100-year-old time capsule at Ogden’s Union Station yields prepare timetables, newspapers, photos

OGDEN — The opening of a 100-year-old time capsule at Union Station in Ogden become a historical past lesson concerning the metropolis.

The sealed copper field — constructed right into a nook of the outdated prepare station — was pulled from its hiding spot throughout a ceremony Friday night, 100 years to the day it was positioned there. Then a contingent led by Hope Eggett, curator of Museums at Union Station, opened it in entrance of a dwell viewers, revealing the loot inside — outdated newspapers, photos, railroad timetables, promotional materials concerning the metropolis and extra.

“Every thing appears prefer it’s in phenomenal form,” Eggett mentioned because the field was opened and the primary gadgets got here into view.

The trouble began with the excavation of the field from the constructing — in entrance of the general public — with the assistance of an skilled mason, who eliminated a number of bricks from an exterior nook of Union Station to get to its location. Then Eggett supplied a historical past lesson concerning the constructing, central within the metropolis’s growth and focus of a collection of occasions this 12 months to mark its centennial.

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The constructing, now owned by town, “is an emblem of the hope and the chance that leaders in 1924 noticed within the station and the hope and the chance that’s nonetheless surrounding the station in the present day,” Eggett mentioned. The railroad station, formally devoted on Nov. 22, 1924, although the cornerstone was laid on Could 31, 1924, changed the prior station, accomplished in 1889 however destroyed in a 1923 fireplace.

Although the station as soon as served 51 to almost 300 trains a day in its heyday as a key stopping level for trains touring between Chicago and San Francisco, based on diverse figures put ahead by the audio system Friday, it now serves as residence to railroad, gun and car museums. However, it stays an Ogden landmark and metropolis leaders are within the midst of crafting a plan — the main focus of intense debate — to dramatically redevelop the ability and the grounds round it.

As soon as on a desk on the stage of Browning Theater inside Union Station, coppersmith Tim Nimtz used a drill and snips to chop the time capsule open as maybe 200 to 300 individuals appeared on. Eggett and the others aiding her, Ogden Mayor Ben Nadolski, native historian Charlie Trentelman and Glen Prepare dinner, submit grand grasp of masons in Utah, wore white gloves to guard the gadgets as they dealt with them.

The gadgets gave the impression to be in pristine form and several other prepare timetables from 1924 have been among the many first gadgets pulled out. One among them included a blurb about locations to go to in Ogden. “They mentioned we should always go to Lester Park, Liberty Park and Ogden Canyon,” Eggett mentioned.

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The font measurement of a lot of the fabric within the timetables is small and Nadolski had a tough time studying it. “I ponder if 100 years in the past individuals might see higher,” he quipped.

The timetables, from a variety of prepare corporations, have been full of details about stops, arrivals and departures, prompting Trentelman to notice the significance of prepare journey and prepare stations 100 years in the past. Trains, he mentioned, traveled “on a regular basis. It is like an airport now,” he mentioned.

Subsequent got here a number of newspapers — two copies of the Ogden Commonplace-Examiner and particular person copies of the Salt Lake Tribune, Salt Lake Telegram and Deseret Information.

The daring, all caps frontpage headline of one of many Commonplace-Examiners declared: “Households worn out by storm.” Additional down the web page, one other headline learn: “Supposed kidnaped lady merely avoiding faculty,” which drew laughs when Eggett learn it.

Among the many different gadgets have been a button studying, “You’ll be able to’t get wherever with out coming to Ogden,” referencing town’s standing as a key stopping level on the San Francisco-Chicago prepare route, photos of Ogden and a Monroe Doctrine centennial half greenback. The coin, minted in 1923, commemorated the one centesimal anniversary of the Monroe Doctrine of 1823.

There have been Ogden Chamber of Commerce paperwork, a flier itemizing the numerous church buildings of Ogden and quite a few paperwork from the Freemasons, the fraternal group. There was a flier that includes the Hermitage Lodge, as soon as situated within the Ogden Canyon however now lengthy gone, and an outdated photograph of the Ogden Change Constructing, headquarters to the once-thriving stockyard operation within the metropolis. “It was second to Chicago in livestock dealing with,” Trentelman mentioned.

The Union Station museum workers will catalog every thing pulled out of the time capsule on Friday and possibly put some gadgets on show, mentioned Mike McBride, spokesman for the Nadolski administration. Then, he mentioned, metropolis officers will search suggestions on what ought to go into a brand new time capsule that can exchange the outdated one.

Friday’s ceremony was the most recent in a collection of occasions marking the one centesimal anniversary this 12 months of Union Station. Actions to mark that precise dedication of the constructing on Nov. 22, 1924, are set for Nov. 22 and 23 this 12 months, when McBride mentioned the brand new time capsule will probably be positioned within the now-vacant cornerstone house.