Wheaton sends a message to the future: Hello 2059

A huge responsibility has been placed on the shoulders 5-year-old Caleb Laoang.

When he's 55, Caleb likely will be among the few who remember watching Saturday's burial of Wheaton's time capsule.

So when the time capsule is unearthed for Wheaton's bicentennial anniversary in 2059, Caleb can make sure historians dig it the right spot in front of city hall.

About 50 residents gathered to watch the small box put into the ground. It contained Wheaton North High School cheerleading uniform, photographs, books written by local authors, a cellular phone and battery, a variety of items from Wheaton's sesquicentennial anniversary celebration and a letter from Mayor Michael Gresk, including his pay stub, to the future mayor in 2059.

A resident also included a cure for the Chicago Cubs billy goat curse, just in case the Cubs don't win between now and the next 50 years.

"It's been said that teachers touch the future so if that's the case today then anyone who contributed to this time capsule is a bit of a teacher," Gresk said. "Because aren't we all touching the future by putting our thoughts and ideas and words and artifacts into this time capsule?"

Before the box was placed in the buried vault, many attendees signed the top of the watertight vault, just one more way to prove they were there 50 years prior.

"I won't be here to see it, I'm sure, but it's neat that my kids or grandkids may be around to see this opened and see I was here to send this message to them," Todd Schletter said. "It's just cool."

In June, the city opened a time capsule from 1959 as part of its yearlong sesquicentennial celebration. That capsule was created to mark Wheaton's 100th anniversary and was originally buried at the old police station site along Wheaton Avenue. It was unearthed for the first time when the building was demolished in 1992 and reburied at the current police station site along Liberty Drive.

When it was finally opened, the 1959 capsule contained items such as posters, toys and letters.

Alberta Adamson, president and CEO of the Center for History in Wheaton, said the city is still working to track down family members of those who wrote the letters in 1959.

"Will the families who wrote the letters (buried Saturday) still be in town," she asked. "We still haven't located some of the families that the 1959 letters were written to but we haven't discarded them. There's always hope."