Cylinder buried in Bisbee reveals mystery

SIERRA VISTA, Ariz. — Why was a copy of the Aug. 30, 1932, issue of The Bisbee Daily Review in the container?

Why weren't there other items inside the heavy tube?

Was it even a time capsule?

The answer is — well the answers may never be known.

It was about a year ago when Hubert Polo Rodriguez, who was helping to clean out a home in Old Bisbee, came upon the container in the backyard.

Saying he doesn't remember the address of the home or the name of the elderly woman who lived in it until she died, Rodriguez said he and others from Verhelst Recovery House were assisting the woman's family in cleaning up the house and property.

The family was donating the furniture in the house to the Verhelst House to sell the items to help the facility which supports recovering addicts.

He was working in the backyard, cleaning up the area, when he noticed some wires sticking out of the ground.

Pulling on the wires was fruitless, because they would not come out.

So, Rodriguez dug up the ground until he struck the metal container.

Opening it, Rodriguez and others saw the feathers and the newspaper and nothing else.

"I was hoping it would have something valuable in it, but it didn't," he said.

The value was to whoever put the items in and buried the cylinder.

Asking a family member and one of the clean-up bosses if he could keep the container and its contents and told yes, Rodriguez brought it to the Herald/Review Wednesday to see if anyone might shed light on a mystery, which has become personal to him.

The three feathers, of different sizes, all have brown as the main color.

"I don't know what kind of bird they're from," he said.

The six pages of the paper, which have yellowed and have to be carefully turned — the container was well-sealed and with no evidence of water damage to the paper was evident — probably held some significance to the person who placed the items in the metal container and eventually buried the device.

The front page was full of local, state, nation and international news.