Treasure seekers host annual hunt at fairgrounds

PALMER — Paul Kunkel says he detects metal to pass the time, but for one local teenager, his hobby is more meaningful.

Although Kunkel has used his equipment and skill to find hoards of lost coins, rings, jewelry and other items, locating a family friend’s sweet 16 present is the find Kunkel said is his most satisfying.

“The best think I ever found was for a friend of mine,” he said. “He gave (his daughter) a diamond ring for her 16th birthday. She lost it up at the high school in a foot of snow, and I went up there and found it for her.”

The girl was brushing off her car, then slung the snow off her hands, which is when the ring went flying, Kunkel said.

“That’s the most satisfaction I’ve ever had detecting,” he said. “It was amazing. She was one tickled kid, let me tell you.”

Kunkel was one of nearly two-dozen Alaska Treasure Seekers members at Saturday’s annual Metal Detecting Hunt at the France Equestrian Center at the Alaska State Fairgrounds. Armed with various metal detecting wands and listening intently to headphones for that familiar “beep,” the hobbyists scoured the horse rings for hidden treasures — in this case, coins worth various point values.

For Dennis Lundine of Eagle River, the club’s 36th annual hunt was an opportunity to socialize with others who share his passion for detecting. It’s a hobby that began when Lundine was 7 years old, he said.

“I bugged my dad for a Heathkit, and that was back in the mid-50s, early 60s,” he said. “It was a do-it-yourself (metal detector) kit. I got paid a penny for every nail I found on the farm. His thing was he wouldn’t get flat tires on the hay trucks.”

From searching for penny nails, Lundine said he’s enjoyed many exciting finds, which is what makes metal detecting such a lasting hobby.

“You never know what you’re going to find,” he said.

Like the 1791 British coin he found back East, or what he describes as his most bizarre discovery — a set of silver upper dentures found while snorkeling in Hawaii.

“I was underwater with a metal detector and a snorkel and all that,” he said. “I got this thing on the screen and it goes ‘tinkle, tinkle, tinkle,’ and you know you’ve got something. I’m pulling those teeth out of there and start laughing under water. You can’t laugh underwater and have a mouthpiece in.”

Lundine’s prowess with his detector has also earned him a reputation a someone to go to if you’re looking for something. He recalls one success story where he was contacted by an American Airlines flight attendant who lost her engagement ring in Anchorage. He knew the general area, which ran up against Alaska Railroad property. After getting permission from the railroad, he search and found the ring had bounced down an embankment.

When he told the woman he had found her ring, “she just started crying,” Lundine said. “She had just gotten engaged, then lost it.”

He also was once asked by an insurance company to locate a ring stolen during a home burglary.

He finally found it, but it took awhile. The thief told police a general area of where he ditched the stolen merchandise, “but he wasn’t even close, he was hallucinating,” Lundine said. “It took me 42 hours to find that ring.”

Then there was the time he was tasked with finding the body of a long-dead relative in the Talkeetna area.

“I get this long-distance phone call for up in Talkeetna at a cabin,” he said. “We’re looking for a body (of someone) missing since the 1940s.”

The twist with that search was the woman who asked him to search didn’t tell Lundine what he was looking for, “only that it would’ve been in his coat pocket, whatever it was,” he said. “We found parts of an old jacket, buttons from around that time, but never anything else. She says, ‘You’ll know it when you see it.’”

For the Alaska Treasure Seekers at the fairgrounds on Saturday, the best part of the hunt is talking shop and sharing finds. In fact, Kunkel was sporting a string with about three dozen found rings, just a sample of what he’s collected over the past 13 years.

He also has some advice for people who have visions of metal detecting their way to a wealthy lifestyle.

“Don’t do it if that’s what you’re looking for,” he said. “To me, it’s a hobby. It’s about coming here and (cavorting) with friends you’ve known for years and years. It’s good exercise for a man my age.”

Besides, Kunkel said, there’s nothing that replaces the rush of finding something that had been lost.

“Every time I find something I say, ‘Hey, this ain’t lost no more; I found it.”

Contact Greg Johnson at greg.johnson@frontiersman.com or 352-2269.

MORE ONLINE

Learn more about Alaska Treasure Seekers online at alaskatreasureseekers.com.

For more information about metal detecting, visit the Federation of Metal Detector and Archaeological Clubs Inc. at fmdac.org. The site also includes a code of ethics for hobbyists.