While this illustrated manual provides important technical information about the selection and preservation of memorabilia for an extended period of time, the reader is also introduced to a much broader understanding of "time capsules" and the significance they hold for human societies. With this knowledge, it becomes rather obvious that a time capsule is not a box to be unceremoniously dropped into a hole and accidentally discovered in the future.
As a career educator, teacher of world history and general anthropology at a small community college in western North Carolina, the author developed a special interest in the region's ancient Native Americans and the unique history associated with its earliest European pioneers. A limited, self-published edition of Indians of Burke County and Western North Carolina was printed as archaeologists began to excavate a large native village near his home. In addition, for more than a decade, he periodically wrote about Burke County's past for a local newspaper, the News Herald, and eventually published with The History Press of Charleston a collection of these stories in Burke County: Historic Tales from the Gateway to the Blue Ridge. During this same period "our archaeologists" made an unexpected discovery at the Berry's farm that began to rewrite the history of early colonial America -- Spanish artifacts were uncovered in the 16th century Indian village of Joara among the remains of several burned "cabins" once occupied by soldiers of Captain Juan Pardo. Additional research revealed that Pardo had followed an earlier path of Captain Hernando de Soto to claim this land for King Philip II and the Empire of Spain, thereby making this Spanish settlement the first inland European colony in North America some twenty years before England's "Lost Colony" arrived on Roanoke Island, North Carolina, and four decades before the English settled James Town, Virginia. This author became so fascinated with the idea of Spanish conquistadors marching across these lands that he first wrote "Of Eagles & Wolves," a play about Pardo's explorations into western North Carolina, and then published with McFarland & Company a book entitled Spanish Attempts to Colonize Southeast North America: 1513 - 1587. Today, the author resides with his wife Patricia in Irish Creek Valley along a creek that flows into the Berry site of Joara and Fort San Juan.