In 2025, brothers Clint and Evan Buffington found a message in a Pepsi bottle on a remote beach in the Bahamas, written in 1976 by Peter R. Thompson, then a 14-year-old student from West Newbury, Massachusetts.
The note, part of a school oceanography project, was launched by a Coast Guard ship and requested the finder to return it with details of where and when it was found.
The brothers, avid beachcombers, tracked down Thompson, now 63 and living in Leominster, Massachusetts, with help from social media and Boston journalist Emily Maher.
Thompson, who didn’t recall writing the message but remembered the class, was amazed by the find nearly 50 years later. The bottle had traveled over 1,000 miles, and the discovery connected the men across decades, highlighting the human stories behind such finds.
It seems there has been a recent discovery of the Western Reserve, a 132-year-old shipwreck found in Lake Superior.
This 300-foot steel steamer sank on August 30th, 1892, during a fierce gale, claiming 27 lives and leaving only one survivor.
Owned by millionaire shipping magnate Peter G. Minch, the vessel was on a summer cruise with his family and crew when it broke apart about 60 miles northwest of Whitefish Point, Michigan.
The wreck was located in the summer of 2024 by the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society using side scan sonar technology aboard their research vessel, the David Boyd. It rests in nearly 600 feet of water, unusually preserved with its bow section atop the stern.
This find, announced in March 2025, adds to the lore of Lake Superior’s “Shipwreck Coast,” a graveyard for over 350 known wrecks. The cold, deep waters have kept the ship remarkably intact as there are no signs of marring by invasive mussels. Reports claim even its bell and red port light remain visible.
Researchers plan to return this spring for more footage, hoping to unravel why it split so catastrophically. Theories suggest insufficient ballast or structural flaws, but the exact cause remains a mystery, much like the lake itself, which rarely yields its secrets.
The recent discovery of a submerged car in the Columbia River may be linked to the disappearance of the Martin family from Oregon 67 years ago.
In December 1958, Ken and Barbara Martin, along with their three daughters Barbara (14), Virginia (12), and Susan (10) set out from Portland to collect Christmas greenery in the Columbia River Gorge. They never returned. The family’s Ford station wagon vanished without a trace, leaving behind a decades-long mystery.
In May 1959, the bodies of Susan and Virginia were found in the river near Bonneville Dam, about 40 miles apart, but no sign of Ken, Barbara, or the youngest daughter, Barbara, was ever uncovered. Theories ranged from an accidental plunge into the river to foul play, but the case went cold. However, things have now changed.
In late 2024, a diver named Archer Mayo, who had been searching for the vehicle for seven years, located a Ford station wagon upside down, 50 feet underwater and 90% buried in sediment in the Columbia River near Cascade Locks.
On March 7th, 2025, after two days of dredging, a crane pulled the car’s frame from the river. The body of the vehicle detached during the process and remains underwater, but authorities are confident it matches the description of the Martins’ car. No human remains were found inside during the initial recovery, though the car was filled with rocks and debris.
The frame is now headed to a warehouse for forensic analysis, which could finally shed light on whether the family’s disappearance was a tragic accident (perhaps a plunge off a cliff or road into the river) or something more sinister. The discovery has reignited hope for closure in a case that’s haunted Oregon for nearly seven decades.
The Social Pie Network! 