Alaska
Somewhere in the snow you cleared, or down in the beach gravel
Anchorage, Eagle River, Girdwood, the Mat-Su lakes, Homer and Fairbanks
You clear the driveway, more snow comes down in the night, and a wedding band that slid off inside a glove is under all of it. A beach is the same trouble spread out: the keys went between the stones somewhere on the walk from the truck to the water.
Ring Seekers is a lost ring and jewelry recovery service that connects people who lost a ring, wedding band, watch, keys or phone in Alaska with a metal detectorist who can search there. Tell us what happened and where. We find a detectorist who can reach the place, brief them with your map and photos, and tell you honestly if the odds are poor.
It does not have to be a wedding band. An engagement ring, an Oura ring, a stud earring, a necklace, a bracelet or a chain, an Apple Watch, a phone, a key fob, metal-framed glasses and hearing aids all start the same way, whether the ground was park grass, lake sand or a snowbank.
What to write down before the light goes
Two things turn a whole beach or a whole yard into a patch somebody can work: where you were standing, and when. Stand on the spot if you still can, drop a pin, and photograph the ground with something fixed behind you, a shelter, a boat ramp, a stand of spruce. If snow has come down already, push a stake in at the edge so the patch is still marked in the morning.
Your phone can put an hour on it. Find the last picture taken while you still had the item on, and the first one after: the hours in between are what has to be accounted for. Send the pin, the photographs, the date and a picture of the item to Bartek on WhatsApp.
Areas and towns we cover in Alaska
- Anchorage
- Eagle River
- Girdwood
- Chugiak
- Eklutna
- Kincaid Park
- Westchester Lagoon
- Goose Lake
- Jewel Lake
- Chugach State Park
- Eklutna Lake
- Bird Creek
- Palmer
- Wasilla
- Big Lake
- Nancy Lake
- Homer Spit
- Denali
- Kenai Fjords and Seward
- Glacier Bay and Gustavus
- Kenai National Wildlife Refuge
- Fairbanks
- North Pole
- Chena Lake
Name the park, the lake or the beach and the search gets smaller
Not every Alaska lake or shoreline is below, and the rest are handled the same way.
Kincaid Park, the two swim lakes and Westchester Lagoon
Kincaid Park sits among rolling, forested hills at the west end of Raspberry Road, with trails used all year and the Tony Knowles Coastal Trail within reach. Goose Lake and Jewel Lake each have a swimming area, a beach and a covered picnic shelter. Westchester Lagoon is cleared and scraped through the winter into a large open skating area, two hockey rinks and a skating ribbon. Tell us which lake, and which end of it.
Chugach State Park begins seven miles from downtown
The park's western edge runs through the foothills of the Chugach Mountain Range, seven miles east of downtown Anchorage, with Eagle River, Chugiak, Girdwood, Palmer and the village of Eklutna all within minutes of it. Eklutna Lake lies at the end of the Eklutna Lake road, off the Glenn Highway at the Eklutna turn-off: hiking, biking and fishing in summer, cross-country skiing, dog mushing and snowmobiling in winter. Eagle River and Bird Creek each have a campground inside the park.
The valley floor at Girdwood
Girdwood's parks hold a town square, ball and soccer fields, a playground, tennis courts, a skate park and two pavilions, all kept by the municipality, plus a tent-only campground in the summer season. Established trails run off from them, sharing borders with Chugach State Park and Chugach National Forest. Name the field, the court or the trail and a loss in the valley becomes a patch of ground.
Big Lake and the Nancy Lake canoe trails
Big Lake North State Recreation Site is 13 miles west of Wasilla. Summer there runs on fishing and watersports, winter on snowmobiling, dog mushing and ice fishing, so the same shoreline is two searches. Nancy Lake State Recreation Area is a ninety minute drive north of Anchorage along the Parks Highway, its waters ringed with forest and joined by a canoe trail system.
The beach at the foot of the Homer Spit
At the base of the Homer Spit is Mariner Park, one of the beach access points in Homer and, by the city's account, a favourite of joggers, surfers and beachcombers. The camping ground behind it is open gravel. If keys or a ring went down while you were unloading, the line you walked from the truck is the first thing we ask about.
