Somewhere beneath the stately features and sturdy concrete walls of Ali'iolani Hale — home to the state Supreme Court and some of the heaviest legal decisions of the land — is a time capsule that was buried 133 years ago by King Kamehameha V.

No one at the state judiciary likes to say it's lost — only that it's under a cornerstone and they don't know where it is.

That could change this morning with help from the U.S. military, which has volunteered the use of ground-penetrating radar for a special survey of the building.

"We didn't lose it. It just wasn't recorded as to where it was," said Toni Palermo, a former archaeologist who serves as program specialist for the King Kamehameha V Judiciary History Center.

Two experts from the Hawai'i-based Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command will survey the building starting at 10:30 a.m., Palermo said.

The survey will coincide with the judiciary's celebration of the 175th birthday of King Kamehameha V.

The cornerstone was laid on Feb. 19, 1872, with the help of the king himself, who was a mason.

A casket-shaped time capsule was placed beneath it containing photographs of the royal family, Hawaiian postage stamps, copies of 11 local newspapers, the constitution of the Hawaiian kingdom, coins and other items.

Afterward, a Masonic official said, "May the great architect of the universe grant that unnumbered years may pass away before it shall again be beheld by men," according to a 1977 historical report on the building.

Meanwhile — at least since renovation work was finished in 1989 — people would ask: Where's that time capsule?

No one could say for sure, said Matt Mattice, executive director of the center. The consultants who produced the 1977 report felt that the cornerstone was under the makai-diamondhead corner of the building.

"It's in the building's foundation," Mattice said. "I doubt very much it would be dug up. But it has been a puzzle ever since they renovated the building. They can't locate it."

But yesterday Mattice called a local Masonic lodge and was told that masons always place cornerstones on the northeast corner of a building. That's on the other side of the building.

Whatever they find today — if anything — won't be dug up anytime soon, if ever, Palermo said.

Its location is a resource management issue and the judiciary should know where the time capsule is to keep it from being accidentally damaged, Palermo said.

Reach Mike Gordon at mgordon@honoluluadvertiser.com.