UK Boys Dig Up Silver Ring

"An amazing archaeological find was unearthed in Sleaford by a pair of teenagers – one of whom had never used a metal detector before.

Philip Ingram-Jannetta, 15, and 17-year-old Lee Partridge had only been hunting for treasure for five minutes when they unearthed the large ornate 16th century silver gilt finger ring buried three inches under the surface.

The ring, which bears the initials I.S. on a hexagonal bezel, was probably used as the official seal of a wealthy local landowner and designed to fit over the gloved finger of the wearer, perhaps while riding."


Read more HERE.


Image credit: Lincolnshire Echo

Bronze Age Gold Popped in UK

"A Gainsborough metal detecting enthusiast unearthed a rare piece of Bronze Age gold while searching a field near the town, an inquest in Lincoln was told last week.

The 4,000 year old strip of decorated gold is the first of its type to have been found in Lincolnshire and experts have described it as an important find.

John Bennett of Claremont Street, Gainsborough, found the item in July this year while checking out a ploughed field in the Corringham area."

Read more HERE.

Image Credit: The Guardian

Norwich UK Finds

"A medieval silver brooch and a Bronze Age collection of axe heads were among the items declared treasure at an inquest held in Norwich.

In total, the tales of six groups of valuable artefacts from ages past and how they were found were told at yesterday’s inquest.

Among the hoard was a collection of 14 socketed axes, which were disturbed by machine from their site of rest on land near Aylsham, the owner of which is Lord Walpole.

The axes all date to the Ewart Park metalwork phase reaching back further than 800BC, and were discovered in March by Robert and James Alston who were using a metal detector at the time."

Read more HERE.

FL Man Denied Pursuit of Treasure

"A would-be treasure hunter searching for pirate gold can't dig at a Palm Beach County park, county officials decided Thursday.

Concerns about disturbing a historic site — and the possibility of metal detector-wielding copycats flocking to county parks wanting to dig — prompted the county to quash plans for the dig at DuBois Park in Jupiter.

Just last week, the county was working on a proceeds-sharing deal with a local man who proposed a small dig to find out what was setting off his metal detectors at the park.

The size and location of the unknown buried object, as well as the history of the area, convinced him it was a chest of riches, possibly buried hundreds of years ago by shipwreck survivors or even pirates passing the Palm Beach County coast."

Read more HERE.

Gold Ring in UK Saved from the Dirt

"A metal detection enthusiast scouring the soil around Thurcroft unearthed a 14th century gold ring studded with a ruby and an emerald, an inquest heard.

Metal finishing plant worker Paul McEvoy, 44, found the medieval finger ring just six inches beneath the surface.

He had been using his metal detector to search a stubble field in Thurcroft"


Read more HERE.

Indiana Authorities Use ACE 250

"Porter County police on Thursday continued searching for evidence in the case of a Portage woman's slaying.

 Amanda Bach was found dead Saturday in Union Township, a day after her car was discovered parked next to a store in Wheeler. She had been shot once in the neck.

Dustin McCowan, 18, of Union Township, was arrested and formally charged with murder.

But police on Thursday were continuing to search for evidence -- especially for the weapon used in the crime."

Read more HERE.


Image Credit: John Hendricks \ The Times

UK Stone Priory Unearthed in Surrey

"A medieval seal thought to have once belonged to Stone Priory in north Staffordshire has been discovered in a field in Surrey.

The bronze object, which bears the image of the Virgin and Child, was found in Cobham by a metal detector enthusiast.

Finds Liaison Officer for Surrey County Council, David Williams, said it was a "complete mystery" how the seal had ended up there.

It is thought to date from between the 13th and 14th Centuries."

Read more HERE.

Image Credit: BBC

Kansas Meteor Field

"He may be looking for the proverbial needle in a haystack, but at least Don Stimpson has an extra large metal detector.


As owner of the Kansas Meteorite Museum, he's searching a six-mile stretch of Kiowa County known for 'Brenham Meteorites,' named for the little town of Brenham once located here, the site of a huge meteor explosion.

'The idea is this all came in at one time, maybe 20,000 years ago, and it probably started glowing over Colorado, the western border of Colorado, and burned thru the atmosphere, broke up. It would've been a massive event,' Stimpson explained."

