Georgia
Your ring came off in the water, on the Georgia coast or at one of its lakes
Tidal beaches on the coast, reservoirs inland.
On Tybee Island or East Beach at St Simons, the sea goes out and comes back twice a day. The average tidal range on this coast is about seven feet (about 2.1 metres), so the place where a ring slipped off in waist-deep water at high tide can be open wet sand a few hours later. At Lake Lanier or Lake Oconee the water stays put, and what matters is how deep it was where you stood. Looking for a lost ring in lake water is a different job from a search on a tidal beach, and this page covers both.
Ring Seekers is a lost ring and jewelry recovery service that connects people who lost a ring, wedding band, watch, keys or phone in Georgia 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.
Rings are only part of it. A phone or keys dropped at a lake dock, an engagement ring, an Oura ring, earrings, a necklace, a bracelet or chain, an Apple Watch, a key fob, metal-framed glasses or a hearing aid all count.
On the coast it is the time, at a lake it is the depth
On the coast, the clock comes first. There are two high tides and two low tides a day here, so the time tells us where the water line was when the ring came off. Take a photo looking inland with a beach crossover, a lifeguard stand or the pier in it, and drop a pin.
At a lake, note the depth. Knees, waist or chest is enough. Add which dock, ramp or swim-area rope you were nearest, and the date, because the level of a reservoir such as Lake Lanier rises and falls.
Then send it all to us on WhatsApp. You do not have to work through metal detectorist near me listings yourself, because finding someone who can reach your beach or cove is our part.
Areas and towns we cover in Georgia
- Savannah, Tybee and St Simons
- Atlanta and Lake Lanier
- LaGrange and West Point Lake
- Jekyll Island
- Cumberland Island and St. Marys
- Chattahoochee River, Powers Island to Paces Mill
- Marietta and Alpharetta
- Athens and Decatur
- Buford and Cumming
- Cartersville and Lake Allatoona
- Lake Oconee
- Lake Sinclair
- Hartwell Lake
- Pine Mountain
- Augusta
The sand and water at each Georgia beach and lake
Tybee, Savannah and the hard sand of St Simons
South Beach on Tybee, from 14th to 18th Street, is the busiest sand on the island, with the pier in the middle of it. On that stretch a lost wedding ring is a tide-table job. Further south, East Beach on St Simons Island is packed hard enough to cycle on. In Savannah the ground is grass and stone, the lawns of Forsyth Park and the cobbles of River Street. See Savannah, Tybee and St Simons.
Atlanta lawns and the swim beaches on Lake Lanier
Lake Lanier is a 38,000-acre reservoir behind Buford Dam, and the Corps of Engineers runs day-use parks with swim beaches around its shore. Don Carter State Park, at the north end where the Chattahoochee River flows in, has a large sand swimming beach. A ring that came off where you could stand is within wading reach. In the city, a ring or earring dropped on the lawns of Piedmont Park or at Glover Park on Marietta Square is a grass search. See Atlanta and Lake Lanier.
Ten miles of shoreline on Jekyll Island
Jekyll Island has ten miles of shoreline with beach parks along it. Great Dunes Beach Park is a 20-acre beachfront park with picnic pavilions. Glory Beach is wide open, backed by sea oats and dunes. Old driftwood lines the waterfront at Driftwood Beach, and St Andrews Beach faces the marsh near the southern tip of the island.
Cumberland Island by ferry, and the Chattahoochee in Atlanta
The ferry to Cumberland Island leaves from St. Marys and takes about 45 minutes. Beachgoers get off at Sea Camp Dock, then walk a half-mile (800 metre) path through the forest and over a dune boardwalk to Sea Camp Beach. Back in Atlanta, a popular float on the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area runs from Powers Island to Paces Mill at US 41, the last exit for canoes, rafts and tubes.
Lake Oconee and Lake Sinclair
Lawrence Shoals Park on Lake Oconee has a maintained white sand beach with marked swimming areas, and Old Salem has a swimming beach and a boat ramp. Both are Georgia Power parks, as are Parks Ferry on the same lake and Rocky Creek Park on Lake Sinclair. Keys or a phone dropped off a lake-house dock are as much our business as a ring lost at a park beach.
Lake Allatoona's cove beach and the long shore of Hartwell Lake
Lake Allatoona is north of Atlanta, up I-75. Red Top Mountain State Park is on it, with a sand swimming beach in a cove surrounded by trees, two boat ramps and two docks. Hartwell Lake, a Corps of Engineers lake on the South Carolina line, covers nearly 56,000 acres with 962 miles of shoreline. On water that size, the ramp, campground or cove tells us more than the name of the lake, so send the pin.
