Crow’s Nest: Lost and Found

A lost and found box on a post near a wooded trailhead at Crow’s Nest Preserve

By Daniel Barringer, Preserve Manager.

Sometimes, we all need a little help. We all forget things, drop things, or put our water bottle on the roof of our car before driving away.

At Crow’s Nest Preserve we’ve accumulated a stash of hats, sunglasses, water bottles, and other hiking accessories that were left in our parking lot, but we have always struggled with how to reunite these items with their owners.

Feel free to contact us if you think you have left something here. I am pleased share an incredible story that a wedding ring lost along our trails was found a few years later and reunited with the couple who had reached out to us—we kept their names and email on file in case it turned up.

But until now we had no self-service method of getting commonly-dropped items back to their owners. And stuff was piling up in the visitor center. I asked Luke DiBerardinis in Building Stewardship to create a sturdy, weatherproof box that could be mounted in the parking lot next to the information kiosk. The lid had to be designed so it could not be left open. Done—you can see the results above. Graphics Designer Kristen Bower made an attractive little sign to identify the box.

I find it unbelievable that I have to say this—but the box is not a seat, the way it was used twice in the first day it was installed. We do have more than 20 Leopold benches, Adirondack chairs, and other seats around the preserve that we hope you enjoy.

But please lift the lid and check if you left something here on an earlier trip. There’s already a pair of reading glasses in there, and only a little worrisome, a lug nut from the wheel of a car.