A time capsule wasn't found at the bottom of a 6-foot deep hole where it was reported to be, but was instead in a file cabinet in Kimberly, Wis.
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David Vander Velden was given the task of finding the missing 1985 time capsule and he spent hours quizzing people about where it might be before receiving a tip it was buried next to the village library, WBAY-TV, Green Bay, Wis., reported.
"So there was three different theories about where it had gone, where it was, or if it was truly moved, but no one knew for sure," said Vander Velden, the city's street commissioner.
After the library tip proved wrong last fall, the case went cold over the winter.
Then a clerk found a manila envelope which read "Remains of 1985 Time Capsule" in an office cabinet.
"All the time I spent looking and searching and interviewing older people trying to find it, it ends up being... I probably stood over it one hundred times in the 10 years I've been here," Vander Velden said.
The envelope contained a picture of President Reagan and several typewritten letters, including one from the president and one from then Gov. Anthony Earl.
Van Velden speculated the capsule might have been dug up during a renovation in the 1990s. He said the envelope's contents would be added to a new time capsule.
"We're discussing what we are going to do, whether put it in the safe or bury it in the wall, if we are just going to put it in the display cabinet, maybe somewhere in the library. I don't think we will be burying it," Vander Velden said.