Big Spring Park Tag | The Ring Finders

Christina McCree – Ring Finder/Metal Detectorist for the northern Alabama and southern/middle Tennessee area.  Call or text ASAP, anytime 24/7 at 610-504-6135.

I received a text message just before midnight on Wednesday (July 16^th, 2025) from Allie stating she had lost a few rings on Monday evening and asked if I could help her find them.  Allie was attending one of the Concerts in the Park events at Big Spring Park in Huntsville, Alabama.  She vaguely remembered taking off her engagement ring and wedding band (soldered together) and her promise ring, then she placed them in the cup holder of her folding chair so that she could apply lotion.  Allie forgot to put her rings back on and at the end of the event, she folded up her chair and put it back in the bag with the rings still in the cup holder.  She thought they had fallen out into the grass.

The promise ring was a thin gold band that used to be Allie’s mother-in-law’s (Brandi) engagement ring given by her father-in-law.  Unfortunately, he has since passed.  The diamond and prongs had been removed, and the diamond was incorporated into a different ring Brandi now wears.  The modified thin 14k gold band was given to Allie as a promise ring by her now husband.

When I received Allie’s message I had already gone to bed, because I had to get up early for work the next morning, but I replied to Allie and told her I’d be more than happy to help.  I said I needed to pick up my detector and gear from my house, so I wouldn’t be able to get out to the park until after work on Thursday evening.  Allie said she had a prior commitment on Thursday evening, so we scheduled a search for Friday late afternoon when I got off from work.

Allie went back out to the park with a friend earlier in the day on Thursday to search for her rings.  Her friend took a metal detector, but she had a of signals and interference, so she ended up doing a visual grid search.  She was able to find Allie’s soldered engagement and wedding rings!!  She was so excited that she ran over to Allie and forgot to mark the exact spot, but that was no problem, because they had a picture of where Allie was sitting with the hotels/apartments in the background.  We were now 1 for 2 (or 2 for 3 depending how you look at it, lol).

I met Allie and Brandi on Friday afternoon at Big Spring Park.  There was a lot of pop of rain showers and thunderstorms, but thankfully nothing was happening at the park.  As we walked over to where Allie was sitting on Monday, Brandi explained the sentimental meaning behind the ring.  I could tell how much it meant to her.

Allie showed me the area she was sitting at and Brandi showed me the photo of Allie to line myself up with.  I had my Minelab Equinox 900 with the 15-inch coil.  I began my grid search and started receiving various signals.  I carefully checked each one with my Garret Pro Pointer.  All the targets were below the surface, so I didn’t bother going any further.  I came upon a nice sounding 15-16 signal.  I bent down to check and there was Allie’s gold ring!!  It was laying vertically, completely hidden in the grass.  I looked up at Allie, smiled, and said, “we got it!”  I looked over at Brandi and gave her a smile and thumbs up.  They were both very happy and relieved that it was found.  All praise and glory to God!

We chatted for a few minutes and started walking back to our vehicles.  They thanked me again and we said out good-byes.

 

This recovery was extra special to me because this was my 50^th overall successful search!  I’ve now found and returned a total of 58 items (some searches had multiple rings/items).  What a blessing it is getting to help others!

Earlier in the year, I had the pleasure of sharing my metal detecting story with one of the writers of the Redstone Rocket, Ms. Marian Accardi.  The Redstone Rocket is the Redstone Arsenal’s newspaper.  I’ve been waiting for a special occasion to share it, and to celebrate my 50^th successful search, here it is (link and story posted below).  Happy reading!  And until the next recovery… please take care and God Bless!

 

Metal detecting expert finds lost keepsakes for others | News | theredstonerocket.com

As Christina McCree turns the pages of a book that documents her successful metal detecting searches over the years, she can’t help but smile.

Her “Book of Smiles” holds a closeup photograph of each of the found items – from rings to keys and cell phones – along with photographs of the owners of the items and the date and location of the discoveries.

