Anyone know someone who lost an unregistered jon boat?

My partner and I were fishing on the Little Cahaba near the confluence of the Cahaba river off of Hwy 280 near Birmingham on Monday, and I found a 14 foot alumacraft riveted Jon Boat. It had no alabama #, no yearly registration tags, and no tie rope. The boat was washed up on shore and was stuck there by a stump. I tied the boat to my yak and hauled it back upstream, my buddy and I ended up driving all around creation to get a truck and trailer, and now the boat is at my place. If it had had any kind of registration stickers, had looked like it was tied up for use, or didn't look like it had been washed up on shore and dented up by a flood, i'd have just left it there.

I called the Marine Police, gave them the HIN number (the only number of any kind on the boat) and found out that its a mid-eighties model and has never been registered in the state of Alabama before. It had never been reported lost or stolen. I called the shelby county Sherriff's office and let them know I found the boat, and they said no one had reported anything there either. I tried called alumacraft to see if i could find the original owner, and they did not have sales records going back past the mid 90's.

I would like to figure out whose boat it is, so I can return it or can see if they would sell it to me. If i can't figure that out, I want to see what the cheapest route is that I can go about getting the boat in my name. The issue i'm running into now is that I have no bill of sale on the boat. The court wants a bill of sale when I register, according to their website. Marine police told me to call the Jefferson county court, so I called the circuit court and they told me i would have to file a petition for possession of an abandoned motor vehicle, which would cost me some $250, more than the boat is really worth.

Do i truly have to do that, seeing as the boat did not have a motor when I found it, and still doesn't have one now? I plan to put a trolling motor on it in the future, which is why I would want to get it registered.

Does anyone on here know of anyone who has lost/had stolen a Jon Boat in the several counties around Bham? Or does anyone know how I could go about finding out the purchase history of the boat? I tried calling shelby shores marine and Leon's marine to see if they had any leads, and didn't get anywhere.

A few folks have said that I could just take the HIN number to the courthouse, pay the registration costs, and it would be mine. I don't think its that simple though. I've called around to just about anybody I could think of short of retaining an attorney. Any ideas?

Sorry for the long winded post.