60-Year-Old McDonald’s Fries Unearthed During Crystal Lake DIY Project

CRYSTAL LAKE, IL — Grace Jones’ memories of trips to McDonald’s go back to her childhood growing up in the Chicago suburbs, but she never expected her connection to the iconic fast-food chain to hit home the way it has this month.

Jones and her husband, Rob, recently discovered that their 1950s-style Crystal Lake home had become a bit of a time machine for McDonald’s after they found a bag with two 1950s-era hamburger wrappers and — more remarkably — some french fries that somehow survived the test of time while buried inside their bathroom wall.

The Jones family, who are renovating their home, made the find after they cut into the wall to replace a built-in toilet paper dispenser. To do so, they had to cut out a 4-by-6-inch section of the wall, which had covered a towel that was wrapped around a bag. Rob yelled for Grace to come from the kitchen, which the couple has also been remodeling since March. Grace Jones told Patch that, at first, the couple’s imagination got the best of them.

“We both love to binge-watch true-crime shows, so at this point, we’re both looking at each other wondering if we were about to uncover evidence from a crime scene.” Grace Jones told Patch in an email interview on Thursday. “We were very relieved to have just found the old McDonald’s bag.”

Grace, who teaches in the Huntley school district, figures the McDonald’s fries and wrappers had been buried inside the home’s wall for some 60 years, given the old-time logo on the bag. The couple was amazed and perplexed at the same time.

“We wondered, how on earth are these fries still in this bag and how are they preserved so well?” Grace said Thursday. “It was wild. ... My thoughts are that it was likely the salt that dried out and preserved the fries, not actual preservatives. Or at least that’s what I’m telling myself.”

Local records show that the Jones house was built in 1959 and that a McDonald’s opened not far from the home the same year, NBC News reported. The wrappers are of the style that features a character known as “Speedee,” which was used from 1955 to 1961, Grace learned, and paid homage to the restaurant’s fast service and that came ahead of the more popular Ronald McDonald character.

Town records show that at the time, a McDonald’s hamburger cost 15 cents, while fries went for 10 cents, and a milkshake set customers back 20 cents.

The Crystal Lake couple admits that they have always been big fans of the popular fast-food chain, which was started in California by Ray Kroc. Jones told NBC News that her mother remembers going to the grand opening of a suburban McDonald's in Des Plaines in 1955 long before the restaurant chain known for its Golden Arches gained worldwide popularity.

A message to McDonald's seeking comment about the find was not immediately returned to Patch on Thursday.

The couple has reached out to McDonald’s but has not heard back. But ever since she posted photos of their DIY find earlier this month, the response has been remarkable. The fries and hamburger wrappers are put away for safekeeping and out of the reach of the couple’s two young children.

Grace said that if the relics are worth anything, they would sell their discovery if someone offered the right price. Otherwise, the couple plans to hold onto their piece of local history.

“We have been absolutely blown away by the response of our find,” Jones told Patch on Thursday. "We just thought it was such a crazy find that we had to share it. We had no idea it would spread so quickly.”