PANAMA CITY — Five decades from now Bay County will be reminded the Florida State Seminoles football team won the national championship with a perfect season this year.
Though the game was played in 2014, the rest of the team’s victories came in the same year as the county’s centennial, so a newspaper marking the historic 14th win went into the time capsule dedicated Friday.
Other items in the capsule include a vial of beach sand, restaurant menus from JR’s Rib Shack and Capt. Anderson’s, footage of U.S. Rep. Steve Southerland, R-Panama City, speaking on the House floor, a Bay Town Trolley stop directory, a commemorative centennial coin, the Dec. 31 issue of The News Herald, an invitation to the July 1 McKenzie Park 100th birthday celebration, a copy of Gov. Rick Scott’s county centennial proclamation, a news article on the most popular toys of 1913 and 2013, and a $100 bill.
Those items were among the scores of pieces of memorabilia in the two silver-colored time capsules. The capsules are locked, sealed and stored inside a case in the local history room at the Bay County Public Library’s main branch.
The capsules will remain in the room 50 years and be opened Jan. 17, 2064. They will not be buried. It’s become common practice to no longer put the time capsules in the ground, said Glenda Walters, Historical Society of Bay County president.
“There are a number of them that are lost over the years or that flooding damages” the items, she said, adding, “We followed the trend, I think, and put it in a better known location.”
Walters said the 2013 centennial was a “party all year long,” which offered an opportunity to look to the past, but the time capsule offers an opportunity to look to the future.
“The party is coming to a close … and the culmination of these efforts and events comes to the gathering of material and placing it in these time capsules,” she said, adding, “You might say we’ve been thinking of the 100 years past; now we’ve done something for the future to enjoy.”
Sponsored by the county’s Centennial Committee and the Historical Society, the gathering included dignitaries from Gulf Coast State College, the County Commission and the Sheriff’s Office, and several school children attended.
North Bay Haven Charter Academy fourth-graders Abbey Laine Shea and Stevens L. Roberson also read their contest winning essays as part of the ceremony, about a day in the life of a student in the county. Wesley Ryan Wilmot, a seventh-grader at Breakfast Point Academy, read his winning essay, too.
Centennial Committee chairwoman Terri Pierce also fondly reflected on the year of events that celebrated the county’s 100th birthday.
“When I look back on this (project) I think it is going to be one of the most rewarding, interesting, enlightening things that I’ve ever done. It’s just been a lot of fun,” she said.