BULA, Texas — Fifty years ago, residents of a small West Texas farming community buried a collection of everyday objects beneath their local cemetery and left instructions for people in the distant year of 2026:

Dig it up and remember us.

On July 3, roughly 110 people gathered at Bula Cemetery to keep that promise, opening a time capsule sealed during America’s Bicentennial celebration in 1976. Organizers had set out only 50 chairs, uncertain how many people would attend. They soon discovered they had badly underestimated the pull of old memories, hometown history and a mystery that had been waiting underground for half a century.

Bula is a small agricultural community about 27 miles south of Muleshoe. It began taking shape during the early 20th century after ranchland was divided and sold to settlers. Its cemetery dates to the community’s early years and contains graves that were sometimes marked only by wooden crosses or inscribed stones that later disappeared.

The time capsule grew out of an effort to save that neglected burial ground.

In 1976, local resident Betty Harlan returned from Washington, D.C., energized by the country’s Bicentennial celebrations and the idea that Americans should do something lasting for their own communities. She and other residents began cleaning the cemetery, cutting weeds, repairing the fence to keep cattle out and installing a flagpole.

Eventually, someone suggested placing a time capsule there.

Harlan has resisted taking sole credit for the idea.

“The glory goes to the community for getting things done,” she said.

Half a century later, Harlan returned for the opening.

The hot, windy morning included a prayer, patriotic music, stories about Bula’s past and the raising of the American flag by Harlan’s son, John. He had been only 6 years old when he raised the flag during the original 1976 ceremony.

Speakers recalled the town’s farmers, cowboys, businesses and families, along with the people buried in the small cemetery. One story concerned a Black family that had lost a teenage son and needed a burial place. A local resident agreed immediately, an act remembered during the ceremony as an example of compassion within the community.

Then came the moment everyone had been waiting for.

The capsule was uncovered and opened as residents crowded around a table to inspect the objects their parents, grandparents and neighbors had chosen to preserve in 1976.

The contents, along with an original newspaper article and documents identifying the Muleshoe Public Library as their future caretaker, are being placed on public display.

The event was about more than seeing what had survived underground. It connected two major American anniversaries: the nation’s 200th birthday in 1976 and its 250th in 2026.

The cemetery has since received a historic designation that makes it eligible for a Texas historical marker, and local organizers are raising money to purchase one.

Bula may no longer be the bustling farming settlement it once was, but its former residents and descendants still return to preserve its stories.

That may have been the real message inside the capsule.

The people of 1976 did not know exactly who would be standing above them 50 years later. They simply trusted that somebody would still care enough to show up, open the container and remember.

They were right.

About Post Author

MichCon

See author's posts