Overview
- The bottle was found by John Kauterman, co‑founder of the Tidelands Initiative, during a routine wetlands cleanup in Upper Township, New Jersey, in June 2026.
- The handwritten note was launched from Second Street Beach in Ocean City on August 20, 1973 and was dictated by nine‑year‑old Laurie Blair to her older sister, Allison Spencer.
- Kauterman posted a photo of the sealed bottle and its note online to help locate the writer, and that post reached Allison Spencer in Ann Arbor who confirmed the authorship.
- Kauterman mailed the original note to Spencer, who plans to frame or place it in a shadow box, and the reunion was bittersweet because Laurie Blair has died; reports differ on whether she died in 2017 or 2019.
- The find highlights the routine work of the Tidelands Initiative in cleaning South Jersey wetlands and shows how conservation efforts can surface personal artifacts that connect families to local history.