Possibility Point
A Memorial Cache
This cache will lead you to a very scenic and seldom-visited location which also has some remarkable historical tie-ins to Seaside. The best place to park is at the end of North Franklin Street (included as a Waypoint), or enjoy a wonderful walk down the Promenade and along the beach or grasslands.
A few months ago, I was visiting the home of a family friend, an elderly lady who has lived in Seaside for over 70 years. During my visit, my attention was caught by a very old bottle on a shelf of mixed decorations and figurines. Thinking that it looked very much like the classic message-in-a-bottle, I looked more closely, and sure enough, could make out a sheet of folded paper inside.
Seeing my curiosity, my friend remarked, "That is a Possibility". She then went on to explain and I was drawn into a truly epic historical account of the bottle's history, and much more...
In 1932, a girl, Charlotte Amelia, was born in Alice Springs, Australia, a town just about as dead-center as you can get in the Australian continent, and 1,000 miles from the closest ocean. Despite living in this desert environment and being such a great distance from the sea, Charlotte grew up thinking of little else. She dreamed of walking on sandy beaches and sailing to distant lands. She somehow knew, though, that she would never see the ocean, and indeed lived her entire life of 83 years in Alice Springs, traveling no more than 50 miles away during her entire lifetime.
Though oceanless, Alice Springs did have one distant connection to the sea - the Todd River. As she grew older, Charlotte spent considerable time studying this river and tracing all the ways that its waters could eventually reach the Coral Sea on Australia's east coast. One day, when she was 13, Charlotte was reading a historical maritime novel on the banks of the Todd, when she encountered a passage describing how bottles containing messages were occasionally released at sea and how they later might show up on the shores of some distant continent. Charlotte was immediately fascinated by the idea and soon embarked on a passion that would encompass the next seven decades of her life.
On November 18, 1945, Charlotte placed a handwritten message in a bottle, carefully sealed it, and set it free in the rapidly-flowing Todd River. That bottle was the first of 72,856 more bottles that Charlotte would release over the next 70 years at the same location of the river.
At first, it was just a few bottles, each with its own carefully printed note. However, by the time she was 18, Charlotte had become obsessed with the activity and began a program of extremely detailed documentation of every bottle released. She also worked out arrangements with most of the bars and restaurants in town, thus obtaining amazing numbers of used and empty bottles. A bookkeeper by profession, Charlotte had a knack for maintaining vast amounts of information and carefully organizing it, skills she applied to tracking her bottle messaging activities.
She soon began to think of each individual bottle she released as a Possibility, since she dreamed about what could lie in store for each and every one she sent out. Furthermore, she assigned each bottle and note its own serial number and carefully recorded that information both on the notes and on the bottles. The numbering scheme she used started with Possibility 1 and ended with Possibility 72,856. Each note, studiously hand- or typewritten contained the story of who she was, where the bottle was released (all of them at the same location), and eventually, her "assignment" of what the bottles' destinations were. Whether she actually believed that assigning destinations would somehow help the bottles get there is unclear, but she pursued the assignments with great excitement, using her atlas to pick coastal towns and cities around the entire globe.
On December 20, 1953, Charlotte Amelia released Possibility 12,738, Destination: Seaside, Oregon into the Todd River at 5:25 PM. Inside was a note containing a brief story of her life and the "Possibility Project". It also contained her name and mailing address with a request that she be contacted by anyone who found the bottle. Similar notes accompanied every bottle she released.
It only took two weeks for the first contact to come back to her - from a finder less than one mile down the Todd River! Indeed, many of the bottles no doubt did not get much further away before ending their journeys in the muddy banks of the river. But, as she soon discovered, those released at the height of the spring runoff and flooding season would have much better outcomes. Just over two years into the project, Charlotte received her first truly exciting contact - a bottle had been discovered in Westport, New Zealand! Charlotte was ecstatic, and redoubled her efforts, launching as many as 200 bottles in a single week.
In March of 1970, my Seaside friend was walking near the banks of the Necanicum River in north Seaside, when her attention was attracted by a bottle washed up in the sand on the river's banks. Thinking, as I did, that it looked like it might contain a message, she examined it and returned home with the bottle and note. Possibility 12,738 had miraculously reached its assigned destination after a journey of 8,000 miles and 17 years.
My friend immediately responded to Charlotte Amelia by mail with the details of where and when she had found the bottle. She also contacted the local news agencies regarding the incredible incident. News spread around town, and it was not long until the bottle's landing site was named Possibility Point, a name which is still used today.
