Amy Benson of Marquette is seen with the bottle she put a message in as a child. The bottle, which washed up thousands of miles away, was recently returned to her by the finder. (Photo courtesy of Amy Benson)

MARQUETTE — More than 20 years ago, a young girl in the Upper Peninsula tossed a message in a bottle into AuTrain Bay on Lake Superior, never expecting to see it again.

Today, that bottle — which traveled more than 1,000 miles and washed ashore in the Outer Banks of North Carolina some years ago — has finally been returned to its sender, now an adult living in Marquette.

“I remember writing the note and throwing the bottle into Lake Superior as a child,” said Amy Benson, then Amy Kuivanen. “To be reunited with it after all these years feels like a little miracle.”

The bottle’s journey is as remarkable as it is mysterious. After floating for years, it washed ashore on the Atlantic coast, where a young woman named Aimee discovered it in the early 2000s. She kept it through many moves, displayed in her window as a keepsake. Recently, she decided it was time to send the bottle back to its original owner.

Adding to the mystery, Benson recalls receiving a phone call from someone who had found the bottle in the Outer Banks.

“They told me it had likely been floating for five to seven years before washing up,” she said. “But after that call, I never heard from them again. To have the bottle actually make its way back to me now is surreal.”

“This story is bigger than just a bottle,” Benson added. “It’s about how small the world really is, and how something as simple as a childhood message can come full circle decades later.”