Stingl: Camera lost by Racine couple in the Montana wilderness in 2012 found by fellow Badgers
If you lose a camera in the Montana wilderness where few people ever venture, it's unlikely you'll see it again.
That's what Nathan and Susan James of Racine assumed in the summer of 2012 when it happened to them.
They were hiking in the Great Bear Wilderness of northwestern Montana. Nathan hurt himself, though not terribly, in a fall on the rugged terrain.
"My wife went on to Dickey Lake, and I laid down and went to sleep," he said. "When I moved around, I bumped the camera and it rolled down the hill. I looked for it for an hour or so, and when Susan got back we looked for an hour or so. We were running out of daylight, so we left broken-hearted."
That Nikon camera, with 160 photos on the memory card, had tumbled farther than they thought down a steep hill. There it sat in all kinds of weather as six years passed.
So who comes hiking through the same area in July of this year? Dave and Renee Pauly. Also from Wisconsin, New Berlin to be exact. Both retired now, Dave and Renee had embarked on a six-week driving vacation across the northwestern U.S. and into Canada.
Here they were, hiking near Dickey Lake, in bear country, on a steep and rocky slope, through neck-high vegetation.
Dave looked down and saw a camera wedged under a small log. It was in rough shape, with pieces missing, wires exposed and a chewed-up strap.
"Finding a man-made object in the middle of the wilderness is odd to say the least," Dave said.
When they returned to camp, Dave put the photo card in the glove box and tossed the battered camera in the back of their truck. He and Renee wondered about the hikers who lost the camera. Did they leave it behind because they were injured or worse?
When they returned home in August, they took the card to Walgreens and had the photos and four videos put on a disc. There they saw images of a couple, likely the owners of the camera, plus shots from social events. The final two photos were taken in the area where the camera was lost — one showing a woman crossing a creek and one a view of the valley.
Two photos, in particular, helped lead the Paulys to the camera's owners. One showed Ottawa Bible Church. A Google search found two, one in Kansas and one in Ontario. But a second photo of a mailbox outside the church included an address, which narrowed the location to Ottawa, Kansas.
Dave sent an email to the church and included a photo of the couple found in the camera.
"Yes, we know these people," a church secretary replied. "He is our former pastor and they live in Wisconsin. We'll get in touch with them."
It's worth noting that Pastor Nathan James left that church way back in 1988 and has been pastor of Calvary Memorial Church in Racine ever since. The photos of the former church and its mailbox, which he built, were taken on a return visit there in December 2011.
Nathan called Dave and on Aug. 30 drove to New Berlin to meet Dave and Renee. Sure enough, there was his beat-up Nikon and the photo card it protected for six years.
"My reaction was amazement. It was beyond comprehension," Nathan told me. The fact that the camera was found by fellow Wisconsinites only added to the unlikely scenario.
He and Susan have shared the photos with family. The camera, which was a birthday gift from Susan to her husband, now sits on a bench at the entrance of their home and serves as a conversation piece.
I don't know which is more impressive, that these retirement-age couples continue to hike in hostile terrain, or that they were thrown together by family photos that survived that unforgiving environment and found their way home to Wisconsin.
Contact Jim Stingl at (414) 224-2017 or jstingl@jrn.com. Connect with my public page at Facebook.com/Journalist.Jim.Stingl