DATE: Friday, March 14, 1997                TAG: 9703140634

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A4   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS 

DATELINE: SHERIDAN, WYO.                    LENGTH:   26 lines

TREASURE IN A BOOK FINDS ITS WAY HOME TO NORFOLK OWNER

An old encyclopedia turned out to have a lot more than a wealth of information, and a Norfolk woman is the beneficiary.

Library worker Karen Woinoski was leafing through a volume of the 1934 Collier Encyclopedia when she found $40,000 in government bonds, $2,600 in cash and several rare coins.

``I stood there and looked at it for a while and thought, `Oh my gosh,' '' Woinoski said.

After a little investigation, workers at the northern Wyoming library found the treasure's owner - Mary Jayne Petit of Norfolk.

Petit's husband, Joe, never told her about the hidden cache. After he died 12 years ago, Petit sold his book collection to a Sheridan native who later donated it to the library.

Petit said she thinks the money will go to her five grandchildren for college.

``This will come in handy when they have to pay college tuition,'' she said.

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