The Green Sinkers: Metal Detecting for Beginners

In December 2010, J.P. Ripple made a handshake agreement with an eighty-seven-year-old man named Red to hunt for treasure on Stigley Ridge in northern Oklahoma.

Red didn’t balk when Ripple, who bought his first metal detector as a senior in high school, told him it would take about six winters to cover the 200-acre ridge.

While Red never gave one reason why he wanted the ridge searched, he claimed his friends had lost coins, tax tokens, toys, and jewelry under a red cedar on the ridge. The Stigley kids were classmates during parts of the Great Depression, and they had a great time playing under the tree with Red once a month.

In sharing his story about searching for treasure on the ridge, Ripple reveals the methods he used, what worked, what didn’t, and how he dealt with an elderly man who wanted to tag along and help dig.

He also shares the best places to search for valuable items, how to sell coins and bottles, and federal regulations that every treasure hunter must keep top of mind—as well as what he found on Stigley Ridge.