Student bottle notes from 2004 make their way back to Garfield

In 2004, Connie Brown, school counselor at Garfield, tossed a bottle filled with student notes into the Selway River in Idaho. Seven years passed.

This May, the school received all the notes back in an envelope in the mail.

Brown said she was surprised when Garfield principal Zane Wells handed the letter to her.

“I didn’t think about it again until the principal handed me the letter and said, ‘This is going to make your year,’” said Brown.

Justin Stewart of Hamilton, Mont., pulled the bottle out of the Clearwater River in Orofino on a fishing trip in May. Stewart took the bottle home to show h...