Vermont
You know roughly where it went in, and that is where a search starts
Salmon Hole on the West River, the Lake Champlain beaches, Waterbury Reservoir, Lake Bomoseen and the snow at the base areas.
Jamaica State Park sits on a bend in the West River, and the swimming there is at a stretch of water called Salmon Hole. If a ring came off in it, what matters is which bank you waded in from and how deep you were standing.
Ring Seekers is a lost ring and jewelry recovery service that connects people who lost a ring, wedding band, watch, keys or phone in Vermont 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 a lost ring in water off a Lake Champlain beach, an engagement ring on a Barre lawn, an Oura ring or Apple Watch in a reservoir, earrings, necklaces, bracelets, chains, keys and key fobs, phones, metal-framed glasses or hearing aids.
Before you dry off and drive home
Do the marking first. Drop a pin on the bank you came out at, not in the parking lot, and note the time you last remember having it. Then photograph the water you were in, with whatever solid thing stood beside you, a boulder, a bridge pier, the end of a dock. Say how deep you were, in feet or metres.
Snow needs the same done faster. A lift tower, a lodge wall or a fence post in today's photo will still be there next week, and the surface around it will not. Send the lot on WhatsApp with a picture of the item. What metal detecting Vermont comes down to for one lost ring is one person with a machine, standing where you stood on a day you agreed.
Areas and towns we cover in Vermont
- Burlington
- North Beach, Burlington
- Oakledge Park, Burlington
- Leddy Park, Burlington
- Sand Bar State Park, Milton
- Alburgh Dunes State Park
- Missisquoi National Wildlife Refuge, Swanton
- Stowe
- Waterbury Reservoir
- Montpelier
- Hubbard Park, Montpelier
- North Branch River Park, Montpelier
- Barre
- Killington
- Sugarbush
- Lake Bomoseen
- Lake St. Catherine
- Jamaica State Park
- Bennington
- Lake Paran, North Bennington
- Woodford State Park
Start with the name of the water or the park
Plenty of Vermont is not on this list. Send the name anyway.
North Beach sits in its own patch of woods
North Beach is on Lake Champlain in Burlington, with its campground set back in woods behind the sand. Oakledge Park and Leddy Park are the other Burlington names worth sending us. Say which entrance you walked in by and where you put your things down.
The sandbar you can wade a long way out on
Sand Bar State Park takes its name from the sandbar between South Hero Island and the town of Milton, and the lake bottom over it stays shallow well out from shore, so you can be a long way from the beach and still be standing. Alburgh Dunes has a south-facing beach with dunes near its middle and western end. How far out you went is the question at either. Six miles (10 km) west of Swanton, Missisquoi National Wildlife Refuge has trails with boardwalks along Black Creek and Maquam Creek, and two boat launches onto the Missisquoi River and the lake.
The reservoir moves, the base areas do not
Waterbury Center State Park lies at the eastern end of Waterbury Reservoir, inside Mount Mansfield State Forest. The reservoir is kept at its larger surface through the warm months and lowered over the winter for the spring melt. At the ski areas the ground stays put and the snow does not. Stowe has base lodges under Mount Mansfield and at Spruce Peak, Sugarbush spreads across Lincoln Peak and Mount Ellen, and Killington is taken the same way. Name the base area you parked at.
Hubbard Park is bigger than the bit you used
It has picnic shelters with grills, a soccer and ball field, a small pond and a sledding hill, so naming the one you were at does most of the narrowing. North Branch River Park, also in Montpelier, follows the river with a wide path along the water and small beaches on the shore. In Barre, City Hall Park is the green between City Hall and the Aldrich Library, and Rotary Park has the shelters, the grill and the courts.
Slate rubble in the woods above Lake Bomoseen
Bomoseen State Park runs along the shore of Lake Bomoseen in the Taconic Mountains, with old quarry holes and slate rubble piles still sitting in its woods. If you were near the snack bar by the beach, put that in the frame when you photograph the spot. Lake St. Catherine State Park has more than one sandy beach, so say which beach and which end of it.
