Modern day treasure hunters: Couple metal detects riches

Jennifer Tangeman - 

In 1967, Bill Dickerson and a friend were eating lunch in the cafeteria at Ford Motor Company. They had read about “diamonds as big as golf balls” in Arkansas and decided to hop on their motorcycles and ride to Murfreesboro, Ark.

Dickerson, 26 at the time, said he and his friend bought cheap metal detectors and traveled to Arkansas in search of diamonds. Soon thereafter, they traveled to Padre Island, Texas, in hopes of striking gold.

“They were finding gold coins from Spanish shipwrecks,” Dickerson said. “We watched them dig up a Spanish ship but we didn’t find much. That’s what got us started, and I always sort of kept it up.”

These were just the first of many excursions for the Cridersville man. He and his wife, Lila, remain modern day treasure hunters today.
Now, Dickerson owns 12 different metal detectors ranging in price from $100 to $1,800. He has hunted for treasure throughout Canada and the United States, including Florida, Arizona, Alabama, Michigan, Indiana, Nebraska, Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota and New Mexico — to name a few.

The Cridersville man said other than his newest, most expensive metal detector, they’ve “all paid for themselves” through the years.
He estimates that with the couple’s metal detecting club, Black Swamp Metal Detecting Club, they have recovered more than 6,000 rings from Indian Lake and 1,500 to 2,000 from Grand Lake St. Marys.

The couples’ new favorite hobby is to find the owners of rings and return them.

“This year, I thought, ‘I’m going to make it a quest to return those,’” Lila Dickerson said.

One such owner was Dale Baumbach, who lives near Superior, Neb.

Baumbach lost his class ring on Father’s Day in 1971 at the Lovewell Lake. Baumbach said in a letter to the Dickersons that he had been playing football in the lake when the ring went flying from his finger.

In 2006, the couple found Baumbach’s ring while metal detecting the area of the lake and finally found contact information for him last month. They mailed it to their niece, who coincidentally lives approximately six blocks from Baumbach.
Thirty-nine years after losing his ring, it was returned.

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photo:Jennifer Tangeman

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