Historic Bremen has put together a time capsule filled with items commemorating the year that was 2020. A lot happened last year: the COVID-19 pandemic, major road repairs lasting months, businesses closing temporarily or permanently, employees working from home, remote school attendance, Black Lives Matter protests, stimulus checks, limits on social gatherings….

It was a difficult year especially for teenagers, who tried to attend school and carry on their social lives without infecting one another with the coronavirus. We at the Bremen History Center partnered with the high school student council to collect items from the school, from businesses, and from everyday life that represent 2020 and put them in a time capsule to be opened 50 years later, in the spring of 2071.

2021 - Town Hall planter

The time capsule has been deposited in the new planter in front of the Bremen Town Hall and will soon get a plaque to ensure it is remembered and dug up in the far-flung future when today’s high school seniors are in their late 60s.

Thanks especially to Grant Kauffman, president of the student council, and to Trend Weldy, town director, for helping me, Derek Jensen, put the project together, as well as to others who helped gather and assemble the time capsule.

You can browse the items in the capsule (a 3-foot long, 8-inch PVC pipe) in our gallery below. It includes photographs and website screen captures, both printed and digital on an older model iPad (with chargers included), as well as masks, letters to the future townsfolk, toys, food containers, a Donald Trump mask, Black Lives Matter items, menus and local business cards, and more.

2021 - Wooden Peel pizza box and calendar