Read more HERE.

Image Credit: First Coast News

CA Town Anniversary Time Capsule

 "It took two hours and a metal detector, but city officials finally found a time capsule buried 50 years ago as part of the city's centennial celebrations.

Under Mayor Robert Romano's direction, city Public Works crews used a backhoe to dig into the ground at Landis Park on Tuesday afternoon and unearth the concrete vault containing the time capsule.


It should be interesting what they put in it, said Romano, who was 9 years old when it was buried."
Read more HERE.

Image Credit: Craig Mathews

From Hobby Store to Big Time Metals

"Since 2001, Treasure Island Coins and Precious Metals has grown from a small coin shop with four employees to a business employing 25 people and helping broker multimillion-dollar deals in precious metals.

Chris Olson, 33, is part-owner and CEO of the business that was started by his father, Greg, in downtown Fargo in 1976.

Olson’s father and several other family members still work there."

Read more HERE.

Image Credit: Dave Olson \ The Forum

Are We "Suspicious"? Really?

 Just a quick blurb in response to a recent entry in the Police Logs from Hopkins, MN where "a woman told police that a suspicious man was in her yard with a metal detector. The man, who was looking for old coins, said he was embarrassed and had been told the property was vacant. He left when asked."

Just as any well-mannered hobbyist would have done, he left when asked... but seriously, how suspicious is a person swinging a metal detector?  It's just absurd and really just sounds like another busy body taking it to the extreme.

Watch out world, us hobbyists are out to get you!!!

Your thoughts?

Medievil Silver Seal is Treasure

"A 13th Century solid silver seal found on farmland in Cornwall has been declared treasure trove at an inquest.

The Latin-inscribed seal - once used to make a mark in hot wax - was discovered by metal detector enthusiast John Fereday in a field near Newquay.

Cornwall Coroner Emma Carlyon declared the seal to be treasure at a special inquest hearing in Truro."

Read more HERE.

Image Credit: BBC

Indie Film Star a Treasure Hunter

"...

How did you guys do with the hurricane?
We actually did pretty well! My house is fine, we actually have a shore house, so we got pretty lucky. But all our power was out, so we stayed with my Aunt Kathy for a few days. I just got back to the house today and I cannot wait to go out on the beach with my metal detector!  I am telling you, I am a professional treasure hunter and I am going to find the jewels!"

Read more HERE.

AU Gold Huntin'

 "Gold prices have risen more than 25 per cent since the beginning of the year as concern over global growth has turned investors to the safe haven of the metal, which they believe will hold its value amid market volatility.

Adelaide's Dennis Cooper has been a gold prospector for 25 years and has just returned from an 8000km round-trip to Western Australia's Port Hedland, where he found three troy ounces of gold worth $5373."

Read more HERE.

Image Credit: Kelly Barnes \ The Australian

NY Storm Swingers

"Ana Ramirez, 35, of Coney Island swung her metal detector over the sand just off the Coney Island Boardwalk in the shadow of the Wonder Wheel ride.

'People say that storms sweep a lot of sand away, so it’s a good time to look for things on the beach,' Ms. Ramirez said as she walked on the beach a few days after Tropical Storm Irene lashed the city.

She recently bought a second-hand detector from a friend for $40 to search for valuables for some extra income, to augment her usual practice of gathering and redeeming cans and bottles to help provide for her five young children."

Read more HERE.

Image Credit: Robert Stolarik / New York Times

UK Kids Dig Up Some History

"Children hunting for a missing horseshoe made an impressive discovery in their back paddock.

Sally and Andy White were amazed when the youngsters unearthed a brick well just 20cm below the surface. Christopher, James and Lucy made the discovery when they were using a metal detector with their friend Tara.

Andy, who lives in Primrose Lane in Arlesey and is also a town councillor, said: 'They were asked to go out into our paddock and find, with a metal detector, a horseshoe for the farrier to refit.'"

Read more HERE.

Image Credit: Bigglewade Chronicle

Grenade Found in Private Yard

"A day of landscaping turned into a frightening situation for a man in Thornton when he dug up a live grenade in his backyard. 

