Greater Sudbury’s 2001 time capsule opened after nearly 25 years

A 2001 Greater Sudbury time capsule from a pillar at Tom Davies Square was opened Saturday, revealing photos, maps and artifacts from Sudbury’s past.

A stainless-steel time capsule sealed nearly a quarter-century ago was opened at Tom Davies Square on Saturday, offering a glimpse of Greater Sudbury as it was in 2001.

The capsule was originally sealed on Oct. 27, 2001.

On the day it was placed at Tom Davies Square, the mayor was Jim Gordon, ‘There You’ll Be’ by Faith Hill was the No. 1 song in Canada, the first Harry Potter movie was days from premiering and the Apple iPod had just been released, the city said on social media this week.

“We can’t wait to see what is inside,” city officials said in a post ahead of the opening.

Following the opening, all items will be on public display at the Mackenzie Street Library, where the exhibit will run until May 18.

Surprising finds include accurate predictions

Current Greater Sudbury Mayor Paul Lefebvre said some of the contents were unexpected.

“I think we saw some pictures of what the landscape looked like and how it’s changed already in 25 years,” Lefebvre said in an interview with CTV News following the unsealing.

“We got some letters from Science North explaining where things were back in 2001 and their predictions of how things would change in 2026. Some things (they) got pretty close and I think it was pretty shocking to see how they could see the future.”

Lefebvre said the capsule contained material about the school of medicine, the cancer centre and SNOLAB – which was just being created at the time.

“A lot of stuff that was going on today was basically percolated, being created back in that time or just moving forward,” he said.

“As well, talk about the amalgamation in 2001, certainly that was front and centre.”

Greater Sudbury Library CEO Brian Harding agreed that the letter from Science North stood out.

“I like the predictions for what 2026 is going to look like and how accurate some of those predictions were,” Harding said.

“It feels like a little snapshot in time from 2001 and feels like that time in our history as a community is well represented in the artifacts that have been included.”

Capsule to be reused for 2050

The time capsule itself was not new. Lefebvre said it was originally built in 1978 by workers at Inco.

“It created this beautiful, really heavy gauge stainless steel capsule that we have,” he said. “It’s still very strong today. I’m happy to have that be used for the next time capsule as well.”

He said the city plans to create another capsule for 2050, with public engagement over the next year to gather materials.

Exhibit to travel across city

The artifacts are first going to the main branch of the library on Mackenzie Street on Sunday, but Lefebvre said officials wants to showcase the items around all libraries in the city.

“Within the next year there’ll be a travelling exhibit going across the city,” he said.

Harding said library staff will work to straighten documents that had been stored rolled in the capsule. He also confirmed plans to digitize materials.

“We didn’t know prior to today exactly what the contents of the time capsule were, but we know that we have tools to be able to digitize,” Harding said.

“Some of the artifacts, we see that there are some cassettes that have recordings on them and analog video, so we can certainly digitize documents like that and some of the print documents we can easily digitize and make them available through our website.”