A recently unearthed time capsule brought back memories for Quarry Park campers from three decades ago.
On Saturday, Sept. 14, the Quarry Park Campground Association hosted a time capsule opening celebration. The seasonal families who stayed at the campground 30 years ago buried the capsule at that time. Past and present campers were invited to participate in the event, which included a free luncheon and lots of reminiscing.
Longtime camper Lynn Michaud spearheaded the time capsule unveiling. When the capsule was buried 30 years ago, the campers had put a stone on top of the spot to mark its location. However, sometime over the decades, maintenance workers had relocated the stone, which made it tricky to find the exact spot.
“The town brought in a backhoe and they were scraping, gently digging down where we figured it would be. The guys even had a metal detector trying to locate it. Eventually, they discovered it,” Michaud said.
“It was in a plastic container but not anything very sturdy. There was silicone around where the seal was, and it was wrapped in a garbage bag and duct-taped. But when the backhoe was digging, the container cracked and crumbled into pieces. When they found the cracked capsule, then they started hand-digging and all these plastic baggies of pictures and letters and stuff came out.”
Unfortunately, they soon discovered that a lot of the photos were water-damaged.
Tribune Photos by Lana Meier
Lynn Michaud lifts the remains of the time capsule uncovered by town employee Doug Steinke. Unfortunately, the plastic bucket was broken and damaged. Many items, including Michaud’s son’s baseball cap, were discovered but were covered in dirt
“Most of it was Polaroid pictures. The moisture got at them so the writing on the back of the picture was pretty clear but picture itself wasn’t. There was a letter that showed what the campground fees were. My son had a baseball cap in there that was wrapped in two bags and it was all wet and decayed,” she said.
“So it was disappointing somewhat but mostly everybody that came got some kind of memory back. It might have been a letter or a picture that was distorted.”
Nonetheless, it was a fun event — and a heartfelt reunion for former campers. Michaud expressed gratitude to Family Foods and Co-op in Stonewall for their donations, as well as to the Stonewall Quarry Park Campground Association and Quarry Park manager Kelly Kimball for all their help. The Town of Stonewall also donated towards the event.
“It was neat seeing all the kids from back then getting together, all grown up. There was one girl who was just a year old when the time capsule was buried. Her dad had written a letter to her, and she was able to recover that. It was in pretty good shape,” Michaud said.
“There was another girl who had written a four-page letter and it had the top songs and movies of that time. She was in Grade 7 at the time.”
For Karen Jonasson (Monkman), the time capsule brought back a flood of emotions and fond family memories of Quarry Park Campground.
“I have been going since I was a young girl. My dad started with the Kinsman Club in 1970,” she said. “Being a Kinsman campground, we often went out there for weekends and eventually my grandma and my mom and dad became seasonal campers.”
Jonasson’s dad passed away last month, which made the experience even more bittersweet.
“I reunited with some old Stonewall camping friends at my dad’s celebration of life,” she said. “They invited me to the opening of the capsule.”
Jonasson recalled how her mom had always told her to remember about the capsule and where they had buried it since she had put a few items inside.
“I had just had my daughter in 1993 and was then pregnant with my son. There were baby pictures of my daughter in the capsule. Sadly, many of the pictures were wet, but we were able to make out some faces, mostly of family. There was a perfectly preserved Polaroid of my mom and dad in front of their sign ‘Little Transcona’ in front of Lot 28,” said Jonasson, who attended the event with her daughter and two granddaughters.
“It was very emotional. It brought back a lot of great memories of songs around the fire, growing up with other families and enjoying long summer nights.”
What she recalls about her younger years in the Stonewall campground is that it offered a true sense of community.
“Kids could play in the quarry, adults trusted kids to stick around, and we would often go uptown to Frosty’s,” she said.
“It was a great part of my childhood and I still have lifelong friends from that era. We often reminisce about the good old days and our parents.”
Work is already underway for a new campground time capsule that will be opened in another 30 years. Seasonal campers are invited to select small special items that they’d like to include to capture a slice of the present for future generations to discover.