Which end of Lake Paran you were at
Lake Paran is undeveloped and shared between the village of North Bennington and the towns of Bennington and Shaftsbury. Its swimming beach is on the northwest shore and the state fishing and boating access is on the south shore, two quite different pieces of work. Woodford State Park sits on a mountain plateau around Adams Reservoir, in spruce, fir and birch, with a small beach near the dam.
Before anyone drives anywhere
You are writing to Bartek, not to an inbox
Your message goes to Bartek and the reply comes back from Bartek. Nothing is passed round an office, so you tell it once.
The detectorist turns up already knowing the spot
Your pin, your photos and the time go over before anyone sets off, so the search starts on the patch you marked rather than a description of it.
You get the unwelcome reading too
If the best you can give is a whole shoreline, or the ground has been worked over since, you hear that from us before anyone gets in a car.
We ask different things about a reservoir than about a beach
On the Champlain sandbar we ask how far out you waded. At Waterbury Reservoir the date counts as much as the place. In snow, what was standing next to you.
You will know the cost before you decide anything
We explain the costs before any search is booked.
What the West River does that Lake Bomoseen does not
The West River at Jamaica is not a lake
Where a river is running, as it does past Jamaica State Park, something light such as a phone or glasses could end up downstream of where you remember standing. So we ask for the time as well as the place, and the bank you waded in from is worth more than the name of the swimming hole.
A lake beach stays where you left it
No tide runs on Vermont water, so a beach is much the same patch when you go back to it. The weight falls on how far out you waded and what you were level with on the shore. If you were in deeper than chest height, say so, because that calls for different kit.
What a week of snow takes away
Timing is the part snow changes. What makes a lost ring in snow hard is not the cold, it is that after the next fall or thaw the spot looks nothing like it did. A photograph taken today beats a careful description next week, at a base area or on the sledding hill at Hubbard Park.
More detail on water, snow and small pieces
My wedding ring came off swimming at Salmon Hole and we did not miss it until we were driving home. Does that hour matter?
Not much on its own. What decides a river search is how tightly you can place the spot: the bank you waded in from, what you were level with on the far side, and how deep you stood. A photograph of that water beats any description of it.
I had my bracelet on at North Beach in Burlington and not when we packed the car. Is something that thin worth a search?
Yes, a thin chain is searched the same way a ring is. Size shows up in how tight the area has to be, not in the answer. Tell us where you sat in relation to the water, whether you went in the lake at all, and whether your things were moved during the day.
My husband's ring came off somewhere at the Sugarbush base area and there is snow over the lot. Is snow a dead end?
No, but it puts you on a clock. Work back to the last moment he knows he had it, then list every place he stopped after, the lift line, the boot bag, the walk to the car. Photograph each today with something solid in the frame, and say which base area, because Sugarbush has more than one.
My ring came off on the grass at Hubbard Park and my phone is full of metal detector rental results. Waste of time?
Not necessarily, but photograph the patch and drop a pin before you switch anything on. A fresh loss on dry grass or dry sand, in an area you could walk round in a minute, is what a hired machine suits. Wet sand, water, snow, a wide area or something as small as a single stud is where a detectorist makes more sense.
Our car keys went into the water at Waterbury Reservoir. Is a reservoir any different from a lake?
In one way that matters, yes. The level moves through the year, so the shoreline in your photograph may not be the one you find when you go back. Send the date along with the spot, how far out you were, and what was behind you.
One earring went missing on the sand at Lake Bomoseen and I still have the other one. Does having it help?
It does, so send a photo of the one you kept. Small pieces need a small area, so pace out where you were sitting, mark both ends, and say whether the sand was dry or wet.
My dad's hearing aid came out at the beach at Lake St. Catherine and we only realised at supper. How small is too small?
Nothing you would wear or carry is too small. Lake St. Catherine State Park has more than one sandy beach, so name the one you were on, then where he sat and whether he went in the water.
Vermont
Write while the day is still fresh in your head
We will ask for the rest once we know where.
Start with where and when: the name of the water or the park, the day it happened, and what is missing, a ring, a watch, a phone or the car keys. Send a picture of it if you have one, and we will write back with what else to photograph and where we think this stands.