1976 Message in a Bottle Written by MA High School Student Found

A West Newbury student was working on a class project in 1976 which led him to write a message in a bottle. That bottle ended up in the Bahamas in 2025.

Two Brothers Combing the Bahama Beach

Brothers Clint and Evan Buffington didn't expect to find a message in a bottle on the beaches of the Bahamas, but as it turns out, according to WCVB, they found one from 1976 written by a junior high school student from West Newbury, Massachusetts.

The note said, in part;

I'm a 9th Grade Student from Pentucket Regional Junior High School. Peter R. Thompson

Peter, now much older and living in Leominster, Massachusetts, told WCVB, "It's amazing. It's almost 50 years later. It's a big surprise."

He also said that he doesn't remember writing the note, but he does remember the class that he took in school.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UiSUq2mfOxQ&t=116s

I'm not sure if they did this in your school or not, maybe it's not good for the environment anymore, but when I was in school, we tied messages to helium balloons and let them go all at the same time. It was a beautiful sight to see that I have never forgotten, but I often think about all those balloons getting tangled in trees.

No way that the balloons got as far as the message in the bottle. I was old enough to understand that it would probably run out of helium by the time it got to Silver Lake State Park in Hollis, New Hampshire, which was a mile down the road.

I will say, however, that I always wanted to know how far it went and who discovered the balloon, if anyone ever did. Pretty cool experience for Peter and the brothers.