Pennsylvania
A ring came off in the yard, and now there are leaves, mulch or snow over it
Back yards and garden beds, Presque Isle, the Poconos lakes, Raystown Lake and the Susquehanna
In autumn a Pennsylvania lawn disappears under leaves, and a ring that came off while you were raking is somewhere beneath them. In spring it is fresh mulch on the beds, in winter the snow piled beside the driveway. This page explains how to find a lost ring in a yard or garden at each time of year, and what not to disturb until somebody has searched.
Ring Seekers is a lost ring and jewelry recovery service that connects people who lost a ring, wedding band, watch, keys or phone in Pennsylvania 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.
The same goes for 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.
Autumn leaves, winter snow, spring mulch, and what to do in each
Whatever the month, begin with what you were doing. Raking, planting, carrying firewood. Each job put your hands in a few places only, so write those down first.
Autumn. Leave the leaves where they are. Do not rake, blow or bag any more of them, and keep any bags you have already filled. Mark the corners of the patch with garden canes.
Winter. About 44 inches (112 cm) of snow falls in a typical winter at Pittsburgh. If the ring came off while you were shovelling, it could have gone with a shovelful and be lying where that snow was thrown, so photograph the piles.
Spring. A mulched bed is three or four inches deep (about 8 to 10 cm) if it follows the limit Penn State Extension advises. Stop adding more and do not disturb what is down.
Then send one WhatsApp message with a photo of the patch, a pin and a picture of the item. That spares you working through the results for metal detectorist near me.
Areas and towns we cover in Pennsylvania
- Philadelphia
- Pittsburgh
- Media
- Erie and Presque Isle State Park
- Harrisburg and City Island
- State College
- Lancaster and Lancaster County
- Allentown
- Reading
- Ambler
- Hawley and Lake Wallenpaupack
- Lehighton and Beltzville State Park
- Smithfield Beach and Milford Beach, Delaware Water Gap
- John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge at Tinicum
- Huntingdon and Raystown Lake
- Yards, garden beds and driveways anywhere in the state
Pennsylvania between the Delaware River and Lake Erie
The first two cards lead to longer pages. The other places are covered here.
Philadelphia's large parks and the towns out to Lancaster
Fairmount Park covers more than 2,050 acres, with Boathouse Row on the east bank of the Schuylkill. The Wissahickon is a wooded gorge of about 1,800 acres, and Forbidden Drive, the path beside its creek, is gravel. In the southwest of the city, John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge at Tinicum has more than 10 miles (16 km) of trails round Tinicum Marsh, including the 3.5 mile (5.6 km) Wetland Loop. Long's Park in Lancaster is 80 acres around a three-acre spring-fed lake. Those parks, and the lawns and gardens of towns such as Ambler, are on the page for Philadelphia.
Pittsburgh's Point and two large city parks
Point State Park is 36 acres where the Allegheny and the Monongahela join to form the Ohio. Schenley Park's 456 acres include Flagstaff Hill, and Frick Park's 644 are mostly wooded valleys and trails. Parks, trails and snowy driveways are on the page for Pittsburgh.
The numbered beaches of Presque Isle at Erie
Presque Isle State Park is a peninsula with sandy beaches on Lake Erie, and its neck joins the mainland four miles west of downtown Erie. The swimming beaches go by number, Beach 1, Beach 3 and Beaches 6 to 11, and they open daily from Memorial Day weekend to Labor Day. The state parks agency describes it as surf swimming, so for keys, a watch or a ring lost here, give us the beach number and say whether you were on dry sand, at the water's edge or out in the waves.
Lake Wallenpaupack and Beltzville in the Poconos
Lake Wallenpaupack is 13 miles long with 52 miles of shoreline. Hawley borders it to the north, Palmyra Township has a public beach, and outfitters rent boats. Beltzville State Park lies in the southern foothills of the Poconos, five miles east of Lehighton, with a 949-acre lake and a 525-foot sand beach. On the Delaware River, the Water Gap National Recreation Area has two river beaches on the Pennsylvania side, Smithfield Beach and Milford Beach, where people swim and launch boats. Tell us whether it happened on a beach or from a boat.
City Island at Harrisburg and Raystown Lake
City Island sits in the middle of the Susquehanna at Harrisburg, reached by a pedestrian bridge from downtown, and holds the Harrisburg Senators ballpark. Riverfront Park runs along the eastern bank. Raystown Lake is 28 miles long. Its Seven Points recreation area, near Huntingdon, has a beach, a marina that rents boats and pontoons, and a campground laid out in loops. For lost keys, the loop and site number is a good place to start.
