Hundreds watched Friday as a crane lifted a muddy package from a hole in the courthouse lawn: a 1957 Plymouth Belvedere buried to celebrate Oklahoma’s 50 years of statehood.

The wrapped car — a gold-and-white two-door hardtop — appeared brown and red as it came out of the hole.

The car spent the last half-century covered in three layers of protective material and encased in a 12-by-20-foot concrete vault, supposedly tough enough to withstand a nuclear attack.

 Excavators found water halfway up on the car’s fenders and evidence that water could have been to the top of the vault at one point, said Art Couch, who is heading up the unearthing project.
The first news of the water crushed event organizers, with some wiping away tears as heavy rain fell.

«It was very disappointing,» said event producer Kelly McElroy. «I think we probably anticipated there would be some water; after 50 years you don’t know what you’re going to get.

The car was placed on a flatbed truck so it could be unwrapped, spruced up and officially unveiled Friday evening at the Tulsa Convention Center. Spectators packed the streets to glimpse its journey.

Whether the car will start was unknown. Those who gathered to watch it being pulled out of the ground did not seem to care.

Also buried with it were 10 gallons of gasoline — in case internal combustion engines became obsolete by 2007 — a case of beer, and the contents of a typical woman’s handbag placed in the glove compartment: 14 bobby pins, a bottle of tranquilizers, a lipstick, a pack of gum, tissues, a pack of cigarettes, matches and $2.43.

There was also a spool of microfilm that recorded the entries of a contest to determine who would win the car: the person who guessed the closest of what Tulsa’s population would be in 2007 — 382,457 — would win.

That person, or his or her heirs, will get the car and a $100 savings account, worth about $1,200 today with interest.

Sources:

PR Inside:

http://www.pr-inside.com/us-state-s-centennial-excavators-find-r154320.htm

 MSNBC.com:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19249855/

A Gwinnett County grand jury on Wednesday indicted two women accused of running a brothel in a million-dollar mansion in one of suburban Atlanta’s most exclusive neighborhoods.Lisa Ann Taylor, 42, and Nicole Alaine Probert, 30, face charges of prostitution, conspiracy and racketeering. Taylor - a former Penthouse Pet of the Month and exotic dancer who uses the stage name Melissa Wolf  - was also charged with cocaine possession, marijuana possession and keeping a place of prostitution.Taylor, alias Melissa Wolf, and Probert, aka Brigit Fox and Naughty Nikki, were arrested Jan. 3 after an investigation into “The Erotic Review” Web site. Content on the site included performance reviews, discussion boards and price listings for sex. Both Taylor and Fox are free on bond but face charges of violating the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, prostitution, keeping a place of prostitution and conspiracy to possess cocaine.District Attorney Danny Porter said that among the services offered was sex with the centerfold and other women for an entire weekend for $10,000.

Arielle Newman, a cross-country runner at Notre Dame Academy on Staten Island, died after her body absorbed high levels of methyl salicylate, an anti-inflammatory found in sports creams such as Bengay and Icy Hot, the New York City medical examiner said Friday.

A medical examiner blamed the 17-year-old track star’s death on the use of too much muscle cream, the kind used to soothe aching legs after exercise.

The medical examiner’s spokeswoman, Ellen Borakove, said the teen used “topical medication to excess.” She said it was the first time that her office had reported a death from using a sports cream.

Newman, who garnered numerous track awards, died April 13. She had gone to a party the night before, then returned home and spent hours talking with her mother.

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Arielle Newman Killed by a Toxic Dose of BenGay