Erik Richardson had been scouting for ducks in Santee, South Carolina, when he discovered an old 7-Up bottle in the banks of Lake Marion
A message in a bottle tossed into a small South Carolina stream has washed up close to the state’s shore after 42 years.
Erik Richardson, a Clemson University horticulture student posted about the Lake Marion, South Carolina, find on his Facebook on Wednesday.
He shared that while scouting for ducks in Santee, he came across the vintage 7-Up bottle on the lake’s banks.
‘Best we could tell, it just had some old gum wrappers and some metal beads or something rolling around in it, but it had us curious,’said on the Facebook post.
It took him several weeks to get the ‘virtually welded shut’ bottle open and get his hands on the delicate notes inside.
The South Carolina Botanical Garden employee added: ‘I got a screw driver and was able to pull out, much to my surprise, a mostly legible letter! It’s dated April 19, 1976.’
Inside, he could see what appeared to be some old gum wrappers and ‘some metal beads’ and went about trying to get the ‘virtually welded shut’ bottle open
The bottle’s content also included some spearmint gum and beech nut along with what appears to be metal beads
Posting photos on his Facebook page, Richardson showed images of the old bottle and the letter from inside.
The note reads: ‘To the finder, I am in the 6th grade. I am twelve years old. I let this bottle go where the tiger rivers meet. I was fishing. I have 1 sister – 3 dogs – and plenty of friends. When you have finished reading this write another and let it go downstream. Your pal, Mark.’
Richardson implored for help to find Mark and was amazed that the bottle managed to make it so far in 42 years.
The South Carolina Botanical Garden employee added: ‘I got a screw driver and was able to pull out, much to my surprise, a mostly legible letter! It’s dated April 19, 1976’
The note reads: ‘To the finder, I am in the 6th grade. I am twelve years old. I let this bottle go where the tiger rivers meet. I was fishing. I have 1 sister – 3 dogs – and plenty of friends. When you have finished reading this write another and let it go downstream. Your pal, Mark’
‘This bottle had quite the adventure,’ he said. ‘It started out near Spartanburg, SC, traveled down the Tyger River, onto the Broad River, through Parr Reservoir, down the Congaree, and through Columbia & Congaree National Park to end up at its final resting place on Lake Marion.’
The distance calculates to approximately 160 miles for the shortest route.
As far as going through with Mark’s request, the man was uncertain whether he would do his own message in a bottle.
‘This bottle had quite the adventure,’ Richardson said. ‘It started out near Spartanburg, SC, traveled down the Tyger River, onto the Broad River, through Parr Reservoir, down the Congaree, and through Columbia & Congaree National Park to end up at its final resting place on Lake Marion.’
‘Maybe I’ll take his advice and let a letter of my own go downstream sometime,’ he said.
And as the post quickly gained traction, with over 3,000 shares and 4,300 reactions, Richardson was nice enough to update it to share that he got in contact with Mark.
He said: ‘I just got off the phone with Mark and he was overjoyed to hear that his bottle survived so many years! It’s amazing that in such a short amount of time Mark was found!’
‘Maybe I’ll take his advice and let a letter of my own go downstream sometime,’ Richardson said about the message in the bottle telling him to make his own