A Seven-Hour Ring Recovery Search in an Oklahoma River
I was contacted by a woman who had lost her ring while tubing on a popular river here in Oklahoma. She did exactly what I wish everyone would do after losing an item in the water—she took photos, documented the area, and provided as much information as possible about where the ring may have been lost.
With a good search area established, I set up my water-recovery gear and began working the river.
Several hours into the search, another person approached me and explained that they had also lost a ring in the same area I was already searching. Since I was there and equipped for the job, I added a second lost ring to the recovery mission.
After seven hours in the water, the search produced some surprising results. I successfully recovered the second person’s lost ring, along with five additional unclaimed rings from the same stretch of river.
Unfortunately, the original ring that brought me there was not recovered.
But that search isn’t over.
I plan to return as soon as conditions allow and continue working the area. Her careful documentation gives us a solid search zone, and until I’ve thoroughly covered it, there’s still a chance that ring is waiting to be found.
Sometimes recovery happens in minutes. Sometimes it takes multiple trips and many hours of searching. Either way, the goal remains the same: keep searching and return these lost items back to the people they belong to. (Notice all the trash removed from the river during the search.)
