The internet continues to fascinate with the stories it tells. Siblings lost for years reunited thanks to Facebook, engagement rings valued at $40,000 found and returned to their owners, or the story of a Creta High School graduation ring from the class of 1966 that was found almost sixty years later. This is the story of the graduation ring lost for decades that was returned to a Nebraska family after being found buried on a New Jersey beach by a treasure hunter with a metal detector.
This curious story is told directly from the Crete Public Schools Foundation account that has put a smile on the alumni and neighbors of the HIgh School. Discovered by metal detectorist Andrew Ciffer, the ring was carefully researched and traced back to Crete, Nebraska. With the help of the Crete Public Library and the Crete Public Schools Foundation, the ring was identified as belonging to Barbara Wielage (Class of ’66) and was recently returned to her, this is how they say it from Facebook and they say: “A huge thank you to Andrew for his persistence and kindness in helping bring this small but meaningful piece of Crete history back where it belongs.” Along with a description of the picture that also illustrates this article: “Pictured with the ring is CPS Foundation secretary and classmate of Barbara, Jane Novak Fahrnbruch ’66 and Barbara’s sister Sandi Wielage Roche ’65.”
A New Jersey man was reunited with his nearly 60-year-old high school graduation ring weeks after finding it on a Belmar beach last summer. Andrew Ciffer unearthed the ring while treasure hunting on Belmar Beach and decided to track down the owner, identified only by the initials “B.W.” on the ring. Clearly, a task that seemed incredibly difficult. “I go when it’s low tide so it exposes more wet sand because that’s where people lose things when they’re in the water,” Ciffer told NJ Advance Media on Thursday. “It was very close to the surface, like it was just lost,” as reported by local media outlets that immediately picked up the story.
The fact is that Ciffer and a friend, a member of the local metal-detecting organization East Coast Research and Discover Association, quickly determined that the ring came from a school in Nebraska, not one with a similar name in Illinois. He linked the ring to Crete High School in Nebraska, nearly 1,300 miles from Belmar. He contacted the Crete Public Library for help, and they reached out to the Crete Public Schools Foundation to solve the mystery. From there, the librarian checked the high school’s 1966 yearbook and found a match thanks to the initials on the ring.
“Finding a gold ring doesn’t happen too often, and it’s usually a nice prize,” Ciffer said, but the search had to continue. Finally, “B.W.” was identified as Barbara Wielage, a member of the class of 1966 from the small Midwestern town. And as Ciffer said, “Since this was a high school ring, there was a chance to identify the owner.” Wielage-Roche said her sister lived in Boston for a time decades ago, but how the ring came to be buried on a New Jersey beach remains a mystery. So it could have been a never-ending story, but it turns out that technology and a stroke of luck brought the ring back to its original owner.
The family explains how they received the news: “Of course it’s the ‘ooh’ and ‘aah’ of it,” she said. “Number one, for this young man to take it upon himself to do this is monumental. So, yes, we do have the ring, and after all that time, it didn’t even suffer any damage.” And they also give thanks, since the story would not have been possible without the external help of the library and the institute. “A huge thank you to Andrew for his persistence and kindness in helping bring this small but meaningful piece of Crete history back where it belongs,” the Crete Public Schools Foundation said last week in announcing the ring was found. In any case and even though the ring has been found and returned, how it wound up in the Jersey Shore’s sand, some 1,350 miles from her town of 7,500 in southeast Nebraska, is still a mystery. And yes, it will always be.