Audrey Gomez
Recreational metal detecting can be a good way to get outdoors and have fun, but sometimes there really is treasure to be found.
Danny McCubbins of Sweet Home recently unearthed a ring that had been buried for 18 years.
McCubbins took up the hobby about 10 years ago after a knee surgery left him unable to play racquetball or hunt.
“I needed something to get me out of the house and I found I just really, really enjoyed it,” he said.
He is part of East Linn Treasure Seekers, which formed last year.
While most items he finds don’t have identifying information, McCubbins said he has been able to return a few treasures to their owners. The most recent was a 1997 Sweet Home High School graduation ring with the name “Chris” on it.
McCubbins did some research and located the owner.
“It was totally out of the blue, unexpected,” Chris Hegge said of the call he received. “It was just an odd moment of nostalgia when he said ‘I found your high school class ring.’ It brought back a lot of good memories.”
Hegge knew the area where he had lost it, McCubbins said, between the parking lot and the volleyball court at Sunnyside Park.
“It was the summer after I graduated high school, a bunch of us were just out playing at Sunnsyide,” Hegge said. “It was just one of those teenage moments.”
McCubbins has found and returned two wedding rings but this is the first class ring he has found, he said.
Fellow Treasure Seeker member Rita Houston, longtime owner of Oregon Prospecting, has a memorable ring-finding story of her own.
A few years ago, when Houston still operated her store Rita’s Relics, a woman lost a family heirloom wedding set while camping in Quartzville.
“Five of us went up there and it was one of those sites off the road,” Houston said.
They spent an hour searching the area and figured a squirrel had packed it off or the woman lost it four-wheeling, Houston said.
“She was just devastated,” Houston said. “I said, ‘just walk me through it one more time.’”
The woman had been cleaning fish, wadded up all the fish entrails and threw them in the fire.
“We know when we get our hands wet and cold and slimy, our rings are going to fall off,” Houston said. Sure enough, the ring was in the fire.
“I was very fortunate,” Houston said. “It was my third or fourth swing of picking up trash.”
She found the ring, which was undamaged.
“That was probably, to date, one of my favorite finds,” Houston said.
East Linn Treasure Seekers also engages in philanthropy while they’re having fun.
Last year, the group raised $1,500 for the Kids Food Pak program, a program to help children in Sweet Home who are hungry.
“It feels good to raise money for a cause in our area,” Houston said.