Girl Scouts time capsule, lost long ago in Northport, is accidentally unearthed

A piece of Girl Scouts history that had been lost for decades has been rediscovered, accidentally, in Northport.

A contractor at the Northport Historical Society and Museum found a time capsule buried in the museum's front yard last month during a building renovation project.

The capsule had been buried by Brownie Troop 574 in 1987 and originally was meant to be opened in 2012 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Girl Scouts of Suffolk County.

But when the time came, no one could find it.

Then, on June 16, contractor Charlie Errigo said he was digging at the museum, which has been temporarily closed to install an accessibility ramp, and struck something that he initially thought was a sewer line. When he saw a PVC pipe with large green lettering reading "Girl Scouts 1987," he realized he had uncovered something different entirely. 

"Once they started looking at it, I asked, 'Were there any cookies in there?'" Errigo said with a laugh. 

Museum Executive Director Terry Reid was thrilled by the discovery. "I said, 'You found it! You found it! That's so exciting. We've been looking for this for years,'" she said.

Letters, photos and a Betamax tape

Inside the capsule were photographs, a record of the girls' names, a program commemorating the 75th anniversary of the Suffolk County Girl Scouts, letters describing what the troop was doing and a Betamax tape.

Many of the items had been wrapped in aluminum foil, and some of the photos had been laminated. Elizabeth Abrahams-Riordan, the museum's curator, is now working to preserve the contents.

Holding the 75th anniversary program, Abrahams-Riordan described the delicate preservation process. "Once it dried out, it was pretty easy to get the aluminum foil off of, but ... there's some mold, so we're being very careful with it so we can digitize it before we put any fluid on it," she said.

The outdated Betamax tape also will be preserved and transferred to a USB digital file, Abrahams-Riordan said.

After the discovery, the historical society shared a Facebook video showing the time capsule and its contents. The post prompted an outpouring of responses from former Girl Scouts who had helped bury it, and from others who said they have time capsules waiting to be found — burying them was apparently a popular trend among local scouts in the 1980s.

Dusting off memories

Lauren Hallam, one of the scouts who helped create the time capsule, said seeing the video transported her back to the day the capsule was buried.

 "When I saw that, all of a sudden the memories of us putting it together came back to me," said Hallam, who now lives in Smithtown.

The video also reminded Hallam of her mother, Laurel Jensen Gerken, as a younger woman. She had served as co-leader of the troop and helped organize the project.

"It was kind of emotional seeing my mom's handwriting, because she had written down all the names of the girls that were in the troop and the moms that helped the troop," Hallam said.

The excitement was shared by Kerri Ingwersen, community programs coordinator for Girl Scouts of Suffolk County, who was also a member of a Brownie troop in 1987 that had buried a time capsule nearby.

"My mom and I have been looking for this time capsule for years. We had tears in our eyes," Ingwersen said, though the rediscovered time capsule wasn't her troop's.

"It's like a buried treasure. I was 7 years old, and now I'm over 40 years old, and it's fantastic. ... We've gotten in touch with a lot of girls from our original troop. They're excited to see what's in there," she said.

Reid said the time capsule also offers a glimpse into how much, and how little, life has changed.

"I think that one of the things it shows us is how technology has changed," Reid said. "It tells us more of an analog world, where real photographs were the technology of the day. It really tells you about the community at that time, but it also shows how not much has changed, either."

Once the contents are preserved, they will be displayed in an exhibit for the museum's grand reopening next month.

The discovery also has sparked a renewed search for other forgotten Girl Scout time capsules.

"This could have been a piece of history that was lost," Reid said. "But now we'll be able to have it all together as a collection in one public space that more and more people will be able to see and enjoy and learn from in the future."