The Lost & Found Department at the old Arnegard School is still doing the job. Milt Hanson, owner of the Old School Bed & Breakfast discovered a package in the attic last winter as he routinely sorted several boxes with ‘contents unknown’ in his old school’s attic.

The mailer package was full of photos that appeared foreign to the old school, nor were the names on the package familiar.

The addresses were two: Ekalaka, Mont. and a forward address to Belle Fourche, S.D.

LOST PHOTOS FOUND
Bob and Janice Lasater prepare to open an envelope containing family photographs that had been lost for over 40 years. The photos were found by Milt Hansen, owner of the Old School Bed & Breakfast in Arnegard, when he was going through old boxes in the former school.

Feeling responsible to try to find the owner, Hanson entered the world of the Internet to explore locations for the mailer’s lone name: Bob Lasater.

Anywho.com produced no ‘who’ by that name in either Montana or South Dakota. However, Milt’s mother, Fern Hanson, now of Fairview, had grown up near Ekalaka. She just might recall the family name that might provide the means of finding Bob Lasater.

Hmmmm...Mom did recall hearing that last name. So Milt searched again the Anywho.com in Montana and with a phone call, learned he had found Bob’s cousin, Albert Lasater living in Ryegate, Mont. This cousin pointed him toward Dickinson.

Anywho.com produced the right ‘who’ living near Bismarck, N.D.

One phone call to Bob and wait.

Was this a telemarketing phone call?

No, of course not! Milt hastened to introduce himself as well as his location in Arnegard, N.D. As a keeper of history in the old school now working as a year-round bed and breakfast, he had found a box that well might have been a Lost & Found bin.

Might this 40-year-old mailer with photos belong to Bob Lasater? What could be the connection of the Old School Bed & Breakfast attic to Bob Lasater?

Well, Bob had lived about one mile away, along Highway 85 in the old Peterson place between Arnegard and Watford City, while Bob taught Industrial Arts for three years from 1963 to 1966 at Watford City High School in addition to coaching basketball, track and assisting with football.

Janice, Bob’s wife, had taught at several rural schools in McKenzie County, and the last year in the community she taught first grade at Mandaree.

Yes, for 41 years Janice had reminded him that it was Janice’s most precious belongings that had been stored in a top dresser drawer and were lost as the family moved from the old Peterson place to Dickinson in the spring of 1966. The contents of the drawer below had been blown out by the wind of travel, too.

"Bob told me that my news of these photos put the gleam back in his wife’s eye, because for 40 years she has been extremely unhappy about the loss of them," says Hanson.

The Lasaters agreed to visit Milt Hanson on April 19, 2007 to see what pictures were stored in the mailer bearing Bob Lasater’s name.

"Oh! I’m so thankful to get these," says Janice (Harrington) Lasater, immediately recognizing her cousin’s 1958 high school graduation photo that had previously been their grandmother’s. "The photos are mostly of my cousin, Bob C. Bryan, who is now about 69 years old, with a July 1 birthday."

Janice’s hands shook with joy as she held a photo of the young cousin Bobby, somewhere around age 8, standing beside his mother.

In 1966 Janice had called Bobby to report this loss of precious one-of-a-kind photos. This was very sad news for the young man who was orphaned at an early age.

Janice’s husband, Bob says he never would have recognized or known who was in the photos had his wife not come along to look at them.

"I’m still missing a few other items I recall storing in the drawer, like our son Bobby’s picture in a roll, a six-inch long metal case with print asking, Where are my buttons?, an old pair of gold wire-rimmed glasses, three gold rings without the stone sets and embroidered pillowcases with lace edging. The metal case housed my collection of five or six miniature knives, one of which had an ivory handle."

Plans are to call Bob Bryan, the cousin, and inform him that the lost has been found and he will be receiving the handful of photos.

The cousin, now a machinist, lives in Big Timber, Mont. and owns Shiloh Sharps, making and selling exact replicas of a well-known brand name of Buffalo guns.

The lost is now found and a sad spot in the past will soon be restored to joy for at least two families.