Denali, Kenai Fjords, Glacier Bay and the Skilak Lake shore
Most Denali visitors stop near the park entrance and at Savage River, at Mile 15 of the park road, where a 2-mile loop trail follows the river. The Exit Glacier area of Kenai Fjords sits at the end of Herman Leirer Road outside Seward. At Glacier Bay, Bartlett Cove has the dock, the lodge and a walk-in campground on the shore, 10 miles by road from Gustavus. In the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge, Hidden Lake and the two Skilak Lake campgrounds each have a boat launch on the water.
The sand swimming beach at Chena Lake
Chena Lake Recreation Area sits east of North Pole and comes in two halves. The Lake Park holds the sand swimming beach, a boat rental station and an accessible fishing dock, with buoys marking off the swimming area. The River Park is the quieter one, with hiking and skiing trails and boat access to the Chena River.
How a search in Alaska gets put together
Who picks up your message
Your job tonight is not to work through metal detecting Alaska results. Write once, on WhatsApp, and Bartek takes it from there: the questions about your ground, the search for a detectorist who can reach it, and word of how the day went.
Your pin does the pointing
The pin, the pictures of the ground and a photo of the item go over first. What gets searched is the patch you marked, not a town on a map.
Where the going is harder
Snow that has been walked over and covered again is harder work than a lawn in June. If that is what you are up against, you hear it from us before anything is arranged.
A driveway is not a gravel beach
A band under new snow in Anchorage and a chain in the gravel at Homer are searched differently, so the first questions are about the spot you stood on, not about Alaska.
Paying for it
We explain the costs before any search is booked.
The same ground in February and in June
Snow that keeps coming all winter
About 75 inches, close to 2 metres, falls in a normal winter at the Anchorage airport, the National Weather Service's records show. Fresh snow on an old fall changes what a yard looks like overnight, so a stake at the edge of the patch is worth more than any description.
The shore at Anchorage does not stay put
Mean range of tide at the Anchorage station is about 26 feet, close to 8 metres, on NOAA's figures. On a shore that empties that far, something light such as a phone could finish a short way from where it went in. That is why the hour matters as much as the spot.
How much light you get depends on the month
At the solstice, daylight in Alaska runs from a little over 17 hours to a full 24, depending where in the state you are. A June search can carry on well into the evening; in midwinter the usable hours are few, which is why we ask for the pin and the photographs straight away.
A ring under new snow, keys in gravel, a chain in a lake
My husband's wedding band came off shovelling our driveway in Anchorage, and it snowed again overnight. What do we do this morning?
Mark the ground first. Push a stake in at each end of the stretch he cleared, so the patch stays obvious after the next fall, and photograph it from the door with the house behind. Send that with the hour he last had it on.
We were carrying gear up the beach at Homer and the truck keys went into the stones. Can gravel be searched?
It can. The line you walked is what makes it workable, so photograph that stretch from where you parked, then drop a pin where you first reached for the keys.
My band came off with my mitten out on the ice at Big Lake and I cannot say exactly where. What should I photograph before we leave?
The hole first, then everything around it you are leaving behind: the hut, the sled, the tracks running in from the shore. Take a second picture facing the bank, so we can see what you were lined up with.
My engagement ring came off in the grass by the Goose Lake swim beach an hour ago. Would a metal detector rental get it back, or do I need someone?
Hire one, and go now. A rented machine suits a fresh loss on grass or dry sand, in a patch you can point at. It stops being the answer once the ground is wet sand or water, the area is long, or the item is as small as a stud earring. Write to us then.
My daughter's chain came off while she was swimming at the Chena Lake beach. She was inside the buoys. Is that small enough to search?
It is a far better start than open water. Tell us which end she swam from, how far out she got and how deep she was standing, and send any photograph from that day with the shore behind her.
My phone went into the water off the shore at Eklutna Lake. How do I describe a spot on an empty shoreline?
By what is around you and under you. Start at the parking area at the end of the Eklutna Lake road, then say how far along the shore you walked, how far past the water's edge you waded, and whether it was stone or silt.
My Apple Watch came off somewhere on the walk in from the Eagle River campground and I only noticed at the car. How do we cut that down to something searchable?
With the points where you stopped. The last time you looked at the time, the place you pulled a layer off, the spot you turned back: those break the walk into two or three short stretches, which is what a detectorist works through.
Alaska
A stake in the snow, a pin on the map
Then the hour, and a picture of the item.
Tell it in your own words: a lost ring in snow on a driveway in Anchorage, a chain gone in the water at Chena Lake, keys down in the gravel at Homer. The reply will ask for the two or three things that make the patch smaller.