Time capsule to be opened on city's 150th

TEXARKANA - Once the Texarkana Museum System completes celebrating its 50th year golden anniversary at the end of this year there will soon something six times that age to celebrate.

With just two more years to go, Texarkana itself will reach it sesquicentennial birthday, turning 150 years old as of April 4, 2023.

With the Twin Cities first being charter in 1873, the town first held a week-long Bi-State Centennial celebration from April 7 to April 14, 1973.
While plans for the sesquicentennial are still preliminary, TMS Curator Jamie Simmons said the 2023 event will likely have the same full participation from both cities as well as the Texarkana Chamber of Commerce and perhaps even the school districts, with Museum System itself playing a central key role.

As for the Texarkana Centennial Time Capsule itself, which was buried several feet deep in Morris Sheppard Park, near the downtown U.S Post Office' west side, on April 14, 1973, Simmons said it will be unearthed for all to see.

"From what I've learned, the capsule may contain whatever may have best symbolized what life was like in 1973," she said. "I understand that it contains a VHS tape - which was basically top-of-the-line technology back then - and the museum does have a VHS tape player which will allow us to view the tape."

A 57-page copy of the original Texarkana Centennial Historical Program itself contains at least a 10-page history of the Texarkana genesis as a railroad town and pictorial history of the town's 1923 50th Anniversary.

Texarkana resident Ann Nicholas, who was a Texas High School student at the time the town 100 years old, said she remembers the being at least 100 or more residents attending the capsule burial.

"Many people celebrated by dressing up in clothing that went back through the decades - at least to the 1920s," she said. "I wore a long gown that looked like it went back in time - but I don't have it anymore."

Upcoming Events