A routine metal detecting session in a Mountain Home yard led to an unexpected reunion when Lisa Coleman discovered a 1968 class ring belonging to her friend Gwen Khayat.
Coleman, who has been metal detecting for six years, was searching the yard outside Freckles Chic Boutique on South College Street when she found the Mountain Home High School class ring buried in the soil.
“I hadn’t been out here probably 10 minutes, and I popped out the class ring,” Coleman said.
The discovery took on special significance when Coleman read the name engraved inside the band: Gwen Khayat, whom Coleman knew from the Twin Lakes Historical Society, where Coleman recently oversaw and assisted in opening its new museum in Mountain Home.
“That was really what — it was really cool,” Coleman said. “It wasn’t that it surprised me to find the class ring. What surprised me the most was being able to find the owner and the owner being a friend.”
After cleaning the ring, Coleman called Khayat with the news.
“That’s one of the strangest phone calls I ever got,” Khayat said.
Khayat, who retired in June 2015 after serving for over 25 years as Baxter County librarian, is well-known for her community involvement and philanthropy around Baxter County and Mountain Home.
During her tenure as librarian, she led the library through significant changes including a building renovation, computerization of library records, and spearheaded the 2005 Donald W. Reynolds Foundation Capital Grant proposal that transformed the library from a 9,000-square-foot building to the current 36,500-square-foot facility. She continues to serve on the Baxter County Library Board of Trustees and the Executive Committee of the Friends of the Library.
The building that now houses Freckles Chic Boutique was once the Khayat family home. Gwen Khayat lived there during her high school years when her father, a builder, moved the family to the house after selling multiple spec properties.
“He would build spec houses, and we’d live in a house,” Khayat explained. “This one particular juncture he had, like three spec houses in the house we were living in, and he sold them all, and we had no place to go. So mother came and bought this house.”
“I lived here for four years, and then my family lived here for several years after that,” Khayat said. “And then they moved to the farm in Missouri.”
Chelsea Patterson, who has owned Freckles Chic since 2018, had given Coleman permission to metal detect in the yard. The building, approximately 100 years old, has been home to the boutique since 2014.
“There’s maybe something fun, but what she found is really, really cool,” Patterson said. “The fact that she knew her and it all came full circle, it was really, really cool.”
When asked about how the area has changed over the years, Khayat offered a philosophical perspective.
“Either you grow or you die,” she said. “There are a lot of things that I love about what it is today, and there are some things I miss.”
Coleman, who participates in competition hunts, said she helps sponsor a hunt in Dardanelle where more than $12,000 in silver coins was given away this year. She’s planning a metal detecting trip to England, hopefully in 2026 or 2027.
“We’re going to England, hopefully 26, if not 27, to do a 10-day hunt in England, and we’re really excited about that one,” Coleman said. “It would all be natural finds.”
The ring, which had been in the ground for nearly 60 years, remained in remarkably good condition. When Khayat tried it on, it still fit.
“It comes out of the ground as beautiful as it was the day — wow, man,” Coleman said.
Khayat joked about her reputation for misplacing items during her school years.
“Everybody knows I lose stuff all the time,” she said. “Actually, yes, if somebody’s purse was turned in when I was in high school, principal called me first.”
Patterson noted that previous visitors to the building had shared memories of the house, including Anne Schuhknect’s grandchildren who remembered visiting for Christmas celebrations when it was their grandparents’ home.
The building has survived attempts at demolition. Patterson recalled turning down an offer from someone who wanted to buy the property and tear it down.
“I just couldn’t do that,” Patterson said.
For Coleman, the discovery reinforced why she encourages others, especially children, to take up metal detecting.
“It is a great Zen time,” Coleman said. “I really encourage it for children because we really like to have a lot of kids participating.”
Coleman emphasized that metal detecting involves patience and persistence.
“If you don’t find trash, you are not doing it right,” she said. “It’s nothing for me to go home with a pouch full of 10 smash cans, pull tabs.”
“There is treasure under every piece of dirt everywhere,” Coleman added. “I can promise you, I can go in anyone’s yard any day.”
