I think it was sometime in the late 1960s dad purchased a White’s Metal Detector. I’m not certain but I think he got the idea from Max Byam.

He called it his “beeper” because of the sound it made in his headphones whenever the scanner passed over a metal object of up to about 8 inches below the ground surface. He was very careful to not damage the grass when digging to see what the detector indicated. He only used an ice pick and an 8” butcher knife to probe and excavate, being careful to replace the dirt and divot when finished.

He would spend hours in his spare time scanning public places he thought metal objects might be lost. At first he canvased the park that was one block west of his house. He found coins, bottle caps rings, and a lot of junk around picnic tables, under swings, “monkey bars,” and on and around baseball fields and stands. With that success he expanded his search to other parks, the University of Portland Campus, whatever places he and mom traveled, and friends’ and relatives’ yards.

One time when visiting mom’s uncle Guy in Yakima, he volunteered to show Guy how the detector worked in the front yard of the church next to Guy’s house. Before he finished he found three wedding rings under the grass. What are we to conclude to those findings?

Over a few years dad accumulated quite a collection of “treasures”. One was a rotten leather wallet that contained a few coins and a barely readable identification card. Dad took it to the St. Johns Review newspaper and they ran a story about him and the wallet he found in Pier Park. A few days later he got a call from the wallet owner who said he lost it in the park many years earlier. They had an interesting meeting and dad gave him the wallet.

After his “treasures” accumulated, I made him an oak “pirate’s” chest to hold them. By then he had a lot of old coins, many of them silver, assorted costume jewelry, and many rings.

One of the rings turned out to be valuable. It was, and still is, a single large solitary ruby set in a gold band. Sometime along the way Karrie and mom had it appraised but I don’t know what the value was determined to be. I am certain Karrie now is the proud owner but mom did wear it for many years.

Ken Kaiyala