COINCIDENCE, MEANT TO BE, OR NAVAJO SPIRIT? 😱💍✨
As Gary Hill and I were just finishing up with recovering Matt’s wedding ring from Tripp Lake in Poland, Maine, my phone rang.
The caller identified himself as Jack. He was visiting Maine on vacation all the way from Utah! 🌲✈️
The previous day, Jack and his wife were enjoying a hot summer day floating around Crystal Lake in Gray, Maine, right in front of their rented lakeside house. Jack told me he had taken his wedding ring off and placed it safely in his pocket while floating around. He was worried that all the paddling around with his hands in the water would make it slip off.
But when he exited the lake, his worst nightmare came true: the wedding ring was no longer in his pocket. 😣
Jack told me he had been wearing that ring for over 20 years. He was absolutely heartbroken and desperately hoping we could help.
I asked Jack what metal the ring was made of. He told me it was sterling silver with turquoise—a traditional Navajo-style wedding ring. Wow! Very cool, and incredibly unique for us to find here in Maine! I learned that these traditional Navajo rings are deeply popular in Utah, Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and the Southwest in general. 🌵☀️
I smiled and told Jack that he was in major luck. Gary and I were literally just 7 to 8 miles away at Tripp Lake, and we could be at his rental in less than 10 minutes! 🚙💨
That’s when the story took a wild turn. 🤯
Jack told me he wasn’t even at the lake house—he was currently down in Portsmouth, New Hampshire visiting his sister! He had been venting to her about losing his precious ring, and his sister looked at him and said, “You need to call The Ring Finders of Maine right now.”
As it turns out, his sister had just read a newspaper article about us and all the success we’ve been having! 📰🙌
Think about the sheer luck of this: Jack is from Utah and had never heard of us. He loses a rare Southwestern ring in a Maine lake. He goes to New Hampshire to tell his sister, who just happens to have read an article about our recoveries. He calls us, and we are practically right down the street wrapping up another successful rescue!
Jack immediately called his wife at the lake house to let her know we were on the way. Gary and I threw our gear into The Ring Finder Mobile and took off. ⚡️
THE SEARCH BEGINS… 🕵️♂️🔍
True to our word, Gary and I arrived just 10 minutes later at the lake house in Gray. We were met by Jack’s wife, Karen. She took us down to the water, where she and her friend were sitting and enjoying the afternoon, looking out over beautiful Crystal Lake.
Karen showed us the search area, and Gary and I had to smile. We had just left a massive 15,000–18,000 square foot search area at Tripp Lake, and now we were looking at a tiny 30′ x 50′ zone—only about 1,500 square feet! 📐🙌
Karen explained that they were literally just floating around right in front of the house and hadn’t gone much past the dock. 🪵
Alright then, let’s get our gear and find this very sentimental Navajo wedding ring! 🛠️
We mapped out our battle plan: Gary’s Mission: Start grid-searching the shallow shore water and systematically work his way out deeper into the lake.
My Mission: Walk out as deep as I could safely search, then grid my way back in toward the shore and Gary.
With two detectors swinging and a perfect pincer movement, we were determined to find it. 🤞🌊
With Gary starting at the shoreline near the dock, I headed out to the deeper water in front of it. We worked in perfect unison, heading north and then turning to head south.
As I got just past the dock, I was reaching my absolute depth limit. With every step, I was sinking down about six inches into the heavy muck. I wouldn’t be able to go much further—safely, anyways. One or two more steps out into the dark, murky water, and that would have been it. 🌊
At that exact point, my detector screamed. My very first signal. 🔊
I scooped up a heavy load of muck and decaying vegetation, lifting it up to throw into my floating sifter. I couldn’t believe my eyes. Right there in the middle of the muck, I saw just a sliver of silver and blue.
ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! 😲💥
Not even three minutes into the hunt, on my absolute first target, I found Jack’s Navajo wedding ring! I yelled up to Karen on the shore, asking if the stones were blue turquoise. She yelled back, “YES!”
MEANT TO BE! 🙏💙
Once I got up on shore, Karen and her friend were in absolute shock. They couldn’t believe we found it, and they definitely couldn’t believe we found it so fast! 🤯
Gary and I left a very happy, appreciative, smiling Karen—but not before we got our celebratory hugs! 🤗✨
Unfortunately, I never was able to meet Jack in person, but I called him up right there from the shoreline to deliver the good news. He was completely speechless and in absolute shock! He thanked me from the bottom of his heart for saving a piece of history he thought was gone forever. 🥹❤️
Well, a little luck goes a long way, and everything about this search came together perfectly:
Jack’s sister just happening to read that newspaper article about our success.
Gary and I being a mere 10 minutes away.
Going from a massive search area to a tight 1,500 square foot spot.
And the biggest miracle of all: the ring was right at my depth limit. If it had been just one or two steps further out, I wouldn’t have been able to safely reach it! 🌊🚫
A NAVAJO BLESSING IN MAINE? 🦅✨
As I held that beautiful ring, I couldn’t help but wonder. This ring spent over 20 years on Jack’s finger, crafted in a tradition steeped in deep connection, intention, and meaning. Turquoise is known as a stone of protection and a bringer of good fortune.
To have it slip away in a dark Maine lake, only for a chain of unexplainable events to bring us right to it in under three minutes… you have to wonder if a higher energy was at work. It felt less like simple luck and more like a protective blessing guiding my scoop right to the exact spot.
WHAT A DAY! 🚗💨💨
As Gary and I were driving home to Saco, Maine, we rehashed the wild timeline of our day.
We had left Saco at 5:45 AM and headed straight to Footbridge Beach , in Ogunquit, Maine: Beautiful Place by the Sea for an unsuccessful search (at least for that day—more on that story in the future!). From there, we headed to Tripp Lake in Poland, Maine, then over to Crystal Lake in Gray, Maine.
By the time we finally pulled back into Saco, it was 2:45 PM. What a day! 9 hours on the clock and 140 miles driven, but most importantly: two more wedding rings are back on their owners’ fingers. 🛠️💍
We love our job. We truly have the best job in the world!
If it matters to you, it matters to us. 🦅❤️
THE ULTIMATE THANK YOU ✉️👇
The very next day, I received this incredible text from Jack that truly made the whole journey worth it:
“Hi Dennis, I can’t thank you enough for finding my ring yesterday. That ring meant a lot to me and I could’ve bought a new one, but it wouldn’t have been the same. You guys are incredible! The timing was unbelievable, because my sister saw the article in the paper just two days ago, and without that, we would never have known anything about you. It’s a miracle! Thank you so much, Jack H.”
💥 LOST SOMETHING PRECIOUS? TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE! 💥
Did you lose your wedding ring, keys, or family heirloom in the water, sand, or snow? Don’t wait! The sooner you call, the better the chances of recovery before things shift or sink deeper.
📞 Call 207-423-3027 and ask for Dennis!
Let The Ring Finders of Maine bring your lost treasure home.
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