HAMMOND | Moonshine, horse manure and copies of what was then known as The Lake County Times were among the finds unearthed Friday morning in two copper time capsules stored in the cornerstone of the Masonic Temple.

Mayor Thomas McDermott's Jr's. son, Tommy, assisted crews in removing the stone from an excavator atop a mound of rubble.

The massive structure, originally built in 1907 and later surrounded by a majestic addition in 1921, housed a bevy of social organizations in the Freemasonry movement until 1999, when the last group still using the building left, selling it to the city. Disrepair and plans for a new charter school building forced its demolition.

The capsules featured yearbooks of the temple's organizations, copies of the architect's plans and photos of former lodges. Also uncovered were copies of The Times in near perfect condition, chronicling the history of the lodge and its expansion, as well as the inauguration of President Warren G. Harding and a headline story about a possible submarine railway connecting Gary and Chicago via Lake Michigan.

Among the more-quirky finds were a small bottle of West Virginia-produced moonshine from the Prohibition era, a box of laxatives, a book of old whiskey labels, lodge coins and a small box of horse manure, along with a note that future generations might not understand its significance with the dawn of the automobile.

Phil Taillon, the city's executive director of planning and development, said the artifacts will be stored in his office while he sees if any museums are interested in helping restore or house them.

Bill Bailey, head of the Orak Shrine in Michigan City, a Masonic organization, said he was delighted at what was unearthed.

"It's a wonderful peek at our history," he said. "To be able to handle these artifacts is absolutely a treat for us."

Bailey said the Shriners are going to look into whether the findings can be electronically archived, so that copies will be available indefinitely.

Mary White, of Munster, a secretary in the Eastern Star organization, said watching the building come down was sad, but being there and seeing the artifacts brought back good memories.

"I lived here, practically," she said. "We put on all those big banquets. We had a lot of fun. It was a lot of great years."