West Point Historians Open Lead Box Hidden in 194-Year-Old Statue Transcript

A mystery at the US Military Academy, West Point. A lead box, hidden inside a statue almost 200 years ago, was opened with much fanfare today. And spoiler alert, there wasn’t much inside, but CBS 2’s Tony Aiello reports what they did find merits further study.

An artifact from the past was the center of attention at West Point during a slickly produced livestream broadcast to answer the question, “What’s in the box?” The box was found in May during renovation work on an 1829 monument to Revolutionary War hero Thaddeus Kosciusko.

The box is approximately one cubic foot in volume. It is made entirely of lead with solder seams.

That’s why x-rays were ineffective in trying to see inside the box. Believing it to be a time capsule, West Point assembled a team of historians and experts, amid inevitable comparisons to the 1986 live broadcast when Geraldo Rivera found nothing inside Al Capone’s vault.

And I guarantee you it’s going to be better than Geraldo, okay. All right.

Bold words, that General Steve Gilland may have to eat, as archeologists pried the lid off the box.

What do we see?

You could hear the laughter as it dawned on everyone the box was basically empty except for some silty materials sitting on the bottom.

A little disappointed. We built up to this quite a bit and I’ll tell you the truth, that was the last outcome that I expected.

West Point historians feel strongly there must be some reason why that box was put in the monument that used to stand at this site.

The fact that it was constructed so well. The fact that it was put… the top was soldered in there like it was, leads us to believe that there was something in there and maybe organic.

They’ll test that silty material and research the name found stamped inside the box, EW Bank, New York. There may be more to the mystery of the empty box. At West Point, Tony Aiello, CBS 2 News.