Message in a bottle: Craven County family finds washed up treasure from 1983 with eerie instructions

When Justin Norton took his children for a hayride around their property on April 22, they were shocked to discover a message in a bottle from 1983 floating in the swamp near their home.

A home, which was built back in 1850, sits on a registered century-owned farm that was in use for over 100 years as the Adams Farm, according to Norton.

As the family rode around exploring their property, they ventured to the swamp which was riddled with old glass bottles.

"There were bottles everywhere, thousands of old liquor bottles and we like historic stuff so of course, it intrigued me," Norton said.

Rummaging through the bottles, Norton walked right past the one that had a bit of a treasure inside. His 11-year-old daughter spotted the bottle and quickly altered her father.

Joining his daughter to admire the find, an old Jack Daniels bottle had a piece of discolored paper rolled inside. The only visible writing from outside was the number "27".

At home, they opened the bottle, which still smelled like a brand new bottle of liquor, and pulled the damp message out.

Upon further inspection, Norton realized that the message wasn't written on paper, but came from a piece of an old grocery bag.

The message was numbered from 1 to 27 with instructions to add their name to it and what number they were when they found it. Afterward, the instructions said to put the bottle back where it was found for the next person.

The 27th person to find the bottle had another set of instructions — call this number. 252-734-4083.

When Norton found it, there were only two names listed other than the creator's name. Norton explained that name was eligible while the other two signatures seemed to make our the names Tommy and Kim. Both were still difficult to read.

Norton was able to see that the bottle first washed up in Knightdale, NC on Oct. 31, 1983. The second person to find the bottle was located in Kinston, NC and dated the letter Dec. 15, 1983.

The origin of the message in a bottle is unknown because the entire paper is not legible.

He attempted to call the numbers listed and contact others who found the bottle, but Norton was unable to track either person down. The number from the bottle had a message of no longer being in service.

"When I pulled it out of the alcohol it dried out almost instantly," he said. "The paper was real brittle so I ended up laminating it because I couldn't sign it and put it back anyways."

The family currently has the laminated message on display in the entryway of their home on an old wooden ladder with shutter-like shelves. Eventually, they may look into donating the message so it can be put on display for the community if it is of interest to any historical organizations.

"I was super excited when we first found it," Norton said. "This is just so awesome because it's so rare."

The Nortons hope to uncover more pieces of history around their property as they continue to explore the grounds. His five-year-old son has already found an apothecary bottle in their backyard, and old-school wash basins were uncovered in an old washhouse on their property.