Thornton Police had to set up a perimeter around Travis Moore's home on Carrol Court on Wednesday night. The Adams County Bomb Squad responded to the scene and removed the explosive.

Moore says he and his neighbors have no idea who put the grenade in his backyard or why. He and his wife have only lived in the home for about three weeks."

Read more HERE.

Image Credit: 9 News, Denver

Sport Optics Dealer BARSKA to Get Into MD

Sure to flop, it turns out the sports optics manufacturer BARSKA is diving into the metal detector hobby by offering up three models of what are seemingly just bottom of the barrel cookie cutter models with a fancy outside.  They haven't developed their own technology, just are repackaging existing tech.

Would be interesting to see or hear from anyone out there who actually gives one a spin.  They look like cheap radio shack machines, so I'd guess that the performance is right there as well.

Know anything about these?  Please comment!

Ring Returned from San Antonio Lake

"Gerald Hewitt, a 1955 Harlandale High School graduate, has enjoyed his favorite hobby of metal detecting for many years.

In July, Hewitt took a drive to Jacobs Creek Park in Canyon Lake to hunt for rings.

'I had just got in the water and that was the first signal I got,' said Hewitt, who found a 2011 class ring from McCollum High School."

Read more HERE.

WIRED Magazine Sits with Treasure Hunters

Great multipage spread from Wired Magazine.

"They are specters from our collective childhood, observed from behind half-finished sandcastles. They move purposefully along the beach, captivating young onlookers with the promise of magical treasure.

They are the metal-detector guys. The archetypal loners. Sealed off from the world by giant headphones, happy to reward young tagalongs with a bottle cap.

'It’s my Zen,' says Alex Kelley, President of the Bay Area Searchers. For many, like Kelley, the hunt itself is a meditative experience, a way to escape from the daily grind."

Read more HERE.

Image Credit: Wired Magazine

FL Pirates Out After Irene

 "Hurricane Irene brought a treasure trove of waves for surfers last week, but Flagler Beach resident Eric Nierstedt was looking for a different kind of treasure.


He was combing the beach, with a shovel slung over his left shoulder and a metal detector in his right hand. Neither the rain nor the waves dissuaded him.

'I haven't found anything, yet,' he said just before 10 a.m. 'The tide is still pretty high, though.'"

Read more HERE.

Image Credit: Julie Murphy \ The Daytona News Journal

Lake Close to Home Drained

"Phil LaRocco has waited 35 years for Berkeley Lake to be drained. Like all treasure hunters, he knows great stuff lurks at the bottom of lakes, especially this one.

'I was here with my father in 1976 when the lake was low,' he said, moving his metal detector over the dry lake bed. 'He found 67 gold and silver rings in two weeks.'

Berkeley Lake is being drained as part of a $3.25 million bond project that includes a berm to screen Interstate 70 on the north, with trees and native grasses fringing a walking trail."

Read more HERE.

Image Credits: Andy Cross / The Denver Post .

Canada Man Turns Hobby into Recovery Business

"Andrea Bielecki was slamming some last-minute flowers into her front garden this summer when she slipped her wedding band and 1.5-carat diamond engagement ring into her bra so she wouldn’t lose them.

Company was coming, she had an eye on her toddler and it was only for a minute.

Then her daughter ran into the neighbour’s yard and Bielecki had to chase her, her mom arrived with groceries to be unloaded, Bielecki swept up some leaves in the backyard and suddenly it was bedtime.

Her wedding ring tumbled out of her clothes. Her engagement ring did not."

Read more HERE.

Check out Mark Ellis at Ellis Metal Detecting Service.

Image Credit: Keith Beaty \ Toronto Star

Jar of Gold Coins Found in UK

"Digging deeper after unearthing a jam jar lid led a metal detecting enthusiast to discover 20 gold coins dating from the reigns of Charles I to Queen Victoria.

An inquest in Lynn yesterday heard the coins were believed to be stolen property and an appeal was made for information about who owned them, possibly more than a century ago.

Norfolk coroner William Armstrong said the coins were found by Mark Nicholson on March 14 while he was metal-detecting with permission on land near Walsoken owned by Mr Richard Stocks."

Read more HERE.

