While an old newspaper clipping from the ‘80s led hospital staff right to where a 1911 time capsule was hidden, when they cut into the drywall, they didn’t know what they’d find.
“We had to do some sleuthing,” said Interior Health communications officer Erin Toews. “There was nothing saying, ‘There’s a time capsule in this place.’”
But when maintenance cut into the wall behind the 1911 cornerstone at Royal Inland Hospital, there the metal box sat.
The contents of the time capsule were on display Wednesday at a staff barbecue celebrating 100 years at the Columbia Street location.
There were 1911 copies of the Inland Sentinel and Kamloops Standard newspapers, a handwritten document listing all hospital staff in 1911, typed pages outlining the conditions of the hospital’s incorporation in 1911, as well as a 1772 coin.
Items were added in 1980 when the seven-storey tower was constructed at the hospital, including copies of the Kamloops Daily Sentinel and Kamloops News, coins, photographs of the hospital and then mayor Mike Latta, and a list of the hospital’s 1980 staff.
“After today we’re going to put those contents together back together in the original box and we’re going to add in our contents from 2012,” said Toews.
New additions will include a photo of RIH today, current coins, staff lists and information, and small medical equipment from 2012 including a metal implant used in a hip joint replacement.
“We just wanted to make sure that what we were including would give people in the future a good flavour for what health care looks like today,” Toews said.
Health services administrator Marg Brown and other staff decided what should go into the capsule this year.
“It should be interesting in the future to look back on those,” said Toews.
In a couple of weeks, the box will be reburied in the wall behind fresh drywall.
Toews said the time capsule is not likely to be pulled out again for another 100 years.
