Residents of Christian County, Missouri are grateful for the sleuthing efforts of a local historian whose research led to the discovery of a century-old time capsule in town. Last year, historian Wayne Glenn found a 1920 photo from Ozark Square which looked like a dedication ceremony of some sort. After a little digging, a newspaper article confirmed the existence of a time capsule. Shannon Mawhiney, President of the Christian County Museum and Historical Society says, "Wayne Glenn was the one who had found the newspaper article referencing it from 100 years ago, in 2020. He had discovered this and said, 'Hey, you know, there's a time capsule at the corner of the courthouse here in Christian County' and we didn't know about it." Last month, the contents of the time capsule were displayed in a historic celebration. Glenn told the crowd, "And so finally in 1920, they had the laying of the cornerstone, northeast corner of the square, and in that cornerstone, they ultimately placed the time capsule that you see here and the items that were in it." Ozarks First captured the festivities.
It took a year to find the capsule after multiple tries using high-tech equipment. Richard Teague, County Building and Maintenance Supervisor says, "It could have been at the cornerstone, it could have been at the original flag pole, or it could have been in the crawl space of this building." Finally, a hollow space was found in the concrete of the cornerstone, and the capsule was extracted after almost four days. Inside, coins, hand-written documents, tools and a bible told the 100- year-old story of Ozark residents. The contents of the time capsule will be on permanent display at the courthouse and online through the Missouri State University Archives. A new time capsule will be placed inside the courthouse in the coming weeks.
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