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By the third excavation attempt, everyone involved had started to wonder if the missing time capsule had become more myth than history.

There had already been two attempted digs behind the Walls Elementary School sign. Shovels hit rocks. Soil was moved carefully by hand. Old memories were tested. Former students and administrators tried their best to remember exactly where the capsule had been buried back on Jan. 3, 2000, when Walls Elementary students sealed away a snapshot of life at the start of a new millennium.

Then came the backhoe.

And finally — after weeks of digging, laughter, problem-solving and determination — the long-lost time capsule was found.

For Anthropology Professor Linda Spurlock and a team of �Ը������� University student volunteers, the excavation became more than just a search project. It turned into a community-wide collaboration involving archaeology, filmmaking, storytelling and a whole lot of muddy excitement.

The project was organized alongside Edward “Chip” Hawks, Gifted Specialist and advisor for the Film Club 5 (student group) at Walls Elementary School, who documented the entire adventure for a student-produced documentary titled Y2K Unearthed. The film will premiere May 27, 2026, at The Kent Stage in downtown Kent. The group will also show their feature film about time travel titled .

The documentary follows the students as they investigate, excavate and ultimately recover the time capsule while interviewing former principals, school board members, Kent City Schools administrators, alumni and community members connected to Walls Elementary across generations.

Spurlock, an experienced archaeologist who has participated in digs around the world, was recruited to help lead the excavation effort because of her extensive fieldwork background. She, in turn, brought along �Ը������� student volunteers to help excavate the site and explain proper archaeological techniques to the elementary students following every step of the process. Spurlock’s student volunteers included Seth Stanley, Tyler Cook, Holly Atkinson and alumna Jessica Madden.

“We’re going to very slowly and carefully excavate [the] time capsule that was buried 25 years ago,” Spurlock explained during the first dig attempt. “We don’t want to hurt things.”

She described the excavation process as a real archaeological site investigation — opening a broad area carefully rather than simply digging straight down.

“We’re not gonna just drill down with one shovel and go, thunk,” she said.

That careful approach turned out to be necessary.

The first excavation attempt on Oct. 31 attracted a crowd that included former principals, alumni, Board of Education members and community residents eager to see the capsule reopened. But after plenty of digging, the capsule remained missing.

So, the group came back for a second attempt.

And still no capsule.

The repeated digging efforts became part of the fun.

At one point during the Halloween-season excavation, one �Ը������� student volunteer showed up dressed as a character from the movie The Crow. But many of the elementary students thought the costume looked more like Ozzy Osbourne and enthusiastically chanted “Ozzy! Ozzy! Ozzy!” while the student dug through the dirt. They wanted Ozzy to find it.

The nickname stuck for the rest of the project.

Meanwhile, students from the film group continued capturing interviews and reactions throughout the search.

“It’s just a fabulous learning experience on so many levels,” Superintendent Tom Larkin said during filming. “It’s just a great event for the community.”

Board of Education member David Myers praised the partnership with �Ը������� and the excitement surrounding the dig.

“You can just see it on everyone’s faces that this is a really special day,” Myers said.

Former Walls Elementary student and current Board of Education member P.J. Errera said the project immediately brought back memories from his own time at the school 25 years earlier.

“When they announced this dig and said that it was from the year 2000, the principals were Miss Motley and Miss Walker, and I was having flashbacks,” Errera said.

By the third excavation attempt on Nov. 21 Kent City Schools brought in a backhoe to assist with the search.

This time, the crew finally struck something solid underground.

“At first we thought maybe we hit the water table,” Spurlock recalled later. “That was not the water table. That was just a bunch of water that was in the box.”

The lid partially broke during recovery, and water poured from the capsule as the team worked carefully to lift it out of the ground. But despite years underground, many of the artifacts survived.

Soon, students and volunteers were carefully passing muddy artifacts out of the excavation pit one item at a time.

Inside were handwritten reflections, school memorabilia, old newspaper pages, coins, photographs, cereal box fronts and even a 3.5-inch floppy disk — a piece of technology that fascinated many of today’s students.

“There’s a floppy disk in here,” one student said while examining the collection. “We don’t use floppy disks anymore.”

Another student became fascinated by the old coins and paper artifacts pulled from the box. Others laughed while flipping through photos and reading childhood career dreams written by students from 2000.

One especially meaningful moment came when Errera was reunited with items and memories from his elementary school years, including a recovered booklet featuring student photos and handwritten statements (including his own) about what they hoped to become when they grew up.

After the excavation, the artifacts were carefully dried and spread across classroom tables inside Hawks’ room, where students examined them like museum curators piecing together a forgotten chapter of local history.

“The diversity of remarks, handwriting, pop culture references— it’s like an explosion of fascinating ideas,” Spurlock said while reviewing the collection.

For �Ը������� students, the experience became a chance to apply archaeology skills in a community setting while helping younger students experience hands-on history.

For the Walls Elementary film crew, it became an opportunity to step into the role of filmmakers, interviewers and documentarians while preserving a story deeply connected to their school.

And for everyone involved, finally finding the elusive time capsule after three attempts made the ending even sweeter.

“This was so exciting,” Spurlock said. “I was just absolutely thrilled. I was bursting with excitement.”

The public is invited to attend the premiere of Y2K Unearthed followed by Architects of Fate on May 27 at 4 p.m. at The Kent Stage. The screening will celebrate the work of Hawks’ student filmmakers and a uniquely Kent collaboration that brought together current students, former students, past Walls Elementary principals, �Ը������� volunteers and the broader community to rediscover a small piece of local history buried beneath the ground for 25 years.