Time in a Bottle: Message from Tainter Lake comes full circle

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By LeAnn R. Ralph

COLFAX — So what are the chances, do you suppose?

Fourteen years ago, the brother of a resident on Tainter Lake found a message in a bottle from some children, and now 14 years later, she has finally identified those children.

And then — what are the chances — that when she finds those children, who now are in their 20s, that they are all together again for the weekend?

The story starts in April of 2011 at the home of Laurie Craft and Therese Belisle. The house where they lived on Tainter Lake was located on county Highway D about a quarter mile east of the Hay River Bridge at Picnic Point.

Those who have lived in the area for a while may remember the “cow” cutout that decorated their wooden fence.

Area residents who had family members who lived at Area Nursing Home, and later on, at the Colfax Health and Rehabilitation Center, may remember Laurie as well. 

Two years ago, Laurie and Therese sold the house and moved to Plover to be closer to Laurie’s family.

“My brother Jim often drove to our home to fish,” Laurie wrote in a message to the Colfax Messenger.

Anyone who knows Laurie knows that she, herself, is an avid fisherman.

“One afternoon, he had come up from the dock with a bottle he found on the shoreline. He noticed there was a message in the bottle,” she said.

“Jim’s an adventure guy and remembers that event well. I still remember being on the deck when he walked up, saying there’s a message in this bottle,” Laurie recalled.

“He was always down by the dock in the mornings, looking for blown-in lures and bobbers. We had quite a collection of bottles over the years,” she said.

Easter Day

But of course, this bottle was different from all of the other bottles that had been found by the dock over the years, because this bottle had a message and cap on the bottle.

“We couldn’t get the top off, so we had to break the glass. And there it was, dated April 24, 2011. Oops, 1942. Five children in need of help and food. It was Easter Day when it was written. Blood stains [on the paper which was in] crayon,” Laurie said.

When you look closely at the photograph of the children’s message, you can see that they wrote 2011, then crossed it off and wrote 1942.

The message read, “Easter. We ran out of food two days ago. If you find this, please try to find us. Summer, Marissa, Luke, Mitchel, Mason. Help Us. We need Help.”

You can imagine the reaction of the adults who found the message.

“We, of course, got a good laugh and wondered if these kids were straight across the lake. Our shoreline got the south winds, and we often had a good collection of things, each spring, especially,” Laurie said.

“I kept the note. I recall putting out a message on Facebook, asking if anyone knew these kids. I was hoping I’d get someone to lead us to them. We wanted to put together a big basket of candy for them and just make it fun. No luck. But I kept the note. I thought of them often over the years. Children on an adventure. The best life,” she said.

14 years later

For 14 years, the message from the bottle languished where Laurie Craft had stored it.

When she and Therese packed their belongings to move, the message was among those things and made the trip to Plover.

Fast forward to March 15, 2025.

“We moved from Tainter two years ago to Plover, Wis. I am going through boxes we had in our basement, getting ready for a garage sale,” Laurie said.

“I decided to go through a bin of saved paperwork. And there it was, the good old message from the kids. It’s already been 14 years. I figured they must be mid 20s now,” she said.

“I’m still a member of the Tainter Lake group and thought I’d give it a try. Putting out a message 14 years later might find them. Someone should recognize the names,” Laurie said.

Guess what? She was right.

“It didn’t take long. I posted a message and a picture of the note. I had finally found them! I heard from Marissa Harmon, who is now 21, and the youngest of the five kids,” Laurie said.

Marissa wrote: “Funny story. We were walking in the woods, found a bottle with a letter in it, but it was so old, we could not read it. We decided to return the favor and put a letter in the same bottle! We were trying to decide what to write and decided to make a fake s.o.s. letter. We added the red crayon to act like blood. It’s so cool to know that our message was found! Thanks so much for sharing! Summer Parzyck Olson, Luke Parzyck, Mitch Harmon, Mason Harmon.”

As it turned out, the children who had written the note and put it in the bottle and are now between the ages of 21 and 27, were all together at the very moment that Marissa saw the post.

“They came to gather from different states, in celebration of St. Pat’s, but more so, to grieve the loss of a friend. What are the odds? The timing. Being moved to search at the exact time they were together last night. It all lined up,” Laurie said. 

After receiving a response to her Facebook group message, Laurie said that she and Marissa had texted back and forth for a while.

“We learned we had several people we knew in common. I told her we felt we were part of their adventure that day. It was fun. We shared pictures of where the bottle was set to sail and where it was found,” Laurie said.

More fun

Jim’s reaction to finding out that Laurie had identified the authors of the message was part of the fun, too.

“When I called him, it was awesome … He had the ‘no way’ reaction when I told told him I had finally found them,” Laurie said, “and he liked that they were all together when they learned the story hadn’t ended … He thought that was the way it was supposed to be. Them being together the night they learned about their message,” Laurie said. 

And what about Therese?

“I ran to tell [Therese]. She, too, said ‘no way.’ Then she told me I was spooky because I had the feeling to see what I might find out if I try again. Then with the kids all being together. The timing,” she said.

“Finding the bottle was intriguing. You know I love mysteries,” Therese said.

“The message itself was fun. We realized right away it was probably kids having fun. The date being crossed out was a tell! We talked about trying to find the kids, but there really weren’t enough clues,” she said.

“When Laurie connected with the actual kids 14 years later, I was amazed. The events that unfolded that day were fascinating, connecting with them, all of them together. Pretty cool,” Therese said.

“I remember Jimmy was kind of excited about finding it. We were like little kids trying to get the message out,” she said.

“We had to go easy with that bottle. Didn’t want to damage the secret message. It was like opening Willy Wonka’s chocolate bar looking for the Golden Ticket,” Laurie said.

As for the youngsters who are now all adults — they could hardly believe it, either.

“It was honestly such a surreal moment when I saw Laurie’s message,” Marissa said.

“We had sent that bottle down the river years ago, and the thought that someone actually found it and was trying to track us down was so unexpected,” she said.

“It brought back all of the memories of that day and time of life with my brothers and cousins. I felt a mix of excitement and curiosity about how our little message made its way to Laurie, and how she was so determined to find these kids. She never got rid of it, even after 14 years!” Marissa said.

What now?

So what will happen now to the message that was in the bottle?

“I will be sending the note back to Marissa. They want to frame it. And I finally get a chance to load them up with Easter candy, so I’ll add that to the package,” Laurie said.

“I’m so glad I found them. It added light to a sadness with the loss they were grieving … it brought back a memory, an adventure. We were so happy to be a part of that day and happier that we finally completed the puzzle. We hope to meet in person one day. At least they are of age now, and I’ll treat them all to a drink and ‘cheers’ to a good life,” she said.

“I will be shopping for goodies for them this weekend. A long overdue Easter 1942 basket,” Laurie said.