Herb’s Blog, Herbdate 23219 – 1154
Here’s the haps:
Part I – One Year Ago
Imagine that you’re a hardworking Iowa farmer and you don’t get to take a lot of vacations so when you get a chance to, you book yourself a nice fishing trip at a resort in Minnesota. Minnesota is called “The Land of Ten Thousand Lakes” and is really beautiful. Near the Canadian border, at the northernmost part of the contiguous United States is a lake called, Lake of the Woods. Seventy miles long by Seventy miles wide; almost a million acres. Probably more fisherman than farmer, Jim Denney (one account spelled his name Denning but I went with this spelling from the majority of stories I found) describes himself this way, “I’m not no spring chicken. And I’ve been all over this United States.” He’s fished in all kinds of lakes, ponds, rivers, streams, and everything else. He’d had a good day fishing but the lake was rough. He was sitting on the back of the boat and the rocking of the two-foot waves kind of worked his wallet out of his pocket. And into the lake. When it came time to pay at the resort he had nothing but that sick, sinking feeling of not finding your wallet with all your money in it. Go back out and check the boat. Nope. Somewhere in a million acres of lake under twenty feet of water lies your billfold with two thousand dollars in it.
Part II – One Year Later
If you are a Minnesota teenager then fishing is, more likely than not, just part of your life. Dad and uncle and cousin, who knows who all, “Let’s go to the lake and get some Walleyes.” “Good idea!” 14-year-old Connor Halsa had just switched to spinners and they were going to do a “walleye-drift” and let the waves kind of just do what they would when he felt something on the line. He thought he had a bite and “set the hook really hard.” What he reeled in was a billfold with two thousand dollars in it. Connor and his dad agreed that they needed to find the owner somehow. They found a business card in the wallet and through it, they were able to contact Denney.
Jim Denney was not only excited to hear about the wallet but he was also excited to meet such honest people. He drove eight hours to meet them. He tried to give Connor a cash reward but he wouldn’t take it. He did let Mr. Denney buy him a Yeti cooler that was personalized with his name on it and take them all out to dinner.
“We didn’t work hard for the money, he did. It was his money.”
“Connor is the man,” Denney said. “He could be my grandson, and I’d fight for him any day of the week.”
Original Story Here. account from Iowa
Great blog and beautiful story of honesty and the love of fishing and others.
I was just blown away.
If that was fiction, I probably wouldn’t believe it. I’m impressed.
I had a hard time suspending my disbelief and I was looking it up. But it proves the old adage, “Truth is stranger than fiction.”
Maybe there’s hope after all…
I think so when I see stuff like this.
My dad used to take me catfish fishing when I was a kid— I hated the smell of the water under the old bridge — I could never stomach putting a worm on a hook — I hated the idea of killing the fish —I would catch one and then feel sorry for it… much to my dad’s chagrin …but I love to eat certain fish just as long as I don’t have to watch them die —
But did you ever catch 2,000 bucks?
Are you talking about tag fishing? I never did but I went to Lake Erie for a tag fish croppiethon once…
I meant did you ever catch a wallet full of money.
I did not ever “Catch” a wallet full of money but I never have an empty wallet…how about you…did you?
My daughter found $150 that was lying in the street in a plain white envelope. Nobody was around and when we called the police they said that since there was no way to id it she could keep it.
I have an empty wallet a lot.
Amazing… Herb, great story to share.
It was a pretty cool one.
Good one!
Thanks. It was a cool story.
I think that’s what the they call “Minnesota nice.”
That would be a good name for it.
I needed more Fargo-esque dialogue from the teens -all joking aside, that’s a wonderful story.
I recently seen the headline of this on Yahoo. What an honest kid. Love stories like this. Also shows what a great job the parents are doing. 😀
Yeah, it was a really nice find.
A heartwarming story.
I thought it was really cool.
These stories present a world that I remember, but that seems increasingly foreign. Nice people, all of them.
They are some of my favorites to do.
This is a great story! But on a side note, I have fished Minnesota lakes many times, and as much as tgey are rumored to be there, I might be more surprised to catch a walleye than a wallet.
Hahaha! That’s funny.