Our Favorite Found Objects

By Utne Staff and Utne Reader
Published on October 26, 2007

Found in a Lost & Found Basket
Truckee, California 1989
“This pouch had such a different feel from all the usual bright hats and mittens people lost while skiing. Since no one claimed it by the end of winter, I took it home. It’s been one of my favorite things ever since. I love imagining its story.”
–Karen Olson, senior editor

Found in a Garden
Minneapolis, Minnesota 1999
“When I found this button, I immediately imagined it belonging to the original owner or one of the workers who built the house in 1909. They just don’t make buttons like that any more. I love to hold it. It fits my thumb perfectly.”
–Kristi Anderson, art director

Found in a Corn Field
Trimont, Minnesota 1985
“I found this hatchet head when I was digging up rocks on my grandfather’s farm. It made me think of all the people that had worked this land before me.”
–Jeremy Wieland, circulation director

Found in a Sandbox
Barrington, Illinois 1963
“My family bought an old barn and renovated it. My brother and I found this while digging outside in the sandbox. We kept looking for more– it felt like we were on an archaeological dig–but this is the only thing we found.”
–Scott Anderson, painter and former Utne Reader cover model

Found in a Backyard Austin
Texas 1997
“I found these things while digging to make a garden at the first house i ever owned. I thought about leaving them behind when I moved, but I wanted to take a little of Austin with me.”
–Jennifer Dix, design assistant

Found along the midtown Greenway
Minneapolis, Minnesota, 2002
“I usually wait until I’m on my way home from a run to pick things up. But when I saw this notebook at the beginning of a run, I had to stop. Someone tried to burn it, so I figured it had to have good stuff inside.”
–Chris Dodge, librarian

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