Mrs. Belvedere

For the last few days, the talk around Tulsa has been focused on a buried 1957 Belvedere automobile. You may have heard about this on your local or national news, but around here it has been the talk. I guess 50 years ago the citizens of Tulsa buried, in a cement vault underground, a brand new Belvedere. They wrapped it in a special covering that was to help prevent rust and help keep the vehicle in pristine condition. Well when the top came off they found water in about 1/3 of the vault. So much for protection from the elements.

Tonight we sat at Mazzio's watching the live unveiling on our local CBS affilitate. The car was not in great shape, in fact there was major rust damage. Boyd Coddington from American Hot Rod and his team where in town to help get the vehicle opened up and hopefully even get it running. Unfortunately, it will never run with the current motor. In fact, they even had a problem getting the doors opened up.

When the car was buried, the local residents included items from the day, some of which were put into a time capsule (which survived nicely). Some of the items in the car included: bottles of gasoline (24 cents a gallon), a case of Schlitz beer, a woman's purse and its contents, an unpaid parking ticket, and cans of oil. In the time capsule, there was in perfect condition an American flag with 48 stars, a city directory, a letter from Tulsa Public Schools, postcards with citizen's guesses to the population of Tulsa in 2007, an aerial photo of Tulsa in 1957, and various other Tulsa paperwork.

The purpose behind the population guesses is quite cool. The person who made the closest guess wins the car. Now if that person is no longer alive, it would go to one of their relatives.

What an exciting day!! I hope they will take the time to clean the vehicle and find out how much damage it really had over the last 50 years. You can see more photos here and Check out this short video of the background behind the buried Belvedere.