Image Credit: Lynn News

Eastern Shore Treasure Seekers

 
"While many lost items are of significant value, they're usually priceless to their owners. That's why a band of metal detector enthusiasts are breaking out their gear in preparation for the hunt.

'You'll never know the feeling of finding something that means something to somebody ... unless you've done it,' said Salisbury resident Bill Draper. 'It's really a unique feeling -- a feeling $1,000 doesn't buy.'

Draper is the co-founder of Shore Seekers Artifact & Recovery Club, an organization formed in 1988 for the purpose of enjoying the hobby of metal detecting with fellow enthusiasts who specialize in reuniting people with their lost items."

Read more HERE.

Image Credit: Chuck Snyder \ Delaware Wave

Looking to Return Wedding Band in WA

A member of the same detecting club in Washington as one of our followers and fellow blogging peer "cjc" of the Beep-Beep blog was recently in the local news in their area trying to return a wedding band he has discovered.

"Rick Razor is a member of The Cascade Treasure Club and has been a metal detector enthusiast for more than a decade.

In that time he has found a lot of valuable stuff, but of all the treasures he's discovered it is a gold wedding band he found in Idylwood Park in Redmond in 2007 that haunts him because he's been unable to return it to the owner.

It is engraved with a wedding date and Rick hopes that will make it easy to identify."

Read more HERE.

Full Time Meteor Hunting in UK

"Gazing up at the night sky, Rob Elliott is on constant alert for fireballs or streaks of light suddenly breaking up the darkness above him. As the UK's only full-time meteorite hunter, Elliott knows these falls from outer space can contain the most magnificent and exciting rock fragments created billions of years before the Earth was formed.

With specimens capable of fetching thousands of pounds depending on their rarity value – those from Mars and the Moon being the most prized – every meteorite shower is literally "treasure from Heaven".

A meteorite is a piece of a meteoroid or asteroid which has survived its journey through the Earth's atmosphere, falling to the ground without being destroyed. They are also known as fireballs or shooting stars."

Read more HERE.

Image Credit: The Scotsman

Chinese Families MD For Scrap

"The Shang family, from Zhumadian of Central China's Henan province, recycles steel bars at a demolition site in Jinan, the capital of East China's Shandong province, Aug 8, 2011. 

As many urban Chinese children are enjoying cool air conditioners, 8-year-old Shang Guangwei and his 11-year-old sister are spending their summer vacation at construction sites, recycling waste iron and steel with their migrant parents. 

Each day, their mother would use a metal detector to find metal and their father would then try to dig out what was seen as treasure to the family"

Read more HERE. 


Image Credit: China Daily

Saving Blair Mountain History

"On a warm day in West Virginia, Kenny King is on his hands and knees, digging in the dirt. He's near the peak of Blair Mountain, searching for buried artifacts from a little-known battle that took place 90 years ago this month.


'It is a unique part of American history,' King says, waving his metal detector over a hole in the ground. 'No where else can you find an actual battlefield that is as big and extensive as maybe a World War I battlefield.'

King, both prospector and amateur archeologist, is known locally as an expert on the infamous Battle of Blair Mountain, which unfolded over 10 days in 1921."

Read more HERE.

Image Credit: CNN

MO City Overturns MD Ordinance

A victory for hobbyists everywhere as a Missouri city official actually contemplated the "real" repurcussions of the hobby and realized it's trivial to try and govern a harmless hobby.


"Carthage Mayor Mike Harris said 'exaggerated and erroneous information' led the council to give preliminary approval to an ordinance controlling metal detecting in city parks.

At Harris’ request, the Carthage City Council tabled indefinitely final consideration of the ordinance that would have required anyone wanting to use a metal detector in a city park to sign a request sheet and turn any artifact that was older than 100 years over to the city.

The vote to table was unanimous."

Read more HERE.

Moutain Treasure Club Uncovers the Past

"Rich with enthusiasm, Tom Warne has found not only a fervent group of people with which to share his hobby, but a bounty of treasure, as well.


On a sultry July morning, Warne is joined by four fellow prospectors on the back patio of his Loveland home to talk about the Rocky Mountain Prospectors and Treasurer's Hunter Group, of which they all are members. Some are lively, while others are more stoic, yet all are passionate about the booty they have found over the years.

