West Chester Tag | The Ring Finders

A friend of mine had given me permission to search on his parent’s property along the Brandywine – the area holds great potential for Revolutionary War relics and is a chance of a lifetime for a detectorist as far as  I am concerned. I just want to find a round ball! 🙂

It just happens that this area is also the site of an old campground his family sas been using for the past 30 some years, I’ve actually visited there during one of the festivities many years ago. Well, Brian mentioned to me that one of his friends, Janna, had lost her wedding ring there over some fifteen years ago during a weekend of camping – this of course sparked my interest.

When I arrived there on my first hunt, I wanted to search for the ring first – since hey, how cool would it be to find that ring and return it as a favor for a favor! Brian gave me the rough layout of where Janna’s tent was set up and the rough layout of the campground. I set up my quadrants and started searching.

After a few hours, all I had found, along with a few modern coins, were bottle caps and what might have been an old horse bridal ring. Since this area is on a flood plane, all the bottle caps were down at about three inches, that’s pretty deep for modern items. My hopes for finding old revolutionary war round balls diminished, as they would be too deep for my detector to locate … at least in this area. If items from thirty years ago were down around three inches, I could only imagine how deep items from two hundred and fifty years ago would be.  🙁

After a few hours I covered most of the camping area when Brian was about to call it a day and rang the lunch bell; ready to roll up to house for beer and brats – plus the Michigan game was starting soon. I was a little disappointed as I really wanted to find that ring for him.

I told him that I just wanted to do one more lane and then I’d call it quits. I was just finishing my lane, with about ten feet to go, when I had a rough, yet viable signal. I thought, « Hey, I might as well dig it. » The signal was about three inches down, I neatly cut a plug and as I lifted it, down in the hole  I saw the gleam of gold baby! That deep yellow glow just stood out among the surrounding rich brownish-black soil.  At first I couldn’t believe it, but there she was, still as shiny as if it was just lost yesterday. It was a thin gold ring, with small diamonds. The engraving of initials and year left no doubt as to who the owner was.

I was elated and Brian couldn’t believe that I had found Janna’s ring after it had been lost for over fifteen years. He voiced his disbelieve at the recovery for the rest of the afternoon. It made me happy and I was glad to provide a service for his gracious offer to allow me to detect his property.

As we left the campground area for a well deserved lunch, Brian mentioned that he had also lost HIS wedding ring in the same area while building a campfire. The campfire was just over from where I conducted my first quadrant search! So when I return again, I will try to find his lost wedding ring – how cool would it be to find both! 😉

This has not been the first time where persistence has paid off. Not giving up and searching just one more area was again rewarded with success! I cannot describe the feeling of finding what was lost forever, I feel as happy as the reunited owners.

The next weekend Brian drove down to Baltimore to return the ring to its rightful owner. I wish I could have been there to witness the surprise, as Janna had no idea that her lost ring had been found. The owner’s smile really is the best reward.