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Bronze Member
Local Treasure Hunter Comes Up Roses
By Terry Mosher
Monday, December 31, 2007
Stewart Hill's 1981 Rose Bowl ring was found by Poulsbo resident Charles Currier, who discovered it in Seattle's Green Lake using a metal detector.
Former UW football player Stewart Hill, left, and Poulsbo resident Charles Currier, share a photo opportunity earlier this fall. Using a metal detector, Currier found Hill's 1981 Rose Bowl ring in Green Lake in Seattle and returned it to Hill
What's this?In the small village of Point Roberts, Wash., former Washington linebacker Stewart Hill is probably home and still pinching himself to make sure he's not dreaming. In October, he found out the 1981 Rose Bowl ring he earned as a Husky was no longer lost.
Today, as the University of Southern California and Illinois battle in the 94th Rose Bowl, Hill, who did not return phone calls and emails for this story, has to be extremely happy to have his ring collection complete.
Special thanks for that goes to Charles "Edd" Currier of Poulsbo, a member of the Olympic Peninsula Treasure Hunters Club.
It was in June that Currier, 63, who Thursday will officially be retired as quality assurance inspector after 30 years at Keyport, went with Lee Speed to Green Lake in Seattle with their metal detectors.
Within minutes, Currier's detector started making a noise.
"We grabbed our metal detectors, walked across the street and the first thing I found was the Rose Bowl ring," says Currier. "It took all of 10 minutes. It was about four inches down."
Currier took the ring to work and one of the engineers there said it belonged to Stewart Hill, who played outside linebacker for Washington (1981-83), starting his senior season alongside fellow linebackers Tim Meamber, Joe Krakoski and Fred Small.
After learning of the ring's owner, Currier went to great lengths to find Hill. He finally hit pay dirt when it was suggested he call Seattle's KJR sports talk radio.
"The last person I talked to was David Grosby (The Groz) and he said that a person he knew could get a hold of Hill," Currier said.
Hill called sometime in October and agreed to meet Currier at Ivar's on the Seattle waterfront.
"We met on November 16," says Currier. "He was just the nicest guy you ever want to meet. He was just a wonderful person to talk to, and well educated. He was tickled pink to get the ring. He said his collection was now complete. He has the two Rose Bowl rings and championship rings from Canada."
Hill, originally a Washington walk-on from Redmond High School, was on the 1981 and 1982 Husky Rose Bowl teams. He was drafted by the Los Angeles Raiders of the NFL, but was talked into going to Canada and playing in the CFL by Warren Moon, the former Washington quarterback who went on to star in the CFL and the NFL.
The CFL fit Hill, who became a much-honored linebacker with Edmonton (1984-90), the B.C. Lions (1991-92) and the Saskatchewan Roughriders (1993). His 126 QB sacks ranks sixth all-time in the CFL, and he was named the defensive MVP of the 1987 Grey Cup.
Currier said Hill told him the ring was stolen from his dorm room.
"He said somebody broke into his dorm room and stole a bunch of things, and took the ring," Currier said. "It would be nice to find out how it got lost and how it ended up at Green Lake in the grass."
That story, alas, may never be known.
The other story is the Olympic Peninsula Treasure Hunters Club. Currier said there are about 40 members. They can be seen from time to time in parks and on school grounds hunting for buried treasure like the pirates of old.
"Money was the main reason I got into it," says Currier. "My older coins that I have found over seven years of metal detecting probably are valued around $500. The gold rings, chains, bracelets and all the silver rings and chains I have found probably are worth around $5,000."
Currier says he once found a woman's Cottage Grove (Oregon) High School ring at Sand Point in Seattle, called the school and the owner was located. Like Hill's ring, it had been stolen. Currier took the ring to a jeweler who repaired it, and then he shipped it back to her.
"She wore it to her 30-year class reunion in 2005, and sent me a nice letter," Currier said. "I got tears in my eyes, got all choked up while reading it."
Currier says club members also assist around the community. If the Kitsap County Sheriff's Department needs help locating things at a crime scene, like bullet casings, club members often get a call.
"We are involved with the community a lot," says Currier. "We have a food drive and donate to the Kitsap County Food Bank."
Sometimes the item found leads to a bigger story, one with a happy ending like Hill's. That makes it fun for Currier.
