Time capsule discovered at Milwaukee VA Hospital was almost thrown away
Apparently what the good folks building the new veterans hospital in Milwaukee wanted people to remember five decades ago were headlines in the local papers, cafeteria menus, a thermometer, coins and the speech Congressman Clement J. Zablocki gave at the cornerstone dedication.
They were tucked into a copper box, soldered closed and most likely placed inside the cornerstone in March 1963.
And forgotten.
A couple years ago as construction workers built an expansion that included a bigger emergency room on the south end of the Milwaukee VA Medical Center, since named after Zablocki, the time capsule was unearthed.
Except no one knew it was a time capsule. It looked like a hunk of metal and was unceremoniously tossed into the back of a truck with other construction debris. John Laufenberg, an employee of Willkomm Excavating & Grading of Union Grove, unloaded the garbage at his parents' home in the western Wisconsin community of Cashton, burned the wood and forgot about the metal.
A year later Laufenberg's father Earl, a Vietnam veteran, was a few minutes from throwing the time capsule away along with other junk from his garage when the case was shaken. It sounded like it contained something and when it was opened, out came 1963 memories.
"Given the large building and construction, it's not surprising there was a time capsule," said Janice Curnes, the VA medical center's medical librarian for almost three decades. "But that it was scooped up and ended up in Cashton, Wisconsin, during the renovation of (the new) urgent care (department) is surprising."
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When John Laufenberg's parents recently visited their son they brought the time capsule with them, and it was dropped off at the Milwaukee VA. Curnes was called because the library handles the hospital's archives and historical records.
Many of the items were placed in a display case in the entryway of the Milwaukee VA's spinal cord injury center, which can be seen by the public.
"That it ended up with a Vietnam veteran who returned it to us is really cool," said Curnes.
Curnes looked through bound volumes of the hospital newsletter, the "Wood Tattler," and found a story about the cornerstone ceremony that listed the things placed in the box. Among them: a copy of the Tattler, a hospital map, reports on lung research done at the hospital, and a copy of the cornerstone-laying program.
There were also copies of the Milwaukee Sentinel and The Milwaukee Journal featuring stories about an American ship fired upon off the coast of Cuba, Fidel Castro warning he'd use bombers to protect Cuban ships and Zablocki insisting that the new Milwaukee hospital have air conditioning.
The menus for the last week of March 1963 show patients were served clam chowder, smoked tongue, fish fries and Spanish omelets.
Time capsules have been popular for decades, often in conjunction with the construction of new buildings. While it's unclear just where this time capsule was housed, Curnes said it's likely it was either inside the cornerstone or near it.
Why bury time capsules?
"I think some of it is that we know things will change radically as time goes by. Here's a bit of 1963," Curnes said.
"They were proud of the new VA building. It was the largest VA hospital at the time and it was going to have air conditioning, which was unusual for a northern hospital."
Before the current building opened in 1966, the Milwaukee VA's hospital was located in what is called Building 70, a red brick structure on the grounds that was built in 1923 as a 500-bed tuberculosis hospital.
The time capsule and most of its contents will be on display for several months. Not everything was kept, though. A mercury thermometer tucked into the box — which would have been used to take patients' temperatures long before the toxic liquid was phased out — did not make it.
"We inventoried it and then sent it to the hazardous waste disposal," said Curnes.