DECATUR -- It is always hard to lose a prized possession under any condition, be it storms, or floods, or theft. But, for one area resident, the loss of a beloved Decatur High School class ring was particularly hard to take.
One beautiful summer day in 1980, Michael Rogers Furrow, a graduate of Decatur High School, was swimming in about 15 feet of water off the north end of Hickory Creek near Rogers when the unthinkable happened. Furrow felt his class ring slip from his ring finger and sink to the bottom. He tried in vain to find it but it was in too deep and Furrow knew he would never see it again.
Enter into the picture 30 years later Jack Divine, a resident of Joplin, Mo., who along with his family survived the great Joplin tornado of 2012. He was going through a flea market and found a box of items that caught his eye. He purchased the box for an unspecified amount and returned home to survey his finds.
In the box was an expensive class ring that he discovered belonged to a graduate of Decatur High School.
After close examination, Divine discovered that the ring belonged to Michael Furrow. Divine decided to contact Decatur High School to find Furrow and return it to him.
Divine talked to high school principal Toby Conrad to see how he could, if possible, contact Furrow.
Enter Dustin Furrow, Michael Furrow's son, into the equation. The younger Furrow, himself a graduate of Decatur High School, was contacted by Conrad in regard to the return of the ring. At first Dustin thought he was getting his own class ring back, which he lost in 2000 on the south shore of Hickory Creek.
Dustin Furrow was amazed to discover that it was his father's ring and not his.
So how did an expensive class ring, lost 30 years ago in 15 feet of water at a remote part of a lake in Northwest Arkansas, end up in a flea market in Joplin?
The theory goes that several times during the last 30 years Beaver Lake levels dropped to as much as 30 feet, exposing huge areas of shoreline rarely seen. Treasure hunters or a lucky lake goer stumbled upon the ring, picked it up and placed it in a box with other treasures and left it on a shelf for years. Over the years, the box was probably purchased during an estate sale and found its way to a flea market in Joplin.
Miraculously, the ring survived the Joplin tornado and remained at the flea market where it was eventually purchased by Divine, who eventually returned it to Decatur High School where Conrad handed it back to the younger Furrow Jan. 8 in the principal's office at the school.
"I can't believe that someone actually found it," Dustin Furrow said. "Dad isn't going to believe this. I just hope someone will find my ring and return it someday. Thank you, Mr. Divine!"
General News on 01/21/2015