Simeron Matijasevic had no idea just how valuable a bag of documents he bought at a Kingsville garage sale was until he brought them to the Jack Miner Bird Sanctuary.
It only cost him $20, but for Executive Director Mary Baruth, you could not put a price on the value of the documents which include early blueprints for the sanctuary, contracts, the design of the original bird band, and even hate mail.
"1926 and they didn't sign it. It's regarding his stance on crows," says Baruth. "Leave the crow alone, or you will get into trouble."
Baruth admits she started shaking when she opened up the grocery bag Matijasevic brought to the sanctuary last week.
The documents had been unlawfully removed from the sanctuary several years ago. Its foundation had a successful judgement against the former director, Kirk Miner, for material sold to the Detroit Tigers in 2015, but there was still a lot of material missing.
"It was basically 1920s and 1930s; all of the work that Jack was doing on conservation," she says describing what she found in the bag. "Simeron aptly called it a national treasure. We actually now have the original blueprint of the banding net that Jack used."
Baruth says she offered to pay Matijasevic the $20 he spent, but he refused saying his reward was "doing the right thing." Instead, she gave him a real Jack Miner goose band and banded a goose with his name inscribed inside.
A full review of the documents is underway, and an exhibit will open at the Jack Miner Museum during Migration Festival in October.
