Minnesota woman hopes to solve mystery of 1955 class ring

ROCHESTER – A Minnesota woman is trying to solve the mystery of a 1955 class ring she found along a gravel road near Sargeant, a town of about 60 people in southeastern Minnesota.

Barb Nelson spotted the ring in 1973 while riding a horse to her neighbor's house.

"I was always looking at the ground to see if I could find a pretty rock, and there it was," Nelson said.

After initially failing to track down the ring's owner — "We didn't have a way to find anything out," she said — she set it aside in a jewelry box. Nelson recently came across the ring again and is hoping to find answers.

The ring is made for a woman and is about a size 6. The ring's design indicates its owner went to "Hammond HS" and graduated in 1955. It includes the initials G.S.

"She'd be about 81 or 82, if she's still alive," Nelson said, referring to the owner.

She checked with Jostens, the Minnesota company that makes class rings, but that proved a dead end. She checked with a local coin and collectible shop but found no answers there, either.

But Hammond, the Minnesota version, never had a high school, and certainly not back in 1955.

There are a few other towns named Hammond in the United States, and there are three that currently bear the name "Hammond High School." One is in Louisiana. A second is located in Hammond, Ind. A third is Hammond High School in Columbia, Md.

Hammond (Md.) High School was founded in 1977. And neither Hammond (La.) High School nor Hammond (Ind.) High School had graduates from 1955 with those initials.

Nelson said she also checked with Hammond, Wis., currently home to St. Croix Central High School. But in 1955, that school was known as Hammond High School.

A glimmer of hope. But alas, no "G.S." was among the young women graduating that year.