Colorado is burying a giant time capsule and wants you to help fill it

Quick: If you had to explain Colorado in 2026 to someone in 2076, what would you put in the box? A Palisade peach? A photo of your $4,200-a-month one-bedroom? A Casa Bonita sopapilla? Colorado is giving you the chance to do exactly that.

Visit Loveland is collecting submissions from residents across the state for the Colorado Capsule — a massive, 7-by-3-foot time capsule that will be sealed at the end of September and buried at the Ranch Events Complex in Loveland, where it won’t see daylight again until the state’s 200th birthday in 2076. The project celebrates Colorado’s 150th anniversary and replaces a much smaller capsule buried during the centennial in 1976 that was recently cracked open.

Unlike your typical time capsule curated by a handful of officials, this one is open to everyone. “It’s not our capsule. It’s the whole state’s,” said Charles Lammers, Visit Loveland’s destination marketing manager. So far, more than 100 items have been donated, including a Ryan McMahon Colorado Rockies T-shirt and — apparently — a Greeley gremlin, whatever that is. Most submissions, though, have been letters from everyday Coloradans writing about what life looks like right now.

One 12-year-old contributor named Calvin offered some advice for 2076: “The world’s gonna be harsh and it’s gonna be mean and it’s not gonna like you, but you have to just get back up and keep pushing.” His 8-year-old brother, Walter, had a different take: “Maybe people can talk through their minds. Maybe people live on Mars, on the moon. I don’t know.”

Coloradans have until Sept. 10 to mail items in or drop them off at the Loveland Visitor Center. So start digging through your junk drawer — somewhere between that DIA parking receipt and the Broncos schedule, there’s something worth burying for the next 50 years.