By Audrey Posten

Clayton Ridge students, members of the Garnavillo Community Boosters and other Garnavillo residents gathered at the city park on Oct. 17 to unveil a 25-year-old time capsule and bury a new one for the next generation to unearth in 2050.

The 2000 capsule was a collaborative effort between the Garnavillo Community Boosters and Rondee Troester’s third grade class from that year.

“Nobody really knows much anymore. Those of us that are on the Boosters now weren’t part of it in 2000,” said Cindy Petsche, one of those spearheading the current effort. 

A clipping from The Guttenberg Press and list of contents helped shed light on the capsule—and remind members when it needed to be dug up.

“I’ve been carrying [the clipping] around in my secretary’s book, and every once in a while, I’m like, ‘OK. 2025. We have to do this.’ So here we are,” Petsche said. 

The original capsule was buried near the city park steps on Nov. 3, 2000, replacing one dug up in June of that year. Items were placed in two buckets, each wrapped in plastic and stored in a wooden box with styrofoam on top that was buried 2.5 feet deep. 

“It’s heavy,” Petsche said of the box. “It took two guys to lay on their bellies and lift it up out of there this morning.”

The unearthing process took around two hours—longer than originally anticipated. Petsche was relieved it was completed earlier in the day, ahead of the afternoon celebration, leaving just the box lid to unscrew while the students and community members were gathered. 

Petsche and Garnavillo Public Works Director Chad Schroyer removed the items from the container one by one, displaying them to the crowd.

Items placed in the capsule on Nov. 3, 2000 included a list of all businesses and organizations in town at that date along with items from some of them—mugs from the Garnavillo mill, fire department, Garnavillo Savings Bank and funeral home; historical society ball point pen; calendar from Lanny Kuehl; Meuser Lumber Co. ad; Kevin Clefisch business card; perfume from Bernard Peterson; an old lock box front opening of a post office box; and library 50th anniversary poster. There were also items from churches, with a St. Joseph’s cookbook, St. Peter’s book and letter from the council of St. Paul’s Church.

Also among the contents was July 4 memorabilia (poster, button, raffle book and photos and a VCR tape of the parade), Nov. 1, 2000 editions of The Guttenberg Press and Clayton County Register newspapers, Birds and Blooms and Country Women magazines and the Lion’s Magazine and pin, a clothes catalog, the book “Known Dead” by Clayton County Deputy Sheriff Harstad and a copy of Arnold Roggman’s story on archeology work, a box of Tic-Tac candy, Y2K and penguin Beanie Babies, a doll and Furby key chain, jewelry pins, coins and a 2000 voter’s guide. Additionally, there were photos from the June 23, 2000 time capsule opening, clippings of Booster activities and listings of current stock prices and the prices for machinery and cars. 

The school was represented through a 2000 annual; list of the class of 2000 with names, motto and class colors; a Hawks uniform; and letters from Mrs. Troester’s third graders. 

Troester was there Oct. 17 to see the time capsule unveiled. 

“It was my son’s class,” she recalled. “It was just an honor that our class got asked to do that.”

Along with Troester’s son, Amos, other students included Darien Adams, Courtney Brandel, Nicholas Cooley, Theodore Howard, Rebecca Johnson, Abbigail Mueller, Melissa Palmer, Hilary Scherf, Lee Smith, Andrew Thein, Tyler Vifian, Kyle Wilker and Ethan Zuercher. 

“We actually found out that some of the third grade students from 2000 have third graders now that are going to be part of it today,” Petsche remarked.

Similar to 2000, the Garnavillo Community Boosters partnered with the Clayton Ridge third grade classes to fill the 2025 time capsule. 

“My husband and I drove around town and got some pictures of everything, and then I printed the pictures and I put a USB drive in there. I thought, in 25 years, will they even be able to use the technology? Will there even be a USB? You never know,” Petsche commented.

The whole process has been fun, she said. As an example, “the mill had all the employees sign a T- shirt that’s in there and Rory signed the Thomas’s menu that he put in there.”

It also contains pens, note pads, business cards, envelopes and other items from Stade Propane and Garnavillo Oil, Bischoff Insurance, New York Life - Lanny Kuehl, Golden Touch - Dawn Mueller, the Garnavillo Lions Club, Garnavillo Economic & Industrial Development Committee, Community Savings Bank, Ihde’s Service Center, Garnavillo Chiropractic and Vaughan’s Bar. The Garnavillo Historical Society supplied a 2025 calendar and the Garnavillo Public Library a brochure, annual report, book club favorites and more. St. Joseph Catholic Church, St. Peter Lutheran Church, St. Paul Lutheran Church and Gospel Hall shared brochures, bulletins or letters. 

The city of Garnavillo offered a police patch, T-shirt, binder of city information, business directory and list of city officials, organizations and churches, and pictures of the Garnavillo Firefighters Association and Garnavillo EMS members were added too. There’s a July 4 button and poster, copies of The Guttenberg Press and Our Iowa Magazine, a Wilke’s grocery ad, U.S. Cellular flip phone and Samsung smartphone and list of Gen Z vocabulary, along with current stock and financial information, corn and soybean prices and cattle sale results from the Edgewood Livestock Commission.

Clayton Ridge is included through a 2025-2026 school calendar and copy of the school fight song, as well as a list of third grade students in Janita Stavroplus’s and Elly Meyer’s classes. Each class also submitted unique items to the time capsule.

“Jan’s class did a boomerang they all signed, and then there’s a poem that they’re going to read to go along with that and a picture. Elly’s class, they all did ribbons for how tall they are and wrote their names on them, and they wrote letters to themselves, too,” Petsche shared.

All of the items were placed in an orange marine storage box from Cabela’s/Bass Pro Shops that will have silicone around the lid to keep out moisture, bugs and other pests. The box will be buried in the same location, next to the steps, but not as deep as the previous capsule.

Third graders brought their own small shovels to the Oct. 17 event and, one scoop at a time, helped cover the time capsule.

Petsche joked that it will now be up to some of these students to remember to dig up the newer capsule in 2050.

“They need to put this on their calendars to dig this back up because I’ll be almost 75. I don’t know if I’m going to remember that,” she said.

While a lot has changed in Garnavillo—and in the world—since 2000, Troester noted there are some constants that continue now and, hopefully, into the future.

“You know, the love of the small community has not ever changed here,” she said. “This is something that can’t happen in the big city. It would have been destroyed.”