![\"ring](\"http:\/\/blog.keloland.com\/lund\/files\/2015\/09\/ring-lake.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nOkay Okay..the locals might dispute that..but it’s been my experience and an important reason for making what I\u2019m about to report even more incredible.\u00a0 But, let\u2019s begin at the beginning.<\/p>\n
As most of you know, Steve Hemmingsen is a longtime resident of Hendricks, Minnesota having built his own cabin along the North Shore back in the 80\u2019s which he\u2019s been adding on to ever since.<\/p>\n
Much like Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford, Randolph Hearst and Marian Davies..Steve and Betty Hemmingsen were quite well known for the summer lakeside parties they threw for celebrities.<\/p>\n
Well, okay people who worked at Keloland TV. \u00a0An invitation to one of these soirees was considered rather special coming from the top dog Anchorman\/News Director so everybody fortunate enough to receive one showed up with food, booze, bathing suits and a party attitude.<\/p>\n
It was toward the conclusion of just such a party involving plenty of carousing on land and in the water that Jaine Andrews noticed something missing from the left hand of her husband, Gary. A circle of white skin now surrounded the tanned finger where five years ago she had placed a gold and diamond \u00a0wedding band. \u201c Honey..where\u2019s your ring?\u201d she shrieked. His poor jaw dropped and a pathetic posse was rounded up.<\/p>\n
All, who could still navigate in the twilight, joined in the futile search of Hendricks\u2019 murky waters but the only clear water that night was running down the cheeks of the young couple.\u00a0It could have slipped off anywhere\u2026swimming..water skiing..running around on the beach.\u00a0But it was a foregone conclusion that it was gone forever and they both knew why. Gary had been battling a troublesome appendix which led to surgery. He\u2019d lost a lot of weight. The wedding ring had gotten pretty loose. He meant to take it off. Forgot. Damn..Dog House.<\/p>\n
Oh yeah..Green.<\/p>\n
Hendricks residents don\u2019t like you to talk about it..but most of the time the lake that bears the town\u2019s name is just that..green. That\u2019s one of the reasons residents are fighting so hard to keep a big cattle operation from being built upstream from the lake in Brookings County; aggravating an already annoying problem.<\/p>\n
But it\u2019s not ALWAYS green and on Labor Day, Darice Huber..who lives right next door to Hemmingsen.. was taking advantage of the beautiful weather and wading with her grandson \u00a0in the crystal clear waters of the lake when she looked down and saw what gold miners used to call a \u201cflash in the pan.\u201d \u00a0Glistening about 8 inches below the surface was a gold ring. She snatched it up wondering who it could belong to. She decided to wait until Hemmingsen returned home to help in the investigation.<\/p>\n
<\/a>Darice Huber who found the ring.<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/a>The beach area where the ring was found. That’s Steve Hemmingsen’s place just visible on the far right.<\/p><\/div>\n
\u201cIt was the craziest thing when Steve first said he didn\u2019t know of anybody except..maybe 25 years or so ago, a co-worker lost a ring at a party here.\u201d Darice Huber told me. \u201c I asked Steve if he\u2019d do some checking. \u00a0\u201cI mean, what are the odds of it turning up right here on the shore\u00a0after so long?” Huber said.\u201d<\/p>\n
After Steve sent Jaine an e-mail photo of the ring, she had to think a bit trying to remember what the band looked like. \u00a0“There was an engraving inside..did you find an engraving?” \u00a0Jaine asked. \u00a0\u00a0Sure enough when Steve and Darice checked with a magnifying glass there it was; \u00a0the couple’s initials and wedding date etched by the jeweler way back when.<\/p>\n
“Steve and I were flabbergasted,\u201d Huber said.<\/p>\n
<\/a>And here it is after a quarter century underwater being scraped around by ice, sand and time. No wonder gold is so precious.<\/p><\/div>\n
It takes quite a bit to impress my old curmudgeon pal Hemmingsen but when we talked he had to admit what an \u201cIncredible long shot\u201d this was. \u201cWhen you consider how every spring the ice shoves the shoreline all over the place. I have to have a guy with a skid loader come in most years to straighten it out. \u00a0There\u2019s just no way that ring hasn\u2019t been on a long journey and to end up just a few feet from my place in plain sight. Well, \u00a0God works in mysterious ways.\u201d No, Steve never mentioned God but he was every bit as astounded as Darice and Jaine who, by the way has long since forgiven Gary for losing the original. In fact, \u00a0Jaine actually did buy Gary a new band a few years later and another on their 25th<\/sup> anniversary. Now he has three.<\/p>\n