It wasn’t an SOS to the world, but Diane Ebert hoped someone would get her message in a bottle when she tossed it into the Athabasca River in 1989.
Twenty-five years later, almost to the day, the bottle was discovered by a group of young adults floating and camping along the river on May long weekend.
The group of about 10 started their lazy river journey Friday afternoon in Blue Ridge, with plans to end the trip in Vega on Sunday.
Saturday night the entourage decided to camp on an island not far from Misty Ridge Ski Hill. After setting, they began walking around. That’s when Tanner Graham made the discovery.
“It was in a whole pile of driftwood,” said Trent Moore, who was with the group. “We just found it amongst the logs, pretty deep into the bush. We’re thinking the water was really high or something.”
The bottle was a dark glass and hard to see into. In fact, Graham almost discarded the bottle before someone realized it wasn’t entirely empty.
Three items lay inside: a note that read “15˘ return deposit” and two Taxidermy business cards. One of them had a handwritten note on the back:
“Dear Finder,
Upon our last day of hunting here in Blue Ridge we send you a bottle message via “WATER POST,” faster service than Canada Post. Return this card along with your next game trophy and receive a 10% discount an a refill on this bottle.
May 28/89.”
Back at work on Tuesday, Moore decided to try and track Ebert down. He looked her name up online, and found she was the owner of a Sherwood Park taxidermy business.
“I think she uses the same phone line for her fax, so the first couple of times I phoned I got her fax machine,” said Moore. “The third time I phoned I got a hold of her.”
Moore explained to the voice on the other line he and a group of friends discovered the message over the weekend.
“At first she kind of went silent,” he said. “She actually couldn’t believe it.”
And why wouldn’t she be? After more than two decades, Ebert said she was surprised the bottle still existed.
“After four or five years, I thought that the bottle might have broke, got a crack in it and filled with water and sunk,” said Ebert. “I didn’t know it would be 25 years later until the bottle reappeared.”
Ebert now owns Buffalo Taxidermy just outside Sherwood Park, but in 1989, the Blue Ridge business was called Egge Wilderness Guide and Outfitting.
“My husband and I at that time operated a bear outfitting businesses out there,” she said. “We were bringing hunters in from Europe for bear hunting.”
Ebert vaguely remembers the day she wrote the message. It was during a hunting trip, and there was talk amongst the camp about writing a message and tossing it into the Athabasca River.
“One of our hunters had made the comment that we should throw a bottle in the river,” said Ebert. “We just never realized that it would be found.”
After 25 years, Ebert remains a woman of her word. She said if the boys who discovered the bottle brought in the business cards, she would honour the promotional offer.
“You can tell them the 10 per cent discount still applies,” she laughed.
