Buried Treasure

In our local newspaper lately, there’s been multiple stories covering the demolition of an old high school in the county.  The demolition uncovered a few surprises; one was a time capsule, placed in the brick walls by students and faculty in 1922 when the high school was built.  I found it really neat that no one knew the time capsule was there until a few weeks ago when a bulldozer found the vintage peanut butter can filled with letters from students and other 1922 memorabilia.

The high school was finally knocked down, but construction crews are still deconstructing the foundation of the old building.  In the newspaper the other day was an item about another buried treasure.  It seems the school was built with a long-forgotten swimming pool, whose existence was uncovered after many weeks of demolition.  Upon further investigation and interviews with surviving former students, it was discovered that the former swimming pool did actually exist but was never actually used since it was contaminated with raw sewage (eww!) shortly after it was built.  They filled in the swimming pool with clay and built over it, and it was forgotten about until the school’s demolition all these years later in 2009.

The story of the legendary swimming pool was of particular interest to me because at my own high school (located in suburban Chicago, far away from the rural Ohio area where we now reside), there was always a rumor of an ill-fated swimming pool.  Our gym’s floor sounded hollow, and there was always chatter about the existence of a secret covered-up swimming pool underneath the gym floor.  I never did find out if there was any truth to the rumors, and I wonder if students attending that high school today talk of the same legend?