SPIRIT LAKE — The suspense was palpable as people excitedly peered into the small pit Mikie Cutler was excavating on the Timberlake High School front lawn Monday afternoon.

Through soil, rocks and thick tree roots, Cutler dug for two barrels that were buried 25 years ago, filled with items placed by Athol Elementary and Timberlake High students to celebrate the outgoing century while welcoming a new one. 

“I cannot stand it,” said an eager Patricia Wilson, a retired Athol Elementary teacher whose former students were among those involved in the time capsule project she also helped facilitate.

“I want so badly for him to hit something that we know what it is," she said. "We have all been just on pins and needles the last couple weeks waiting for this day to come."

Timberlake freshman Elizabeth Applegate, who documented the event for the Tiger TV school news channel, said she was feeling curious about the capsule from a news standpoint.

"We get to show it to everyone in our school, so I'm really excited to see what we can do and how we can present it," she said.

After about 20 eternal minutes and questioning if the location was exact, one red barrel was struck, then finally the other.

To the chagrin of the onlookers, the tops of the barrels had fallen in, allowing dirt, rocks and mud into the time capsules. Water had infiltrated plastic bags, papers had decomposed and mold had gathered on film prints. Foul and funky aromas wafted from the barrels.

However, not all was lost. Some photos, sports gear, laminated items and a vinyl U.S. Postal Service banner reading "Let's celebrate the century" were uncovered in fairly good condition.

"The Postal Service will never die!" retired Athol Postmaster Barbara Puckett declared as she lifted the banner for all to see.

Puckett organized the time capsule activity in 2000 because Postal Service workers had received "Celebrate the Century" stamps and were tasked with involving their communities in projects that included the commemorative stamps, which honored the different decades.

“Mrs. Wilson was my son’s third grade teacher,” Puckett said. “She is a true philatelist — a stamp collector — so I got with her and said, ‘Hey, what do you think about doing a time capsule?’ and then it evolved to this."

Timberlake counselor and softball coach Casi Lupinacci was a Class of 2000 graduating senior when the capsules were buried. She tried to separate a packet of wet letters that were barely readable and emitting a pungent smell.

“It’s crazy, it doesn’t feel like it’s been 25 years,” she said. “I think I remember putting letters to ourselves in here, but I don’t remember anything else about it.”

Lupinacci was in the same graduating class as Cutler, who wore gloves as he rifled through the second barrel. He said he didn't remember doing the capsule project.

"It was back when you all had to write in cursive,” said his mom, Peggy Cutler, who held a previously encapsulated laminated Coeur d'Alene Press that included a story about Timberlake's first principal, the late Van Tuinstra.

Former Athol mom Lynda Barrowcliff went through the capsule items on behalf of her daughter, Alycia, who now lives out of town but had heard of the time capsule unearthing.

“She goes, ‘Mom, go get my stuff,’" Barrowcliff said, looking at what was left of some photos.

Although much of the time capsule contents have become trash, it was a treasured moment as retired teachers, former students and family members reminisced and reconnected after years of losing contact. They embraced each other, snapped photos together and caught up on how their lives are all these years later.

Nick Berger and Aubrey Sanders were third graders when they appeared in the photo that ran with the 2000 Coeur d’Alene Press article when the barrels were buried.

“It’s obviously a bummer that a lot of it’s disintegrated, but it’s really exciting and I’m so glad we did it," Sanders said.

She said she remembered the newspaper photo being taken, but not much about what she put in the capsule.

“After I’m seeing things, I’m slowly remembering like, ‘Oh yeah, we were supposed to make predictions about the space program,’ and some things like that,” Berger said.

When asked what Timberlake should do with the newly excavated hole, Berger and Sanders agreed it should be the home of a new time capsule.

“This is the experiment,” Berger said. “Now you can do something a little better. To keep this going would be kind of cool.” 

“Laminate everything,” Sanders said.

    A small crowd gathers on the Timberlake High School lawn to watch as a time capsule is unearthed Monday.
  

    Barbara Puckett, a retired Athol Post Office postmaster, exclaims, "The Postal Service will never die!" as a U.S. Postal Service banner is unearthed Monday afternoon from a time capsule buried in the year 2000.
  

Timberlake High graduate and current staff member Casi Lupinacci grimaces as she handles foul-smelling papers Monday during the unearthing of a time capsule on the high school's campus.

    Retired Athol Elementary School teacher Patricia Wilson, left, and retired Athol Postmaster Barbara Puckett on Monday hold up a barely legible time capsule content written by students in the year 2000 that reads: “Today we are wondering about the future. We wonder what crayons will be like. We wonder what we will be like. Most of all, we ask to be happy and healthy.”
  

    The majority of the contents of the Athol Elementary and Timberlake High year 2000 time capsule had disintegrated by the time they were unearthed Monday, but those who attended the ceremony were still excited to reconnect and see what was left of the contents.