A few pieces of Brookhaven will be preserved for half a centuryThursday morning when last year’s Sesquicentennial celebration isformally ended with the burying of a time capsule.

Sesquicentennial Steering Committee Chairwoman Rita Rich said acapped, 30-inch piece of PVC pipe containing several publicationsand pictures of 2008’s yearlong celebration will be buried inRailroad Park near the Foster Smith log cabin to be unearthed andopened in 2059. Thursday’ ceremony will begin at 11:15 a.m.

The site of the burial will be recorded in documents at theBrookhaven-Lincoln County Chamber of Commerce and marked by acommemorative park bench donated by Brookhaven Monument.

Rich said the capsule will contain an edition of The DAILYLEADER’s 2008 FOCUS edition, a Newcomer Magazine, a list ofsteering committee members and meeting agendas, a SesquicentennialT-shirt and several flyers and advertisements for 150-yearcelebration activities.

“We debated on whether to put a DVD in there, but we decided themachines may be out of date by 2059,” she said. “We decided to usejust printed materials. Printed material never becomesoutdated.”

The capsule will also include a letter to Brookhaven’s futureresidents written by Rich, in which she plans to encourage thecapsule retrievers to enjoy and revere the distant BrookhavenBicentennial.

“To me there was a lot more interest in the centennial in 1959than there was in the 150 (celebration) last year,” she said. “It’sjust the changing of the times. I guess because of the 50-yeardifference, people have too busy of a lifestyle now.”

Rich said the capsule’s openers 50 years from now will be ableto enjoy a rich history of Brookhaven, as the 2059 festivities willsee the opening of both the 2008 and 1959 capsules.

“I think they’ll be excited about what’s in it, examining itscontent, reading some of the articles and finding out who did whatin 2008,” she said. “We’ve made such tremendous progress since 1959- it’s unreal. Hopefully, the bicentennial will be a bigcelebration, and it should. I won’t be around to see it, but timewill tell.”