COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) - Theodore Roosevelt hoped that the people of 2001 would have the "iron strength" of the pioneers. A local stockbroker of 1901 sent his descendants a copy of their family tree.

More than a hundred letters and other items, including a letter written by Roosevelt before he became president, were recovered Monday from a time capsule sealed in 1901.

About 300 people gathered at Colorado College's Tutt Library to witness the opening of the Colorado Springs Century Chest, which also contained pristine turn-of-the-century photographs, personal calling cards, newspapers and cylinder-shaped phonograph records.

The items were sealed in a 200-pound, footlocker-sized steel box, which was sealed in an elaborate ceremony at the college on Aug. 4, 1901. It was labeled "To be opened after midnight, December 31st, A.D. 2000" and displayed in the college's science building.

A majority of the letters were from city residents and were addressed to their descendants.

Robert Gauss, 46, came from Ramona, Calif., to see what his great-great-grandfather, a stockbroker, had put inside: a family tree dating to Brunswick, Germany, in 1777.

"We have an extensive (genealogy) database at home, but it's not complete. There are some holes," he said. "If it's what I think it is, those questions will be answered."

The contents of the capsule depict a town just 30 years old, inundated with newcomers after gold was discovered in 1891 near Cripple Creek. El Paso County's population grew by nearly 50 percent to 31,602 between 1890 and 1900. It's now about 500,000.

Some of the capsule's letters were yellowing, but most were in excellent condition, wrapped in string and sealed with wax.

Then-Vice President Roosevelt, a frequent visitor to the region, wrote his letter a few weeks before he became president because of the assassination of William McKinley.

"I hope that a century hence their descendants ... will not lose the iron strength these pioneers and sons of pioneers had," he wrote.

Ginny Kiefer, the library's special collections curator, said all the letters would not be opened immediately, in order to protect their condition. The letters and photos eventually will be scanned into digital form and placed on the college's Century Chest Web site.

In March, city officials plan to replace the original items with letters, photographs and other memorabilia from the present.

-- kritter (kritter@adelphia.net), January 02, 2001