When Olympic National Park Ranger Tristan Smith set out to walk Rialto Beach on May 5, he expected to find a pristine wilderness beach, free of manmade clutter.
After all, thousands of volunteers had combed the Olympic coastline during the previous weekend picking up tons of debris during the annual Olympic Coast Clean-up.
Smith, 26, was shocked when he glimpsed the beach.
“The current had shifted and there were a lot of bottles on the beach,” he said.
As Smith began picking up the bottles he noted most were old Japanese whiskey bottles.
But one clear bottle with Japanese writing and a rubber stopper caught his eye.
After fishing the bottle out of the water he noticed there was something inside — several pieces paper.
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The rest of the story appears in the Sunday Peninsula Daily News.