To whom it may concern: Today is Jan. 8th … We thank the courageous explorers of 1969 — a year of much student strife & distruptness [sic] for venturing into the unknown depths of this forbidden, ominous space separated from all those who lack inquisition and curiosity.

These words appear in a letter found in a hidden cubby in a Helser Hall room. The letter, written in 1973, was recently discovered by Jennifer Ashley, freshman in agricultural business; Eliza Franzen, freshman in liberal arts and sciences-open option; and Jessica Nielsen, freshman in sociology.

The three found the letter in a small, dark cubby hole infested with dust bunnies and cobwebs in the side of Ashley’s dresser.

“I was excited [to find the letter],” Ashley said.

Both Ashley and Franzen grinned as they shared the story of finding the letter and their thoughts on it.

After hearing from residents of Richie House that there were hidden cubbies in Helser rooms, Nielsen, Franzen and Ashley checked their rooms looking for forgotten treasures. Although they found a few odds and ends, Ashley’s room held the real treasure — a 31-year-old letter.

“It was really exciting because we had our little adventure. They seemed like the most interesting people ever. They talked in a weird, unique way,” Nielsen said.

All three said they liked the style of language the letter was written in.

“I just love how they talk; their words are good — good imagery,” Franzen said. “Just the fact that it was so old was cool.”

The author, Ronald Hanavan, wrote about the cubby and addressed those who would find it one day. He also mentioned acquaintances of his at the time.

While reading the letter, questions formed in the women’s minds.

“Did [Dennis Crisler] end up marrying [Becky Dorn] — that’s the question I want to know,” Franzen said, referring to two of the people mentioned in the letter. “I just want to find out who they are and what they’re doing now.”

Franzen said she believed the writers wanted someone to find the letter someday.

Hanavan confessed in an e-mail to the Daily he had only a vague memory of the letter.

“I had lost all memory of the letter or the surrounding events … Only now am I vaguely able to begin to recall such past,” he said.

He said he distinctly remembers Chris Stanley as a “swell fellow” and close friend during his days at Iowa State.

“I am sad to say that I have not been in touch with him for over 25 years,” Hanavan said.

He also said he did not clearly remember the others named in the letter: Gary Visser, Dennis Crisler and Crisler’s fiancee at the time, Becky Dorn. Nor did he know if Crisler ever married Dorn.

“As far as the spirit and intent of the letter, I am clearly able to explain to you that both represent a youthful excursion into frivolity and self-importance,” he said.

Today, Hanavan has been happily married for 26 years and is raising his seven children in Moline, Ill., where he has worked for a chain of Midwestern fast food restaurants for the past 24 years.

While attending Iowa State, Hanavan studied political science and sociology, although he did not obtain a degree.

“I was desperately searching for meaning and purpose in life and was of the persuasion that inherent to this search was adventure, mystery and revelation,” he said.

Shortly after writing the letter, Hanavan left Iowa State.

“[I] decided to forsake my education and left ISU for a life of hitchhiking and aimless wandering through the United States,” he said.

Along the way, Hanavan said he found the answers he had been searching for.

“I realized that the real adventure in life was not that which was imagined in smug condescension at variance with that which was true since the ages began, but that life, truth and the very way of these absolutes, being not found within my intellect or in the passions of my heart, were found exclusively in … Jesus Christ.”

The letter sparked the desire in Ashley to leave something behind as well. She penned a letter of her own to be placed in the cubby along with Hanavan’s letter. She said she won’t tell anyone, not even her co-adventurers, exactly what she wrote but chooses to leave it for a future adventurer to find.

Ashley only outlined her letter’s contents.

“Who found [the letter], how school is, where I originally came from, so they’d know and then I gave them some words of wisdom,” she said.