Researchers of the Mission-Aransas Reserve found a bottle with two letters inside along the Texas Padre Island National Seashore in March 2023.
Mission-Aransas ReserveWhen it was time for three high school grads to leave Jamaica after a fun-filled post-graduation girls' trip, the best friends — who'd spent their last day writing letters to strangers — boarded a plane.
Their return trip would have taken mere hours, but the message in a bottle they threw into the ocean had a much longer voyage. Little did they know their letters would take a nearly 9-month, 1,400-mile journey to the Texas coast.
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In March, researchers with the Mission-Aransas Reserve found a bottle containing two letters that washed up along the Texas Padre Island National Seashore .
The letters appeared to be written in pencil, and were well preserved. One of the letters was dated June 13, 2022.
Madi Whalen, 18, was a recent high school senior who had taken a trip to Jamaica with her two best friends one month after graduation.
“Today was our last full day here. I really enjoyed it,” she wrote in the letter. “It’s nice to have no responsibilities for a while for once. I am excited to go home and see my family again though.”
In the letter, Missouri resident Whalen wrote she and her friends lived in Kansas City and had been staying at the Grand Palladium Resort in Jamaica.
A letter written by Madi Whalen, 18, during a trip with friends to Jamaica on June 13, 2022 was found by researchers of the Mission-Aransas Reserve along the Texas Padre Island National Seashore in March 2023.
Mission-Aransas ReserveOn the last day of the trip, they decided to write letters, place them in a bottle and throw them out to sea, hoping they'd one day be discovered.
“I wish I had some good secrets or something to share but I don’t really. I wonder where our letters will end up,” Whalen wrote.
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Toward the end of her letter, Whalen included her email, phone number and address so the person who found the letter could contact her.
A representative of the Mission-Aransas Reserve upped the stakes by making its response public, posting about their found treasure on Facebook April 4.
Whalen’s mother, Dawn Wishard-Whalen, commented on the post, saying: “She is so excited it was found! She is an adventurer and a nature lover and protector so it couldn’t be more perfect where it was found.”
Another letter written on June 11, 2022 by a friend by the name of Easton during their trip to Jamaica was also found in the bottle.
Mission-Aransas ReserveIt wasn't immediately clear why Whalen did not respond for herself.
In the same bottle, researchers found another letter from Whalen's friend, who only signed her letter with "Easton," so it wasn't clear whether that was her first or last name. She wrote: “My two best gals and I are on holiday in Jamaica and decided to leave a message in a bottle for someone special.”
"Easton" had been preparing for college, which she humorously announced, adding: “I leave for university soon after we get back and I’d like not to.”
The Mission-Aransas Reserve April 7 posted on Facebook about another bottle its workers found, this one a letter appearing to have been sent from Galveston Island State Park.
Unfortunately, the letter was not as well preserved because it was written in pen and sent off in a clear bottle.
“You can only read about half of the letter,” the post said. “We usually find that messages in a bottle that use pencil and in a dark bottle are preserved the best.”
