Message-in-a-bottle washes up by Canada lake after 30 years

Michelle Schwengler successfully hunted down note’s author

A 30-year old message in a bottle has been discovered washed by by a lake in Alberta, Canada – and the woman who found it couldn’t be more delighted.

Michelle Schwengler told Global News that she discovered the bottle while on a community clean-up at a lake in Leduc.

She smashed the bottle open to find a note along with illustrations of a house from a young girl dated to 1993.

“I thought oh my gosh I have left so many messages in bottles as a kid and now I’m actually finding one,” Ms Schwengler told the broadcaster.

With her curiosity piqued, Ms Schwengler set out on a mission to locate the author of the message, posting a photograph of the note on her social media.

She told the broadcaster that someone quickly reached out within 24 hours to say that they were friends with the girl who wrote the message at school.

“She called me to say that I may have put a letter in a bottle that you found,” Ms Schwengler said.

Daryl-Anne Steffen, the original author of the note, told the broadcaster: “I vaguely remember writing it and throwing it in the lake with my friend.”

She added: “It’s really neat that it’s still there, to see my writing after so many years still on the page and still legible. It was pretty cool.”

Ms Steffen explained that she had written the note in an attempt to make friends, saying ironically she has ended up connecting “with even more people than [she] had planned,” adding: “It worked!”