What do you put in a time capsule?

"What will people, 50 years from now, want to know?" Andrea Mercado, director of the Log House Museum asks.

In collaboration with the Seattle Statue of Liberty Plaza Project, Mercado is collecting memorabilia to include in a time capsule to be buried at the Alki Statue of Liberty plaza.

"What can we put in the time capsule now," Mercado asked, "that tells people what was happening back in 2008 that determined the city they live in?"

Included so far are a schedule of events of the rededication, art work created at a craft table and donated that day, a current map of Seattle - and a roll of new pennies from the bank.

"In 50 years, pennies won't exist," Mercado said. "They'll be pretty valuable by then." She joked people can use them to start the fundraising for the next renovation of the statue and plaza.

Paul and Libby Carr, co-chairs of the Seattle Statue of Liberty Plaza Project, have been interviewing residents, answering the question "What does liberty mean to me?" or retelling a memory that includes the statue. The interviews will be burned to a gold CD and placed in the time capsule.

The museum will keep a CD player in its collection.

"We'll have it on a maintenance schedule," Mercado said. "To make sure something exists to play the CD on in 50 years."

Sarah Frederick, museum assistant, will also keep a log of the contents of the time capsule, along with the names of the donors.

"In 50 years, when we pull this one out, we may want to look for the donors, if they're still around, or their family," said Frederick.

A date hasn't been set for burying the capsule at the plaza, possibly in October.

The original time capsule, placed in February 1952, was opened in July 2000. Sometime before, while someone was doing major gardening at the statue, a backhoe "smooshed" the time capsule, Mercado said, letting water into the metal box.

Plastic scout badges survived, but a hand-sized, metal-cast replica of the statue rusted and broke in half. These are displayed at the Log House Museum.

What remains of a logbook - containing 5,000 signatures of Boy Scouts who had won fellowship awards, and a roster of the scouts who donated money for the original statue and pedestal - is protected in storage at South Seattle Community College. Emergency restoration of the sodden book included deep freezing and vacuum drying.

The new time capsule will be a double-layered tube, 4 feet long and 1 foot in diameter, designed to hold papers, photos and a few small artifacts. The outer layer will be polypropylene, inert to water and salt in the soil. The inner container will be made from aluminum, cold fused shut with waterproof sealant.

Items for the time capsule may be donated at the Log House Museum, at 3003 61st Ave. S.W., one block south of the Alki Statue of Liberty Plaza. The museum is open noon to 4, Thursdays through Sundays. For more information, call 938-5293, e-mail loghousemuseum@comcast.net, or visit www.loghousemuseum.org or www.sealady.org.

Matthew G. Miller is a freelance writer living in the Admiral District. He may be contacted through wseditor@robinsonnews.com.