Finding things from the past is always an awesome experience. And it doesn’t really matter whether it was something you yourself did and simply forgot, or someone else did that ended up in your hands many years later. This is the story of the latter.
A woman from Michigan was doing some diving and stumbled upon a glass bottle with a message. Later it turned out to be a nearly century-old message in a nearly century-old bottle that someone who lived there nearly a century ago threw into the marina.
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Ordinarily, if you found a bottle while diving, you'd assume it's trash. Not this time though!
Image credits: Nautical North Family Adventures
So, on June 19th, Nautical North Family Adventures, a boat tour service in Cheboygan, Michigan, shared pictures of an unusual find during one of their cleaning operations.
Namely, boat captain Jennifer Dowker was doing some cleaning work on the bottom of the boat—it has a glass hull for people to check out the waterbed during tours—when she noticed something out of the ordinary.
She spotted a green bottle lying on top of the fish bed. That alone drew her attention, but it didn’t stop there. As soon as she picked it up, she noticed something inside.
Boat captain Jennifer Dowker was cleaning her boat's hull when she found this green bottle with a message inside
Image credits: Nautical North Family Adventures
Well, turns out, it was a piece of paper, a message written to one George Morrow. The letter read: “Will the person who finds this bottle return this paper to George Morrow, Cheboygan, Michigan and tell them where if was found?” The letter was dated November, 1926.
This effectively makes it a nearly 95-year-old find that has surprised many. The paper found inside does seem like it has seen better days, but considering everything, it has stayed very much intact.
Needless to say, very cool find. But it doesn’t stop there. Dowker shared this on the Nautical North Family Adventures Facebook page where, yes, it went viral with over 64,000 reactions and nearly 105,000 shares, but it also got everyone talking about who this Morrow fellow was.
Turns out, it was a message from 1926 (95 years ago) addressed to someone named George Morrow
Image credits: Nautical North Family Adventures
The note asked whoever found it to let Mr. Morrow know it was found. That's all
Image credits: Nautical North Family Adventures
Not only has a slew of Morrows turned up in the comments, trying to figure out whether it’s their relative or not, but many have taken it upon themselves to find Mr. Morrow or any of his surviving relatives and let them know about this discovery.
It didn’t take long to track down George’s daughter, Michele Primeau. Needless to say, she was in complete shock about it all (in a good way, of course).
Well, Mr. Morrow is not longer around, but the internet found his next of kin, daughter Michele Primeau, who decided to let Dowker keep it as a way to keep Morrow's legacy alive
Image credits: Nautical North Family Adventures
She speculated that George himself might have thrown it into the lake as it sounded just like him. Michele explained that when they were building their basement, he actually put a note behind one of the panels there.
Besides that, Michele also noted that her father’s birthday is in November, so it might have been his mischievous self wishing himself a happy birthday.
The daughter did have ideas to keep the note now that it has been retrieved, but decided against it. “I was really hoping to get it back and I was going to frame it and everything. Then when I went to bed last night I started thinking about it, and it will make my dad live on if I give it to Jen,” said Michele.
This isn't the first time Dowker finds something underwater while cleaning the boat, as it seems
Image credits: 9&10 News
This isn’t the first time we’ve written about old finds. There was that one time when, incidentally, a Michigan resident received a postcard that was sent 100 years ago, and then there was that diary from 1957 that someone found in a thrift shop, and, lastly, this woman found her old slumber party plan that she had written decades ago, and even got her daughter to review it!
If you want to check out even more vintage stuff, we have a whole category about it here on Bored Panda. But before you go, let us know what you thought about this and some of your vintage finds in the comment section below!
Here are some of the internet's reactions to the 95-year-old discovery
