects for Davisson, who became a friend and advisor.
“I thought the world of him,” Naber said. “He was a great businessman.”
