Message in a Bottle Finds Sender’s Daughter 95 Years Later

When Jennifer Dowker took on a prospective client for diving lessons through her Nautical North Family Adventures business, she had no idea the day would take such a dramatic turn. While she told her client to practice breathing exercises on the shore, she decided to try and find something in the Cheboygan River that would encourage them to keep going. She saw something glinting green and brought it to the surface. Dowker already has a collection of old bottles from her adventures, but through this one she could see a letter: a real message in a bottle.

Despite being filled with water from a disintegrating cork, Dowker and her crew were able to pull out the note. The letter inside was still legible and read: “Will the person who finds this bottle return this paper to George Morrow, Cheboygan, Michigan, and tell where it was found?”

In some areas removing artifacts from waterways is a crime, but along this section of the Cheboygan River removing a glass bottle is considered a clean-up effort.

Dowker described it as a “once-in-a-lifetime find” and she put a call out on social media to find the person who wrote the note- or at least one of their relatives since the message was dated November 1926. It wasn’t long before Dowker was contacted by Morrow’s daughter, Michele Primeau, now 74 and living in Detroit.

Primeau reached out on Father’s Day weekend 2021 and said that she was confident the message had come from her father. Primeau told Dowker that her father had done things like this his whole life, always hiding notes in walls and the like. She also had a journal of her father’s and was able to compare the handwriting style to the message in the bottle.

Dowker gave a shoutout to Morrow on Facebook for bringing so much publicity to her small business by saying, “Holy smokes😅 I hope George Morrow is looking down and smiling on the enormous blessing this has been for our community and business❣️”. Dowker wanted to give the letter to Primeau. But, even though the message came from her father Primeau suggested that the letter be on display in Nautical North Family Adventures boat, the Yankee Sunshine. Dowker also welcomed Primeau on board one of her ships in the months to come.