If you could save time in a barrel.

You would do what the Natrona County School District did 25 years ago.

Monday evening, district trustees, and three people who stuffed a plastic barrel in 1990 -- Wyoming's centennial -- opened it to find children's books, laminated newspaper articles, student art, school district memos, a pamphlet from the University of Wyoming Cooperative Extension Service, an empty fast-food hamburger carton, a floppy disk, and a VHS tape.

Ken Thomasma was among the three when he put in two books -- "Naya Nuki, Shoshone Girl Who Ran" and "The Truth About Sacajawea" -- he wrote in the 1980s, and returned to pull them out, he said.

"Twenty-five years ago, the children of Natrona County from Midwest all the way to Poison Spider, voted my children's book their favorite to go in the time capsule that's now being opened 25 years later," Thomasma said.

Earlier this year, he called the school district to ask about the time capsule, which had been buried too well and forgotten, he said. District employees found it and dug it up. The time capsule -- a white plastic barrel decorated with student artwork -- was encased in a larger white barrel for protection.

Thomasma began teaching in 1953, and moved from Michigan to Jackson 25 years later to write books. He decided to stay in Jackson. He drove to Casper for Monday's event, he said.

He wished children could have attended the opening of the time capsule, he said.

"It would mean something to children about their state, and about time, and about what people think is valuable to be remembered," Thomasma said. "It would be an education."

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