Tacoma, Gig Harbor and South Puget Sound
Lost a ring on a Tacoma beach?
A big tide on the saltwater shores, and none at all in Buckley or McMillin.
A class ring is heavy, and heavy things drop straight down. On the rocky stretch at Owen Beach that means between the stones rather than into one clean layer of sand, which makes the search slow and close but perfectly possible, because a ring that size reads loudly.
Ring Seekers is a lost ring and jewelry recovery service that works with experienced local metal detectorists to search for a ring, wedding band, watch or phone lost in Tacoma, Gig Harbor and South Puget Sound, on the saltwater side of Washington.
We organise the search, and an experienced local detectorist carries it out. Tell us what happened and where. We choose an experienced detectorist who knows the place, brief them with your map and photos, and tell you honestly if the odds are poor. A class ring, a wedding band, an earring, a watch and a phone all come off on the same shores here.
Write down the hour, then mark the spot
Drop a pin, line yourself up with a pier, a stairway or a picnic shelter, and photograph each way. If it went into the water, the time is the single most useful thing you can record. The NOAA average gap between higher high and lower low water is 11.77 feet (3.59 metres) at Tacoma and 14.56 feet (4.44 metres) at Olympia, so a spot that is under water now may be open beach a few hours later.
Then send us the pin, the photos, roughly when it happened and what the jewelry is made of. Say whether it went down on stones, on sand, on a lawn or off a dock, because those four are planned very differently.
Places we cover in Tacoma, Gig Harbor and South Puget Sound
- Tacoma
- Point Defiance Park and Owen Beach
- Ruston Way waterfront, Jack Hyde Park and Dickman Mill Park
- Les Davis Pier, Ruston Way
- Titlow Park and Titlow Beach
- Dash Point State Park
- Saltwater State Park
- Gig Harbor, Jerisich Dock and Skansie Brothers Park
- Kopachuck State Park, Gig Harbor
- Fox Island and the Tacoma DeMolay Sandspit
- Buckley and the White River
- McMillin and the Foothills Trail
- Olympia
- Squaxin Park (formerly Priest Point Park), Olympia
- Percival Landing, Olympia
- Capitol Lake, Olympia
- Tolmie State Park, near Olympia
Beaches, docks and trails where things go missing in the South Sound
Rocky and sandy shores with a big tide, and inland towns with none.
Owen Beach, Point Defiance Park
Point Defiance is a 760 acre park founded in 1888. Owen Beach covers about 1,000 feet (305 metres) of its rocky eastern shoreline and reopened after a 16 month renovation. A ring dropped at the water's edge can slip between stones, and the low tide sets when a detectorist can work the ground.
Ruston Way waterfront
A paved path runs along Commencement Bay from Jack Hyde Park, past Dickman Mill Park and Les Davis Pier, to Dune Peninsula at Point Defiance. Jack Hyde Park at the southern end is the last public beach access along the walk. A ring lost on that beach is a tide search. A phone or keys dropped off the pier are more likely a job for a diver.
Titlow Park and beach
Titlow is a 75 acre beachfront park just south of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, with a sandy shoreline and rocky stretches. Clam digging and crabbing were part of a day here for decades, and hands in cold water are how rings come off. The Narrows Bridge is the landmark to put in your photograph.
Dash Point and Saltwater State Parks
Dash Point State Park is 461 acres with 3,301 feet (1,006 metres) of saltwater shoreline. Saltwater State Park, halfway between Tacoma and Seattle, has 1,445 feet (440 metres). Both are measured stretches rather than endless beach, which is exactly the kind of ground a searcher can cover in one low tide.
Gig Harbor, Kopachuck and Fox Island
Jerisich Dock is a 0.56 acre waterfront mini park in downtown Gig Harbor, with the public dock running from Skansie Brothers Park into the bay. Kopachuck State Park has 5,600 feet (1,707 metres) of shoreline on Henderson Bay. On Fox Island, reached by bridge, the DeMolay Sandspit runs into Carr Inlet.
Squaxin Park and Percival Landing, Olympia
Squaxin Park, called Priest Point Park until 2022, is 314 acres with a mile of saltwater shoreline on Budd Inlet, and Percival Landing sits on the same inlet downtown. This is the far end of the Sound, where the tide swings furthest, so the hour of a loss here counts for more than anywhere else on the page.
Buckley and McMillin
Buckley is an inland town and McMillin a small community near Orting, so neither has a tide. The Foothills Trail has trailheads at McMillin and Buckley. The McMillin trailhead is by the bridge near where the Puyallup and Carbon rivers meet, about 2 miles (3 km) northwest of Orting, and the trail ends at the White River in Buckley.
What you get from Ring Seekers in the South Sound
One person on WhatsApp
You tell it once, to someone who is still there at the end of it.
