02/06/2025
Brown County farmer Donald has uncovered some very unique buried treasure.
On a recent visit to the East Branch, he asked library staff whether his card was still active. It wasn’t … because it was accidentally buried with the contents of his wallet when Donald was plowing his fields twelve years ago! Read on for the rest of the crazy-but-true story.
“My name is Donald Jossart. I am a farmer in Brown County, Wisconsin. I grew up on the farm where I live today.
I love to plow. Turning the soil over buries the dead weeds, grass, and harvest stubble, revealing the rich brown soil below and aerating it.
In September of 2013, I was plowing a field with my 100 HP International Tractor, pulling a bottom plow. The temperature was pleasant and the day was sunny. After making rounds for a couple of hours, I came home for lunch. I needed my wallet but, when I reached into the back pocket of my jeans, it was not there.
Unfortunately, there is a gap between my tractor seat and the back rest. With a sinking feeling, I realized my wallet had worked its way out of my pocket – and down into the plow paths. It had been covered up.
I have plowed my fields for many years, and I had a “sense” of where my wallet may have dropped, so I went back to the field and cultivated the acres I had plowed that morning to turn up my wallet. No luck. Friends and family helped me search. We prayed to find it.
Among other things, the wallet contained my driver’s license, library card, gift cards, and $200 in cash. Everything was lost. Finally, and regretfully, I went through the tedious and challenging process of reporting the loss and replacing what I could. I truly had faith that, in time, God would reveal my wallet again.
Several years of farming, planting, and working the field passed by with no sign of my wallet, even though I looked and hoped every day. Then, in May of 2018 as I was using my land roller, FLIP! Something came out of the ground. Immediately, I wondered if it was a stone or my wallet. I quickly stopped the tractor, jumped off, crossed to the spot, and there was my wallet, found after five years in the ground. I was joyous. God answers prayers!
Gingerly, I opened it. The $200 in cash had been reduced to dust and the gift cards had expired. My credit cards and library card were intact but, as it turns out, my library card needed updating.
When I went to replace my card, the two helpful ladies I told my story to encouraged me to write it down."
We're so glad you sent in your story Donald!
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