PROVO — Dwayne McKinney knows the history of the log cabin on his property – or at least he thought he did until he found a hidden memento.

The Butler County corn and soybean farmer recently discovered a message hidden in an old bottle, left behind 70 years ago by the family that previously owned the cabin.

About two weeks ago, McKinney was working outside his restored cabin on Monticello Church Road when he noticed a loose plank in the back of the building.

“I knelt down and pulled the board out some and I found the bottle laying right there under a floorboard,” McKinney said.

A glass bottle sealed with a cork and still bearing part of a “Oertel’s ’92 Beer” label, it contained a message written Oct. 27, 1939, by Anna Pearl Brown, who lived in the cabin at the time with her husband, J.P.

The brief note mentioned how the Browns were building an addition to the cabin, which was built in the 19th century on its current site.

Anna Brown, then 53, wrote that she planned to place this note in the bottle and hide it under the floor for someone else to find.

“Wonder how long it will be before this is found. We may all be gone by then,” reads a part of the note.

McKinney bought the property from Brown’s son, Oscar, and his wife, Helen, in 1989.

Since then, the cabin has been used for family functions, holiday dinners and weddings, and McKinney has helped construct a pond and built an outhouse next door.

McKinney and his family had done extensive restoration work, but he was amazed at the discovery of this overlooked bottle and showed it to his girlfriend, Brenda Williams, who was visiting when he found it.

“I thought he was pulling my leg at first,” Williams said. “We sat down on the front porch and read the message. It was very cool to find that. Dwayne’s always trying to find more details about the cabin and the community and the history behind it.”

A former part-time employee with the Butler County Sheriff’s Department and the Morgantown Police Department, McKinney did some further investigation after finding the letter – which, in addition to the Browns, their son and daughter-in-law, also mentions Charles Whitescorver, who was visiting the area when the note was written.

McKinney discovered that Helen Brown, Anna’s daughter-in-law, was still alive, having made her home in Waterloo, Ill.

Recently, McKinney talked with the 91-year-old Helen Brown about his discovery.

“I told her what I’d found, and she didn’t know it had been put there, but I could tell it tickled her to hear a little bit more about the old home,” McKinney said “I’m making a copy of the letter to send to her.”

Hidden treasures are apparently all over the cabin – soon after finding the bottle, McKinney discovered several old Saturday Evening Post and Life magazines dating back to the 1930s while installing insulation in the ceiling.

“The more you dig, the more interesting it gets,” said Sam McKinney, Dwayne’s father.

As for the bottle, McKinney plans to build a shadow box for storing the bottle and the message and will display the artifact in his cabin.

He also has plans for whenever he passes the cabin along to someone else.

“I think I’ll make a copy of the letter, the date I found it and who was here, put it back in the bottle, seal it up and put it in the same spot,” McKinney said.