Lost ring recovered from the Big Lake They Call Gitche Gumee
I received a call from another Ring Finder from Southeastern Wisconsin (Paul Humphrey) about a party that had lost a ring up in Lake Superior and was wondering if I would be able to go up and assist a couple with finding their ring. Paul was about 4-5 hours away and thought I would be closer. He said that he would go if I was unable to make it. Superior Wisconsin is east of Duluth Minnesota by about 5 miles. Its about 2 ½ hours North of the Twin cities. I told him that indeed I would be able to help them out, and that they could get ahold of me to set up a time that would work. A short time later I received a call from Grace stating that her husband was in the lake at Wisconsin Point playing with their Labrador and when he got out, he noticed that his ring was missing. He was not very far out in the lake but was not sure where he lost it. Wisconsin Point has several beautiful sandy beaches and has some sand bars that that go out about 250’ only about 3-4’ deep. Grace sent me overhead photos with the location somewhat marked out.
I went up on a weekday while they were at work. I had a pretty good idea from talking to them and the photos where they were at. One thing that was said was they were on a sand bar. So when I got up I called them and let them know I was up looking for the ring. I was unable to reach either one of them but did leave messages for them. So I started working the beach and the edge of the lake with my metal detector. I was working a long narrow stretch about 400’ long. I noticed a sand bar and recalled something said about that, so I decided to work out a couple hundred feet. All places that would be a great place to play with a dog. I spent around 5 hours working the sand bar. Beautiful weather, sunny skies, surf was calm, and very few people to work around. Near the end of the day a gentleman walked up and introduced himself as the person that had lost the ring. He said that I was 250’ to far east. So I moved over and started working the area that he said he was in. A storm front moved in and was starting to lightning about 15 minutes after moving to the new location. We were forced to pull out for safety and would have to come back another time.
About a week or two later I went back up and was looking in the area that was pointed out to me. I started my day working the beach where they had set up for the afternoon. I just wanted to rule out the sandy beach before going into the water. It would not take long, and I could be reasonably certain that that area was cleared. While searching the beach what appeared to be a mother, daughter and a toddler were out on the beach in the area around where I was searching. The toddler was so cute and was mesmerized by my swinging the detector back and forth. She would follow me just to see what I was doing. It was added to the enjoyment of the search. I briefly spoke to the adults about what I was doing and that I was on a mission rather than just scavenging looking for lost items.
After that I went back out into the water, another beautiful day. Surf was calm and a beautiful day to be out searching. I was working a 100’ wide area going back and forth along the beach working my way out further into the water. The beach had a drop off about 15’ out that dropped down about 2 feet. It was difficult to cover the area that had the slope being sand. I worked it from the top side and then the bottom side. I found a cell phone and some miscellaneous junk items. After about hour I was out about 35 feet and I picked up a signal. It was not a signal that I was thinking would be the ring but scooped it up. I could not believe it, it was the ring. A beautiful rose gold ring with black diamonds just as they described. I kind of let out a little YES after I found it and the folks on the beach were excited that I had recovered it. They came over and seen the ring and where amazed at being able to find that small ring in such a large body of water.
Being 2 hours north of home I called and again was unable to get ahold of Grace and left her a message I was hoping I could meet up with her to give the ring back. She called me back about 10 minutes later. “ Hey Grace are you working today? I have something that I would like to get back to you”– No she said she was taking her dog to the vet. But you could tell her excitement. She said she was thinking of going out and buying a new ring later that day. I told her I would meet up with her at her vets office and return the ring. In the moment I forgot to get photos of the ring being returned to her but they did send back one of the ring back where it belonged. I did capture a couple of photos on the beach.
What another wonderful recovery. It never gets old helping people recover lost items.
Sarah and her husband had spent the day at Laguna Beach. The weather has been awesome, sunny and temperatures in the mid 80’s. They left about 2pm to get on the road before traffic got too bad. Thirty minutes down the road Sarah realiz
ed she did not have her wedding ring set. Two very special rings that she has worn for over 25 years. Her and her husband had recently celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary last week. She knew that she had put the rings in the cup holder of her beach chair while putting on sunscreen. There was a possibility that the rings were in the sand where they had been sitting. Returning to the beach and sifting through the sand with their fingers with no success . Sarah Google searched « how to find a ring in the sand » . Up popped a link to TheRingFinders with my contact information. I was in my car about 8 miles away, but it took about 20 – 25 minutes to get to her location. Just as I pulled up Sarah’s husband found the larger ring. I was able to locate the smaller ring after a few swings of my CTX3030 minelab metal detector. It was a weak signal which may have been because it was in a vertical position. It may have been buried a little deeper because they had been moving around a lot of sand doing their search. What’s most important is Sarah has both of her very special rings back on her finger, hopefully for another 25 years. Sarah commented how her smart phone and the internet worked to bring us together. I agree, I have the metal detecting equipment and know how to use them, but the smart phones and internet makes these recoveries happen.