“The second best (reward) is finding the item, and the best thing is actually going and returning it to them, seeing that reaction. That’s priceless because a lot of these things are family heirlooms or wedding bands, college, high school rings.”

Most of the people who seek McCree’s help have already tried searching with a metal detector they bought or rented.

“I’m usually their last-ditch effort and a lot of them think it can’t be found, it’s gone forever. So, when I do find it, they’re just so shocked and happy. I’ve seen so many happy tears and hugs. That’s the most fulfilling thing.”

Her tally: “48 successful searches and between them all, 56 items,” said McCree, who’s an auditor with the Army Audit Agency. Most of those searches documented in her book have been through her listing on The Ring Finders’ website since August 2018. Founded by Chris Turner from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, The Ring Finders provides a directory of independent metal detecting specialists.

McCree’s favorite items to search for are rings and other types of jewelry and coins.

When McCree was a teenager, the movie “The Goonies” piqued her interest in treasure hunting and she got a metal detector. She enlisted in the Army in her home state of Pennsylvania and served active duty from 2005 to 2010, stationed at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri. She deployed twice to Iraq from there. McCree met her husband, Lindell McCree Jr., at Fort Leonard Wood and when they left the Army 15 years ago, they moved to Huntsville, where her father-in-law had retired.

She was hired at the Army Audit Agency in 2014 after earning an accounting degree from the University of Alabama in Huntsville.

McCree’s husband gave her a metal detector for Christmas in 2012, and she got back into metal detecting with hobby hunts on the weekends. Then she found out about The Ring Finders on YouTube.

“It’s a way to help people with my hobby, that’s the driving factor,” she said.

One memorable find came when she was searching for a University of Alabama class ring in a pond in Somerville.

“It was lost for 20 years,” McCree said. The Somerville man was throwing a decoy duck into the pond, and he and his wife saw the ring fly off his finger. He had tried to find it himself with a metal detector but ended up flooding it. He contacted McCree in the fall of 2019 and in the first attempt, the water was too cold and in a second attempt, rain had left the water too deep for a search. Then on Aug. 16, 2020, she tried again, using hookah dive system gear. The ring was in the water 3 ½ to 4 feet deep.

“I remember I picked it up, I shook all the muck off,” she said. “I saw that red crimson stone shining up at me.”

A certified scuba diver, McCree found another class ring in April 2022.

A man was fishing off his boat in the Tennessee River near Decatur when his ring fell off. He marked the grid with a sonar fish finder. “We went back two days later, and I dove down, and it was within a couple of feet from where he marked.”

McCree’s longest journey to search for an item was to Starkville, Mississippi, on Thanksgiving Day in 2020. She got a call the day before from a woman who had lost the keys to her car, house and work, and McCree left home early Thanksgiving morning.

“It was a six-hour trip only to spend less than 10 minutes” searching for the keys and finding them among some leaves.

“I drove back, took a shower and was over at my family’s for the Thanksgiving meal,” she said.

McCree was contacted to help a couple who evacuated from Louisiana because of Hurricane Ida and were staying at a friend’s lake house on Lake Tuscaloosa. The man took off his wedding band and put it in his swim trunks’ pocket to apply sunscreen. He forgot to put the ring back on, and it was lost when he got in the lake.

On Sept. 11, 2021, “I just did a grid search, using my hookah system,” and found the ring, she said.

Even when she’s on vacation, she can be called on to help.

While visiting her parents in Tampa, McCree was metal detecting with her father on the beach on Dec. 30 last year when a man asked if she could search for his wife’s cell phone she had lost in the sand.

“Right there on the spot I was able to find it for her,” she said.

McCree has also found numerous rings that were thrown in anger or during an argument. “Actually, it’s quite common,” she said.

“I try my best on every search. I always give 110%,” McCree said. “I search every spot, I expand the grid. I like to walk away knowing I’ve searched every area, exhausted every option.

“God has blessed me with the gift of finding items and the resources to go on these searches. I always give him all the glory in all my searches.”