It is time for a new segment, introducing... Weird Wednesday! Ever so often I will be finding a weird but cool story to write about. I thought it would be fun. So for our first Weird Wednesday, have you heard of the Plymouth Belvedere that was buried?
Miss Belvedere was buried in 1957 in a time capsule in Tulsa Oklahoma to celebrate 50 years of becoming a state. This vehicle was buried with a bunch of other items that were popular with the people of Tulsa and the times. The car was even buried with gasoline because the people were unsure what would be used in the future. The Belvedere was to be unearthed 50 years later, in 2007. The car was shrink wrapped to protect it from water and rusting and buried in a vault. Since it was buried during the Cold War, the people of Tulsa made sure it was submerged into a vault that could withstand a nuclear explosion.
Miss Belvedere was not only a part of the time capsule but she would be a prize to someone when unearthed in 2007. To enter the contest, the people of Tulsa had to just guess what the city’s population would be in 2007! The guesses were buried with the car.
Fast forward to 2007, June 15 to be exact, Miss Belvedere and the other relics were to be unearthed! As the capsule was opened, onlookers saw Miss Belvedere sitting in stagnant water. The vault built was supposed to withstand a nuclear explosion but was not designed to be waterproof. Examiners actually found out that the Plymouth Belvedere was completely submerged in water a few several times over the 50 years.
Unfortunately Miss Belvedere was completely rusted from the inside to the outside. The interior disintegrated, the engine was rusted so bad that there was no hope it would run again. The people of Tulsa were heartbroken. The winners of this vehicle had died by the time they unearthed it. So Miss Belvedere went to the winners' sisters! They had a goal to restore it, but unfortunately was put on the wayside for years. Miss Belvedere eventually had some of the rust removed over the years and in 2017, was put in her final resting place, a museum in Illinois.
The picture above was Miss Belvedere in 2017. You can see that she looks significantly better than she did that day in 2007. I hope you enjoy this new segment! This was a really interesting story and we here at Jerry Noonan’s Auto Center, hope you loved reading along!
* credit of information and photos from here
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