"We are digging up the past and preserving it for the future," says Currier. "You never know what you are going to dig up out of the ground."
kenb
By Terry Mosher
Monday, December 31, 2007
Stewart Hill's 1981 Rose Bowl ring was found by Poulsbo resident Charles Currier, who discovered it in Seattle's Green Lake using a metal detector.
Former UW football player Stewart Hill, left, and Poulsbo resident Charles Currier, share a photo opportunity earlier this fall. Using a metal detector, Currier found Hill's 1981 Rose Bowl ring in Green Lake in Seattle and returned it to Hill
What's this?In the small village of Point Roberts, Wash., former Washington linebacker Stewart Hill is probably home and still pinching himself to make sure he's not dreaming. In October, he found out the 1981 Rose Bowl ring he earned as a Husky was no longer lost.
Today, as the University of Southern California and Illinois battle in the 94th Rose Bowl, Hill, who did not return phone calls and emails for this story, has to be extremely happy to have his ring collection complete.
Special thanks for that goes to Charles "Edd" Currier of Poulsbo, a member of the Olympic Peninsula Treasure Hunters Club.
It was in June that Currier, 63, who Thursday will officially be retired as quality assurance inspector after 30 years at Keyport, went with Lee Speed to Green Lake in Seattle with their metal detectors.
Within minutes, Currier's detector started making a noise.
"We grabbed our metal detectors, walked across the street and the first thing I found was the Rose Bowl ring," says Currier. "It took all of 10 minutes. It was about four inches down."
Currier took the ring to work and one of the engineers there said it belonged to Stewart Hill, who played outside linebacker for Washington (1981-83), starting his senior season alongside fellow linebackers Tim Meamber, Joe Krakoski and Fred Small.
After learning of the ring's owner, Currier went to great lengths to find Hill. He finally hit pay dirt when it was suggested he call Seattle's KJR sports talk radio.
"The last person I talked to was David Grosby (The Groz) and he said that a person he knew could get a hold of Hill," Currier said.
Hill called sometime in October and agreed to meet Currier at Ivar's on the Seattle waterfront.
"We met on November 16," says Currier. "He was just the nicest guy you ever want to meet. He was just a wonderful person to talk to, and well educated. He was tickled pink to get the ring. He said his collection was now complete. He has the two Rose Bowl rings and championship rings from Canada."
Hill, originally a Washington walk-on from Redmond High School, was on the 1981 and 1982 Husky Rose Bowl teams. He was drafted by the Los Angeles Raiders of the NFL, but was talked into going to Canada and playing in the CFL by Warren Moon, the former Washington quarterback who went on to star in the CFL and the NFL.
The CFL fit Hill, who became a much-honored linebacker with Edmonton (1984-90), the B.C. Lions (1991-92) and the Saskatchewan Roughriders (1993). His 126 QB sacks ranks sixth all-time in the CFL, and he was named the defensive MVP of the 1987 Grey Cup.
Currier said Hill told him the ring was stolen from his dorm room.
"He said somebody broke into his dorm room and stole a bunch of things, and took the ring," Currier said. "It would be nice to find out how it got lost and how it ended up at Green Lake in the grass."
That story, alas, may never be known.
The other story is the Olympic Peninsula Treasure Hunters Club. Currier said there are about 40 members. They can be seen from time to time in parks and on school grounds hunting for buried treasure like the pirates of old.
"Money was the main reason I got into it," says Currier. "My older coins that I have found over seven years of metal detecting probably are valued around $500. The gold rings, chains, bracelets and all the silver rings and chains I have found probably are worth around $5,000."
Currier says he once found a woman's Cottage Grove (Oregon) High School ring at Sand Point in Seattle, called the school and the owner was located. Like Hill's ring, it had been stolen. Currier took the ring to a jeweler who repaired it, and then he shipped it back to her.
"She wore it to her 30-year class reunion in 2005, and sent me a nice letter," Currier said. "I got tears in my eyes, got all choked up while reading it."
Currier says club members also assist around the community. If the Kitsap County Sheriff's Department needs help locating things at a crime scene, like bullet casings, club members often get a call.
"We are involved with the community a lot," says Currier. "We have a food drive and donate to the Kitsap County Food Bank."
Sometimes the item found leads to a bigger story, one with a happy ending like Hill's. That makes it fun for Currier.
"We are digging up the past and preserving it for the future," says Currier. "You never know what you are going to dig up out of the ground."
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