Fallen flag pole reveals time capsule

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ANCHORAGE, Alaska, Sept. 6 (UPI) -- The fall of a 110-foot Sitka spruce flagpole in Anchorage, Alaska, revealed a time capsule placed atop the pole by firefighters in 1961.

The flagpole, which fell during a windstorm Tuesday night, had been topped with a silver globe that split when it hit the ground, revealing an aging Maxwell House coffee canister filled with items including a May 6, 1961, copy of the Anchorage Daily News, a 1960 penny and a Union 76 gas card bearing the name Charles Gillick, the Anchorage Daily News reported Thursday.

Gillick said Wednesday he and his colleagues assembled the time capsule when he was a 22-year-old volunteer firefighter in Anchorage. He said the group decided to put together the capsule when they discovered the silver globe was going to be stored in their downtown fire station prior to the pole being erected.

"We said, 'Let's put something in there that will be for posterity,'" Gillick said. "I always wondered if (the globe and flagpole) still had the stuff in it or not."