The searcher gets your pin before the day
Photos, a dropped pin and the hour of the loss go over in advance, so the low tide is spent searching rather than working out where.
We plan around the South Sound tide
From Dash Point to Squaxin Park the workable window opens and closes with the water, and it shifts by roughly an hour a day.
Stones, sand, lawn and deep water are four jobs
The rocks at Owen Beach, the sand at Dash Point, a garden in Buckley and the water under Jerisich Dock each need a different plan, and sometimes a different person.
Poor odds and the cost, both said early
If a search is unlikely to work you hear it from us, and what it would come to arrives in the same message rather than later.
Ground, water and tide around the South Sound
Rock, sand, cold saltwater, and inland lawns with no tide at all.
Tides from Tacoma to Olympia
NOAA gives Tacoma a mean tidal range of 8.06 feet (2.46 metres) and a great diurnal range of 11.77 feet (3.59 metres). Olympia, at the southern end of Budd Inlet, gives 10.48 feet (3.19 metres) and 14.56 feet (4.44 metres). The best low tides move from day to day.
Cold water
The water at Alki, further up the Sound, runs 46 to 56 degrees Fahrenheit (8 to 13 Celsius). Cold fingers shrink, and rings and Oura rings slide off when people wade, which is why so many losses here happen in the first minute in the water rather than mid swim.
Stones, docks and rivers
Owen Beach is rocky, so a ring drops between stones. Under Les Davis Pier or Jerisich Dock the water is often too deep to wade, which means a diver. Inland, a ring lost in a river is a far harder search than one on a lawn.
Shorelines you can measure
Owen Beach is about 1,000 feet (305 metres), Saltwater State Park 1,445 feet (440 metres), Dash Point 3,301 feet (1,006 metres), Kopachuck 5,600 feet (1,707 metres) and Squaxin Park about a mile. Naming the stretch and the marker you stood beside turns any of those into a strip that one person can cover.
Want a first idea of your chances? Try the lost ring recovery calculator.
Stones, docks, gardens and a very big tide
My class ring went into the stones at Owen Beach. Is that findable?
It is, though it is slower work than sand. Owen Beach covers about 1,000 feet (305 metres) of rocky shoreline on the eastern side of Point Defiance Park, and a heavy ring drops between stones rather than settling in one clean layer, so a searcher works close and slow. The good news is that a class ring is a big lump of metal and reads loudly. Give us the hour, because the low tide decides when that ground is even walkable.
I lost my wedding band at Titlow Beach or off Ruston Way. What should I do?
Write down the time first, then the spot, because the tide decides when the ground is uncovered. Line yourself up with something fixed, such as the Narrows Bridge from Titlow or Jack Hyde Park on Ruston Way, and take photos each way. A band that went in at mid tide may be sitting on open beach at the next low.
My phone went off Les Davis Pier or Jerisich Dock in Gig Harbor. Can it be found?
Sometimes. A phone is metal, so it reads well, but under a pier or a dock the water is often too deep to wade and then it becomes diver work instead. Plastic sunglasses give no signal at all and are only ever found by eye. Tell us where along the rail or the dock you were standing and how far out the water dropped away.
I lost an Oura ring or a watch at Kopachuck State Park or on Fox Island.
Both have metal in them, so a detector reads them. Kopachuck has 5,600 feet (1,707 metres) of shoreline on Henderson Bay, and the Tacoma DeMolay Sandspit on Fox Island runs out into Carr Inlet, so in each case it is the stretch rather than the park that matters. Say where you parked, which way you walked and how far the water had gone out.
Can you search in Olympia, at Squaxin Park or Percival Landing?
Yes. Squaxin Park, called Priest Point Park until 2022, is 314 acres with a mile of saltwater shoreline on Budd Inlet, and Percival Landing sits on the same inlet downtown. Olympia gets the biggest tides on this page, 14.56 feet (4.44 metres) between higher high and lower low water, so a lost ring in the wet sand here is uncovered and covered again twice a day. The hour is everything.
I lost an earring in a garden in Buckley or near the McMillin trailhead.
A garden is often the easiest search on this page, because there is no tide to work around and nothing moves what fell. Mown grass holds a small thing in the thatch, so keep the mower off that patch. On the Foothills Trail, which has trailheads at both McMillin and Buckley, say which end you started from and roughly how far along you had walked.
What if it cannot be found?
Then you hear it, and you hear it early. Some losses here are a long shot, and you would hear that from us first: a ring in moving river water is the clearest example. You are also told what a search would come to at the same time, so nothing is arranged on a hope.
Tacoma, Gig Harbor and South Puget Sound
Send the spot and, above all, the hour
One contact on WhatsApp. Honest odds before anyone travels.
Inland, in Buckley or McMillin, nothing moves and a week changes little. On the saltwater shore the tide swings up to 14 feet and decides when anyone can even stand there. Mark the spot, note the hour, and message us on WhatsApp with both.