The crew digging around at the base of Coney Island’s 270-foot tall Astro Tower with shovels last week wasn’t trying to uproot the defunct ride before landowner Joe Sitt could get his hands on it – they were digging for buried treasure.
What kind of buried treasure?
According to Astroland Amusement Park operator Carol Hill Albert, the treasure being sought was a roughly 3-foot-long silver container – a time capsule – buried somewhere around the Astro Tower in 1964.
“We have a reasonably good idea where it is,” Albert said, taking a break from digging last Thursday afternoon.
The problem, according to Albert, is that no one actually had a map indicating the precise location of the time capsule.
“All we have is a photograph of my father-in-law Dewey Albert putting it into the ground,” she said.
Charlie Denson, executive director of the Coney Island History Project, said that the time capsule likely contains Coney Island memorabilia from Feltman’s restaurant, messages from youngsters and other intersting items.
“It’s probably only two or three feet down,” he said last week. But when the January 31 deadline to clear the land arrived, Astroland’s crew had to abandon its efforts – without uncovering the time capsule.
This was not the first time Albert has tried to recover the time capsule this year. However, with only a handful of days remaining on her lease with landowner Joe Sitt and Thor Equities she was desperate to find it.
“We just ran out of time,” Denson said. “We couldn’t pinpoint it. The deadline was insane.”
This week the site that had been Astroland Amusement Park on Surf Avenue is desolate. Only the Astro Tower and flume ride remain behind.
“It’s awful,” said Denson. “It’s been one of the worse weeks I’ve ever had in Coney Island.”
