• This feature appeared in the August 19, 2026 edition of the Star Valley Independent – 

A float trip on the Salt River this summer turned into a remarkable return of family history after 14-year-old Tanner Grubbs found a set of Navy dog tags partially buried near the water’s edge.

The tags belonged to August Charles “A.C.” Stadtmueller, a longtime Star Valley resident, Navy veteran, former sheriff’s deputy and Etna barber who died in 2019. While no one knows exactly when or how the tags were lost, they may have rested near the river for decades before resurfacing in the summer of 2026.

On July 6, Tanner was floating the river with friends and his mother, Clairey Grubbs, when he spotted the weathered tags near the boat ramp area by Jackknife Bridge.

“We put in at the Jackknife Bridge, and right there by the water’s edge, my son found them,” Clairey Grubbs said. “I thought, ‘These are real. We need to get them back to his family.’”

Grubbs placed the tags in a dry bag for the remainder of the float and began looking for Stadtmueller’s family once she returned home. She found his obituary through a Google search, then posted a deliberately vague request in local Facebook groups, avoiding photographs that showed the personal information stamped on the tags.

“Within minutes, I was able to find his daughter,” Grubbs said. “That just shows how tight-knit this valley is.”

The search led Grubbs to Stadtmueller’s daughter, Kathy Nimmer of St. George, Utah. For Nimmer, the call brought both gratitude and unanswered questions.

Her father, who served in the Navy during the Korean War, talked often about his service, she said. But neither Nimmer nor her sisters know when the dog tags were lost, whether Stadtmueller had worn them regularly or whether another family member may have had them at some point.

“I think that he must have lost his dog tags before,” Nimmer said. “Or maybe my brother was wearing them. I’ve asked my aunt and both of my sisters, ‘Do you know anything? Do you remember?’ And we just don’t remember.”

That uncertainty, Nimmer said, is part of what makes the discovery meaningful. Stadtmueller died nearly seven years ago, and Nimmer said the tags must have been missing for many years before Tanner found them.

“I’m almost 70, so at least 65, 68 years ago, they just had to be there that long,” she said. “And the fact that all of a sudden, they just surfaced.”

Stadtmueller was known as an avid hunter, fisherman and trapper who spent years along local riverbanks. He also loved swimming, Nimmer said, leaving the family to wonder whether the tags were lost during an outdoor outing long, long ago.

Although the family may never know exactly how the dog tags ended up near the river, Nimmer said their return matters more than the missing details.

“Honestly, in a way, I feel like it kind of makes it more special because we don’t know how long they’ve been there for and why,” she said. “But the fact that they came up now is incredible.”

Grubbs mailed the dog tags to Nimmer at the beginning of August, along with photographs of the location where Tanner found them. Nimmer has not yet opened the package; she plans to wait until she visits one of her sisters so they can share the moment together.

“I thought it would be a fun thing for sisters to do together,” Nimmer said.

But even unopened, the package has already become deeply personal. Grubbs wrote a note on the back of the package that read, “To Kathy, love Dad.”

Nimmer said the gesture moved her to tears.

“My dad passed away five years ago, and I was with him when he passed away,” she said. “You wonder as a daughter, ‘Am I doing good? Am I making my parents proud of me? Am I living the life that they would want me to live?’”

Grubbs’ note felt, Nimmer said, like a message from her father.

“Just for her to say, ‘Love Dad,’ she said that she felt like this was a message to me from my dad,” Nimmer said. “I’ve got it sitting on my desk, and I pick it up and touch it every day.”

Nimmer said she was especially touched by the effort Grubbs made to locate her, send photos and safely return an item that could easily have been overlooked or discarded.

“I don’t know Clairey, but I just think she’s one of the kindest people,” Nimmer said. “She doesn’t know me, and just the time that she’s spent to find me and send it to me and text me and send me pictures, what a wonderful person.”

For Grubbs, the return was personal, too. Her own father died in March, and she said she understood the importance of returning a tangible piece of someone’s father to his family.

“I truly understand missing your daddy,” Grubbs said. “That’s one of the main reasons I wanted to make sure they got back to the family.”

She also saw an unexpected connection between Tanner and the man whose tags he found. Like Stadtmueller, Tanner enjoys hunting, fishing and trapping. He is also beginning his first year as a Star Valley Brave.

“He’s a freshman Star Valley Brave, and this man was a Star Valley Brave,” Grubbs said. “It felt like there were all these little connections.”

For Nimmer, the recovery of the tags has become a reminder that even after years, perhaps decades, something once lost can still find its way home.

The discovery also left Nimmer reflecting on the family stories that can disappear when loved ones are gone. With her father, aunt and brother all deceased, she said there are now questions about the dog tags, and countless other memories, that no one can fully answer.

“We don’t think about questions to ask until they ask them to us,” Nimmer said. “There are many things that I’ve said, ‘Oh, I wish I would have asked Mom and Dad about that,’ or, ‘I wish I knew that.’ But you don’t think of it at the time because they’re there, and you can always just run to them and ask them. Then all of a sudden it’s too late.”

After possibly spending decades hidden in the mud and carried by the currents of the Salt River, A.C. Stadtmueller’s dog tags have finally made their way back to his family. Their journey may never be fully understood, whether they slipped away during a day of fishing, trapping or swimming along the river he loved, but their return has given his daughters a lasting connection to their father and a reminder that even the smallest pieces of a life can find their way home.