If it hadn’t been for the intervention of a Watsonville historian, a bit of history would likely have been lost forever.
After Jane Borg, an archivist with the Pajaro Valley Historical Association, learned that the Union Pacific station on Salinas Road was to be torn down, she remembered that a time capsule had been placed behind a cornerstone there in 1949.
Workers cut away the stone and the mortar, then pried the box loose from the wall.
Finally, the box was opened, and Borg and Union Pacific employee David Pickett, both wearing white gloves to protect what was inside, slowly began to take out the artifacts.
These included several business cards, notes, railroad regulation books and timetables, many of which bore the names of people who have since died and businesses that have faded into the annals of history.
The full story appears on the Register-Pajaronian website.