Lost Gold Cross Underwater Found in Mandon Lake, White Lake Twp., Michigan
Sentimental Symbols of Faith….
….can come in many forms and for centuries have reminded people of the nature, attributes and understanding of God and Jesus. Such has been the case for Brandon and his family since acquiring a very special pendant in the year 1830. Over time, the pendant has been passed down to members of his family and now he wears the heirloom close to his heart and is very thankful for this opportunity and to tell others about it and what it means to him. Unfortunately, all hope was lost when he and some friends fell off the end of a dock, feeling the chain snap as they fell into 5 feet deep water. Trying to search frantically in the swirling sand brought no results and mentally he was fatigued brooding over what happened and what he had to reveal to his family. On site we discussed where he fell in and I quickly put on my snorkel mask, grabbed my pin-pointer and underwater metal detector and started to grid search. I too noticed the swirling sands and not being able to see the bottom surface. The metal detector signaled on some junk, and I pulled up a few bottle caps and some nails. Slowly closing in on a grid section, I got a nice soft, less static signal from an object below the metal detector coil. Going a bit underwater, the pin-pointer buzzed and as I started to feel the object, I felt a soft rounded edge, then another, then another, then another, sort of a four-leaf clover shape and before I brought it to the surface, I knew that this was the beautiful pendant! With his back to me I yelled to Brandon I got it! As he spun around in disbelief he ran quickly onto the dock where he took the pic of me holding the pendant. Once on shore I handed the stunning gold cross to him. As he held it in his hands, looking to the sky he said thank you! Totally excited beyond belief he sent a few texts and then the calls started to come in and all I heard him say was yes, he found it! Of all my finds over the years this pendant has been my best find so far and the one with the most sentimentality attached to it! Now that it’s back where it belongs, Brandon and I have faith and hope that it will continue to transcend the boundaries of time.
Jon
Phillip called me about midday asking if I would help him locate his wife’s engagement ring. It was lost in the water close to the shore line, ankle to calf deep and they had been searching for it by hand, snorkeling and they purchased a metal detector to no avail. It had been a couple days since lost and it was high tide at the time. He said because of emotional and sentimental reasons, the ring just had to be found. I said I would help and showed up late that same afternoon. This was my first visit and ring recovery at Fort Morgan so I wasn’t familiar with conditions and packed my equipment for all conditions. I searched an areas about 100 foot square with no Luck. There was only one target and when I dug it Phillip thought I had found it only to be disappointed when I pulled up a piece of wire. After performing a second search with no success I decided to first expand the search another 50 ft to the west. Now, remember the ring was lost at high tide and the beach had a gradual slope, for ever 1 foot drop of tide the horizontal distance was probably 15 or more feet. It’s was now low tide so I concentrated on the wet sand with no standing water. Within 10 minutes I got a good but weak signal, dug it and there it was. I felt it was lucky I came right out after called because the sand shifts about quickly around here and I’m afraid in another day or two it may have been buried to deep to detect. Phillip and the family were all smiles and grateful and now they can finish their vacation with no regrets. I am alway glad to help. 
