Wilslon alums came to dig up the past

The location of the engine remains a mystery.

By HAROLD GWIN

VINDICATOR EDUCATION WRITER

YOUNGSTOWN — They came armed with metal detectors and photos, lining up where they thought they had buried a car engine behind Woodrow Wilson High School 37 years ago.

Then, with the school district’s blessing, they dug a hole, and then another, and another and still another, until the end of the athletic field was a mass of holes and mounds of dirt.

They found an eight-track tape player, an empty 55-gallon barrel, a 10-foot chunk of a utility pole and some crushed beer cans, but they didn’t find the engine that had been buried in the first celebration of Earth Day in 1970.

The school district’s decision to raze Wilson and replace it with a middle school prompted the high school alumni to band together this weekend for what they’re calling “Wilson’s Last Stand.”

Attending the events

More than 1,100 of them turned out for a dinner/dance at Mr. Anthony’s in Boardman on Friday night, and most of them were expected to show up at the school today between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. for a final “walk-through” before the building closes permanently.

Lew Nuzzie, Class of 1970 and student council president that year, came back to town from Chicago to participate — and to dig up the car engine he was involved in burying as a symbolic gesture on Earth Day that year.

It would be more appropriate now to recycle the engine, he said, adding that he wanted to put it on display as part of Wilson’s Last Stand first.

Nuzzie, his wife, Joy, John Plaskett of Canfield Township (Class of 1972) and Rick Simpson of Houston, Tex. (Class of 1970) all showed up at the school around 8:30 a.m. Friday to search for the engine and a time capsule buried with it.

Nuzzie and Plaskett wielded metal detectors and occasionally stopped to dig up the turf with a shovel, but had found nothing by midmorning.

They had copies of a Vindicator photo taken on the day the engine was buried to help them pinpoint the location and were able to pick out four likely underground targets with their metal detectors.

Plaskett even fashioned a pair of divining rods from a coat hanger in an effort to help.

Backhoe brought in

They then brought in a backhoe and started digging, joined by Tony Markovicz (Class of 1961) and turned up the above-mentioned items, but no engine.

The barrel was found in the first hole dug and everyone thought they’d hit paydirt.

”It got us excited,” Nuzzie said, but excitement quickly turned to disappointment and the digging continued.

By 2:30 p.m., they decided to call it quits to give the backhoe operator time to fill in the holes.

Nuzzie said they learned while they were digging that the landscape of the area had been altered since 1970 with at least 2 feet of soil added when two ball fields were put in that area behind the school, making the search all the more difficult.

Despite the lack of success, those involved seemed to be having a good time, laughing as they swapped stories from their high school days, stopping to chat with other alumni who stopped by and sharing a late lunch from McDonald’s.

“We gave it our best shot,” Nuzzie said. “Without a marker or anything, it was just a shot in the dark.”

gwin@vindy.com