By this time, back in Alice Springs, Charlotte had received over 300 responses from finders of her bottles. Twenty-seven of those were from other continents. The response from Seaside, though, was the first from North America, and definitely the first (and only) time a bottle reached the destination that had been assigned to it. Charlotte was naturally very excited, and replied with a lengthy letter to my friend. In the coming years, the two became very good friends, and Charlotte eventually received an invitation to come to Seaside for a visit and to be reunited with her ocean-spanning Possibility 12,738. Amazingly, despite her lifelong ambition of seeing the ocean, Charlotte declined, explaining that doing so would change forever how she dreamed about each bottle and its amazing voyages across the oceans. Seeing that for herself would remove the magic she experienced with every bottle launched.
Although she refused to leave home, Charlotte did continue to correspond with her Seaside friend, as well as with many others all over the world. As part of that correspondence, she related the huge impact that finding her bottles on various shorelines around the world had on many different people. On that day a few months ago when I first saw the bottle on my friend's shelf, she also shared with me some of the letters and documented experiences she had received from Alice Springs over the years. I relate some of the most memorable here:
Possibility 19,521: This bottle was discovered by Raphael Phoenix in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico in 1966. Raphael considered this a sign, and used the numbers 19, 5, 2 and 1 to play the lottery. He won the equivalent of $20,000 on those numbers.
Possibility 32,014: Discovered, amazingly, on the east coast of the United States, in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1982. It was found by Roger Billingsley, a prisoner and part of a shoreline cleanup crew. Roger was overwhelmed by the discovery and considered the bottle was now key to his own Possibility and future. He explained how the discovery had changed his life and what it meant to him at his parole hearing three months later. The officers conducting the hearing were so moved by his story that they granted him parole, even though they previously had no intention of doing so. Roger went on to become a successful legal attorney in Salem, and in 2001, visited Charlotte Amelia at her home in Alice Springs, sharing with her his eternal gratitude for changing his life forever.
Possibility 50,922: This one actually saved a life. In October, 1959, Earle Stanfield, commercial fisherman, was working in the North Sea. In a very isolated area of the ocean, he became hopelessly entangled in his own fishing nets on the deck of his small dory. After struggling for hours to free himself in the frigid environment, he had almost given up hope, when he noticed that one of his nets had pulled in a bottle. He wasted no time in breaking the bottle and using the sharp exposed edges to cut away the net lines and free himself. He also kept the note that was inside the bottle, contacted Charlotte with his story, and eventually sent her a full bottle of very expensive wine as a token of his appreciation. The empty wine bottle would later become Possibility 70,000.
Possibility 730: In 1950, a message in a bottle washed ashore in New Zealand. It was discovered by Flora Grainger, who excitedly sent a reply to Alice Springs. However, the envelope containing the reply was inadvertently delivered to the wrong address and ended up in the hands of Thomas Smythe on a street two blocks away from Charlotte's residence. Tom unintentionally opened the letter, not realizing it had been misdelivered, and was immediately enthralled by what he read. He responded to Flora in New Zealand as well as to Charlotte. Tom and Flora quickly realized they had a lot in common and became pen pals. Six years later they were married and lived happily for over 50 years in New Zealand. Charlotte Amelia attended their wedding in the Alice Springs Chapel.
Possibility 68,511: This bottle launched the career of Michael Reef in 2009. He discovered it on the shoreline of Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, and quickly responded to Charlotte's request for a reply. He also became fascinated by the route the bottle may have traveled on its journey from the heart of Australia. He began studying ocean currents in earnest and four years later, graduated with a degree in oceanography. He is now a well-known lecturer who travels the world and always relates the story of the Possibility bottle that started it all. Two years ago, he, also, paid a visit to Charlotte Amelia at her Alice Springs home, and even helped her launch one of the final bottles of her long, amazing lifetime (Possibility 72,801).
Possibility 12,738: You have already heard the story of this one, and how it made its way to the banks of the Necanicum River in Seaside, Oregon, after crossing the Coral Sea and the Pacific Ocean. And now, it is the subject of this geocache. You will find the cache just a few feet from where it landed at Possibility Point. As you enjoy this very scenic location, ponder the amazing journey of one small, glass bottle as it crossed many thousands of miles of ocean to reach its destination. Who knows what storms it survived, the amazing amount of time it spent floating on the surface, and where it may have gone before finally washing ashore.
Enjoy your walk to the Point, and feel free to share your thoughts on this amazing history in your log. Keep your eyes open for message-bearing bottles. I have no doubt that Charlotte's messengers will continue to be discovered for many decades, maybe even centuries, into the future.
Charlotte Amelia passed away in Alice Springs just last year. On her headstone is a bottle labeled Possibility 72,857, which would have been the next in her series.
Rest in peace, Charlotte.