Both Paul Lange and Rick Mattingly are Loveland residents, while Paul Mayhak and Dick French live in Fort Collins. They are part of the 150-member local organization that has been in existence since 1986."

Read more HERE.

Check out more from the Rocky Mountain Prospectors and Treasure Hunters Group HERE.

Image Credit: Reporter-Herald

UK Beach Coughs Up WWI Medal

"A metal detector enthusiast is appealing for the family of a First World War serviceman to come forward after unearthing his medal on a beach.

Tom Neesam found a solid silver medal on Seaton Carew beach while out using his metal detector.

It belonged to Robert Henry Pollard, who was born in Hartlepool in 1886 and went on to receive three other war medals."

 Read more HERE.

Image Credit: Peterlee Mail

Bama Coast Gold Hunters

"Treasure hunter is the last thought that springs to mind when you see the middle-aged Mobile couple standing neck deep in the Gulf of Mexico wearing big yellow headphones.


But it’s the only description that fits.

While some people dream of diamonds and rubies, Mike Taylor and Darlene McAfee find them.

They ply the waters off the Alabama coast looking for gold, silver and other treasures lost in the sea. It’s not pirate booty they find, but loot lost by unlucky tourists."

Read more HERE.

Image Credit: Ben Raines \ Press-Register

Seneca - Early 19th Century Central park

"For more than a decade, anthropologists and historians pieced together the history of a short-lived African-American community that was snuffed out in the 1850s by the creation of Central Park. They combed vital records and tax documents, scanned parkland using radar and studied soil borings.

But because the vestiges of the community were buried beneath the park, the leaders of the Institute for the Exploration of Seneca Village History — a consortium of three professors from City College, Columbia University and New York University — were kept from doing the one thing that would open a window onto the daily existence of the some 260 residents: digging.

That all changed eight weeks ago, after they won permission from the city to excavate in an area of the park near 85th Street and Central Park West."

Read more HERE.
And HERE.

Image Credit: Fred R. Conrad / The New York Times

Beneath Your Feet: Russia

"Most people dream of discovering treasure, forgetting about the daily grind and spending the rest of their lives on a tropical island. Even if you never find a trunk of pirate gold, treasure hunting can actually be a stable source of income.

Russia is one of the best places for uncovering hidden treasure. As a result of the country’s many wars, revolutions and economic crises, the number of caches stashed away for a rainy day under floorboards or in tins in the attic is truly mind-boggling. Vladimir Poryvayev, a long-time treasure hunter, says that in the late 1990s, he found a sack full of diamonds. He says he had been looking for it on behalf of some people who had heard stories of treasures from their grandparents."

Read more HERE.

Image Credit: ITAR-TASS

Store Owner Preaches Ethical Hunting

"The way Tim Garton sees it, historical artifacts -- and the stories behind them -- remain forever lost if they stay buried in the ground.

But the owner of Metal Detector Sales of Southwest Missouri cringes at the thought of treasure hunters randomly digging up artifacts, leaving holes behind, with no concern for ethically extracting or documenting what they find.

'I'm trying to get people educated on how to do it right,' said Garton, cofounder and treasurer of the 417 Relic Hunters metal detecting club in Springfield."

Read more HERE.

Image Credit: Bob Linder / News-Leader

MO Research: Rules to Hunt

A nice little read for Missouri hunters looking on places to hunt.

"So you just got a brand new metal detector and can't wait to go dig up buried treasure.

Slow down a bit.

Rules about where and how you can use the device vary greatly.

Metal detector hobbyists also emphasize the need to always get permission before any dig.

Metal detectors are not allowed in national parks -- including Wilson's Creek National Battlefield -- and hefty fines and even jail time await people who remove artifacts from federal lands."

Read more HERE.

The Ship Warwick

"'The loss of the good ship Warwick was not the only disaster that this cruel storm brought with it. It also meant the total ruin of the winter’s crop of corn, to such a great extent that all the inhabitants were very worried about a shortage of food. They had good reason to be anxious, for even though the islands were prolific enough in every respect, and had two harvests every year, yet careless wastage had become the custom with most of the people’ C.F.E. Hollis Hallett, Butler’s History of the Bermudas, 2007

On October 20, 1619, the third governor arrived in Bermuda at the behest of the Somers Island Company, the corporation that owned the 12,000 acres of the island.