West Point Lake at LaGrange and Robin Lake Beach
West Point Lake at LaGrange is a 26,000-acre reservoir on the Chattahoochee River. Yellowjacket Creek and Earl Cook recreation areas have seasonal swim beaches, and McGee Bridge Park has a fishing pier. At Pine Mountain, Callaway Resort and Gardens has Robin Lake Beach, a man-made white sand beach that runs about a mile around 65-acre Robin Lake.
One conversation, then the right person at the water
The same person from first message to last
Bartek answers your WhatsApp message, finds the detectorist and keeps you posted. Nobody hands you a list of clubs to ring round.
Your pin and photos travel with the job
The detectorist gets your map pin, photos, the time and the depth before setting out.
A fair read of your chances
A ring in sand the tide uncovers is a fair case. A phone that went off a boat in the middle of Hartwell Lake is a long shot, and you would hear that from us first.
Tide table or lake level, checked before anyone drives
On the coast we look up low water for your beach. At a lake we ask the date and the depth.
No surprises about money
We explain the costs before any search is booked.
Seven feet of tide on the coast, none on the lakes
The tide on Tybee and St Simons
The tide on this coast averages about seven feet (about 2.1 metres), according to the state's Coastal Resources Division, and reaches about ten feet (about 3 metres) on the spring tides at the new and full moon. NOAA's mean range is 6.92 feet at its Savannah River gauge near Tybee and 6.62 feet at St Simons Island. A wet-sand search is planned around low water.
Surf and sandbars
A ring dropped in the surf may be pushed along the beach or settle deeper as the tides work over it, one more reason to write the time down. Do not walk out to a sandbar to look, because the tide covers them quickly.
Reservoirs with no tide
None of the lakes on this page has a tide or surf, so there is no low water to wait for, and a loss from July is still worth a message in the autumn. Reservoir levels do rise and fall, which is why we ask the date. Beyond standing depth, the work passes from a detectorist to a diver.
Georgia questions, from the surf at Tybee to a dock on Lake Oconee
My husband's wedding band came off in chest-deep water at Tybee at high tide. How does anyone search where the sea is that deep?
By going at low water. Sand that was chest deep at high tide can be bare, or ankle deep, a little over six hours later. Note the time and photograph where he stood, lined up with a crossover or the pier.
I lost my engagement ring swimming at a Lake Lanier beach on Saturday. There is no tide to uncover it there, so what happens instead?
A detectorist wades. Nobody waits for low water, and there is no surf to work in. Depth is what counts. If you were standing when it came off, the same ground can be waded. Tell us which beach and how deep.
My phone went off the end of our dock on Lake Oconee, where the water is well over my head. Who goes down for that?
A diver, not a wader, so send us the dock and the depth. Before that, open Find My on another device. Apple says a phone that has gone offline still shows its last known location for up to seven days, and you can mark it as lost so it locks.
Our car keys went into the water at a boat ramp on Allatoona while we were loading the boat. What now?
Get home first, with a spare key or a locksmith. Then message us. If they went in at the edge of the ramp, the water is shallow and the area is small. Photograph the ramp so it shows which side you were on.
My ring is in knee-deep water beside our dock on Lake Sinclair. Could I sort it out myself with a metal detector rental?
In the water, probably not. Renting one yourself can suit a fresh loss on dry sand or a lawn. A detectorist makes more sense for wet sand, water, a large area or a small item such as an earring or a thin chain.
My Oura ring came off during a bike ride along East Beach on St Simons, and I only noticed back at the car. Can that much sand be narrowed down?
Yes, with your route and the clock. East Beach is wide, hard-packed sand, and a ride covers a lot of it. Tell us where you got on and off the beach, roughly when, and whether you rode near the water line. Photos from the ride help, because each carries a time.
An earring came out somewhere on the lawn in Forsyth Park during a wedding. Can a lawn be searched the way a beach is?
Yes, and there is no tide to plan around. An earring is small, so the area has to be small as well. Tell us where the ceremony stood, where the photos were taken and whether the grass has been cut since.
Georgia
One WhatsApp message with the place, the time and the depth
You do not need to learn about metal detecting in Georgia tonight. Keep other people from digging around the spot, take the photo and note the time. Then send us a WhatsApp message with the place and what you lost.