After lots of hype, West Point treasure box opening yields no bombshells, just silt

https://www.kxan.com/news/weird-news/ap-after-lots-of-hype-west-point-treasure-box-opening-yields-no-bombshells-just-silt/

WEST POINT, N.Y. (AP) — Excitement and anticipation dissolved into disappointment at West Point when a lead box believed to have been placed by cadets in the base of a monument almost two centuries ago was opened Monday during a livestreamed event and revealed to contain little more than gray dust.

An audience at the U.S. Military Academy hoped to see military relics or historical documents pulled from the box. Instead, they let out a groan after experts pried open the top and pointed a camera inside to show just a layer of sediment on the bottom.

West Point archeologist Paul Hudson and West Point Museum curator Michael Diaz gingerly lifted out a few gray clumps and dusted them with a brush, only to have them crumble into powder.

“A little disappointed. We built up to this quite a bit,” Hudson said after the event. “And I’ll tell you the truth, that was the last outcome that I expected with all the trouble that they went to create that box, put it in the monument.”

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