Behind the WhatsApp number on this page
Bartek answers, and stays with it
Your WhatsApp message reaches Bartek. He asks the questions, looks for the detectorist and tells you how the search went.
A rough sketch of the beds is worth sending
Draw the beds, the drive and where you were working, even on the back of an envelope. That sketch, your photos and the pin are handed to the detectorist, who arrives knowing which corner to begin in.
A flower bed has edges, a lake from a boat does not
A lost ring in your own flower bed is inside a space you can walk round. A phone dropped from a boat on the 13 miles of Lake Wallenpaupack is not. When the chances look poor, our first reply tells you so honestly.
Our first questions are about leaves, mulch, snow or sand
A day of metal detecting in Pennsylvania can mean a leaf-covered lawn in Media, a snowbank in Pittsburgh or wet sand at Presque Isle. We ask what the item is lying in and what has been done to the ground since.
You know the costs before you agree to anything
We explain the costs before any search is booked.
Pennsylvania ground and water through the year
Once the leaves are down
Under a layer of leaves, looking by eye stops working. What helps a search is knowing what has happened to those leaves since: left where they fell, raked into a pile, blown to the street or bagged.
Snow, shovels and frozen lakes
A typical Pittsburgh winter brings about 44 inches (112 cm) of snow, and January is usually the snowiest month with about 13 inches (33 cm). For a ring lost in snow, photograph the piles and keep the snow blower away from that strip if you can. When Lake Wallenpaupack freezes, people skate and fish on the ice.
Lakes, rivers and one tidal stretch
Pittsburgh's three rivers have no tide. The Delaware at Philadelphia does, and NOAA station 8545240 gives a mean range of 6.1 feet (about 1.9 metres). On a lake, a loss from a swimming beach is one kind of search and a loss from a boat is another. Say which.
Read this before you rake, dig or shovel any further
There are six bags of leaves at the curb outside our house in Media, and my wedding ring could be in any of them or still on the lawn. Do I drag the bags back?
Yes, bring them back in today if they have not been collected. Keep the bags dry, and number them if you remember which part of the lawn each came from. Leave the rest of the yard unraked and send us a photo of it.
I spread twelve bags of mulch on Saturday and my engagement ring was gone by dinner. Do I have to dig it all back up?
No, please leave the mulch where it is. A few inches of mulch on a bed is a shallow layer, and it is easier to search untouched. Check the empty bags and your gloves, then tell us which beds you did that day.
My daughter's class ring came off in a snowball fight in our front yard in Erie, and more snow is coming down on top of it. Is there anything useful we can do before morning?
Yes, mark the ground now. Push canes or ski poles in at the corners of the area where she was throwing, photograph it from the front door and from the street, and keep everyone off it. Then send us the photos.
Planting bulbs this morning in State College, I lost my wedding band somewhere on the lawn. My neighbour says to try a metal detector rental before calling anyone. Is he right?
He may be. Renting a machine yourself can suit a fresh loss on a lawn or on dry sand, and yours is that kind of case. A detectorist makes more sense for wet sand, water, a large area or a small item such as a single earring.
I lost my car keys on the sand at Beltzville State Park. Is the whole beach too much to search?
No. The sand beach at Beltzville is 525 feet long (about 160 metres) and you only used part of it. Tell us where you put your things down, where you walked into the water and the way you came from the car.
My phone slid off a rental pontoon on Lake Wallenpaupack, maybe a hundred yards out from the Palmyra Township beach. Do I just write it off?
Not yet, though it is a long shot, and you would hear that from us first. The lake reaches 60 feet (about 18 metres) at its deepest, so what counts is how deep it was under the boat and whether you can line the spot up with two things on shore.
Waist deep at Beach 8 on Presque Isle, a wave knocked me over and my Oura ring was gone when I stood up. Can anyone search in surf like that?
Sometimes. Tell us the beach number, how far out you were, how deep the water was on you and what you lined up with on shore. Those four things tell a detectorist where to begin.
Pennsylvania
We need to see the yard as it is right now
Before the next rake, mow, mulch delivery or snowfall.
A lost ring or wedding band under the leaves, keys on the sand at Presque Isle, a phone off a rental pontoon at Raystown. Photograph the place as it is now and send it on WhatsApp with a pin. We will tell you how it looks and what happens next.