FARMINGTON – A piece of history was returned to the town this week, but town officials continue to look for more – a time capsule that has disappeared.

Town officials realized last year that the town didn’t have a copy of its 1794 incorporation papers. So town secretary Linda Grant contacted the Massachusetts State Archives, which sent them the original.

When Farmington was incorporated Feb. 1, 1794, Maine was part of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The area was called Sandy River Plantation and the county was named Lincoln.

The town has had the original certificate restored at a cost of $365. The paper it is written on is yellow and the ink faded. The certificate is encased in plastic, and it will be stored in a fireproof vault; a copy of it will be framed and put on display at the Municipal Building.

Town Manager Richard Davis and Grant looked over both the copy and original certificates trying to read who signed the documents and what is written in it. Grant said she will be working on that and will type a copy so townspeople can read it more clearly.

While one piece of history is back in its rightful place, another is still eluding officials.

In 1976, a time capsule was to be buried under the flag pole that stood in front of the then new $600,000 Municipal-Fire Complex on Farmington Falls Road. A picture of attorney Paul Mills, who was a third-year law student, and Jane Dibden, a 1976 graduate from Mount Blue High School, pretending to bury a Kiwanis Club-sponsored time capsule at the base of the flag appeared in the The Lewiston Daily Sun July 5, 1976.

The published photo may have given the impression that the capsule was permanently buried during the dedication of the building on Saturday, July 3, 1976, according to Mills.

Because the capsule itself was not yet in a condition to be buried, the photo was only a simulated burial that was expected to be completed a few days later.

However, Mills said, the capsule was not ready until about two years later. The Kiwanis Club was the sponsoring organization in charge of the burial.

By that time the ground around the flagpole had been landscaped and finished off in such a way that it seemed more prudent to store it in a town vault or other town storage area above ground, Mills stated. Mills also noted that the capsule was seen as recently as the late 1980s.

Town officials have looked through the Municipal Building for the stainless steel capsule and have run a metal detector over the lawn but have not found it.

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