CLINTON - With the demolition of the former junior high school in Clinton, officials found an unexpected link to the past: a time capsule dated 1912.

Principal John Pine said crews discovered the capsule Dec. 4. It is stored in a trophy case near the entrance of the new junior high school.

"It's a copper box, and it's about a foot long and six inches or so wide," Superintendent Jeff Holmes said. "We are very excited about it and very intrigued as to what might be in it."

A label provides the date and the name of Metz-Bowles Co. Clinton genealogist Carole Wylder said Herman Metz and Edward Bowles ran a sheet metal business at 219 E. Main St., building furnaces and later selling electrical appliances from 1910 to 1930.

Before starting the business, Metz was a railroad worker and tinsmith. Bowles worked as a machinist for the Illinois Central Railroad.

"Other than that, we don't know much at this time," Pine said. "We're going to have a big event sometime in January where we will open the time capsule and see what's inside."

Wylder is among those anxious for the ceremony.

"I can't imagine finding that and not opening it up on the spot," she said. "If I had found that, I would have been too curious to know what's inside and probably would have opened it up right then."

Holmes said special care will have to be taken to open the container. "The best way to open it is with a can opener," Holmes said. "But we have to be careful to preserve the materials inside."

Wylder believes there could be more than one time capsule at the site, since additions were built on at least three occasions.

"I think we are going to find some old newspapers, memos from the time and things of that nature in this one," she said. "For a genealogist to be able to participate in something like this is very special."

kbarlow@pantagraph.com