The gentleman was Captain Nathaniel Butler, who succeeded in his position the first governor, Richard Moore (1612-15) and the second, one Daniel Tucker (1616-18)."

Read more HERE.

Image Credit: The Royal Gazette

T'Hunters Give Away Some Secrets

"Searching for treasure isn't only for movie characters. Real-life adventure hunters have unearthed treasures worth thousands of dollars in their own backyards.

Take Tim Saylor and George Wyant, who have their own metal detecting-themed company called Anaconda Treasure. By day, Saylor writes software for an insurance company and his friend Wyant is a copper miner. But on weekends, the Montana men have taken metal detecting to a whole new level.

'We're not exactly normal,' Wyant said. 'We don't think fun and comedy and treasure detecting have to be mutually exclusive.'"

Read more HERE.

Image Credit: Getty Images

Montana Bullet Finders

"Blue Mountain probably wasn't named for all the blue grenade rounds in its grasslands, but it could have been.

Blue was the color indicating a practice load for military training exercises that took place for 50 years on the mountainside south of Missoula. This week, guys in bright yellow vests are prowling the recreation area looking for those old munitions and perhaps more dangerous explosives.

"This is one of the suspect areas we're definitely going to investigate," said Weston Solutions project supervisor Rick Logsdon, who leads the dozen-man unexploded ordnance team."

Read more HERE.

Image Credit: Michael Gallacher / Missoulian

MD Finds Proves ET Existance?

"A teacher at the New Mexico Military Institute in Roswell may have discovered the first scientific evidence of manufactured debris made on another planet. Furthermore, this debris was found near the location where pieces from an alleged flying saucer were discovered outside of Roswell in 1947.

Frank Kimbler teaches high school level Earth Sciences and college level Geology at the New Mexico Military Institute in Roswell. He says he has always had an interest in UFOs, and actually had his own unusual sighting in his twenties. So when he...

...

His next step was to get out there with a metal detector to see what he could find. He began making trips to the site in May 2010. Using a metal detector that could find a piece the size of a BB, three inches below the surface, he would be able to find small pieces,..."

Read more HERE.

Image Credit: Frank Kimbler

10K Park Gold

Last night before bed, I got a call from Digger Magoo determined that we were going to head back up to Cheesman Park in Denver to give it another go at finding that lost wedding set. I picked him up from his place around 10a this morning and off we went. He said he had spoken with her again and might have narrowed the search a little more than what we were dealing with before.

The tempperature was already rising and with no looming storms currently off in the distance we put the coils to the soil.

The first hour was by far the most exciting. Concentrating much of our efforts within a 2000 square foot area closest to where she parked along curb next to the grass, we really felt this wold be the day to score the gold. Well, we weren't wrong in that thought... it just so happened it wasn't the correct item we were looking for.

I got a jumpy low 20s to mid 30s VDI on my XLT, and knowing what we were looking for, I was digging almost anything that was from about +10 - +50. And knowing that the item would be shallow, anything I could dig less than 3" (especially just using a screwdriver) felt like it could be it. Well this one, at roughly 2.5" just so happened to be a hefty, 10K men's class of '73 ring from Evergreen High School in Evergreen, CO. It has some initials in it, we'll see what I can do in terms of returning it. But leaving for work in the Gulf of Mexico for the next five weeks will most likely limit that venture for a later time.

But I tell you what, as evidence on the picture provided by my good friend Troy, I sure was grinning when this came out of the ground. And truth be told, it's my first gold ring, and first class ring I've ever found. Just never can seem to get the coil over all them lost goodies out there.

We swung around for the next two hours and both of us we're able to round up a few bucks in clad. Troy did happen to come across a sterling silver cased nail file. The file part was rusted to hell, but the silver sure looked nice. I did find another key, and even a sweet little pocket spill of 7 RTD tokens. I know they aren't old, but digging tokens is just plain fun, I don't care who you are.

So though we didn't find what we came for, we sure left with our pouches full of keepers. And that gold ring will be in teh back of my mind for future hunts to come. The clad totaled to $2.21 over 33 coins. And if you're curious, that ring, in the air, comes in at a solid +42/+43 on the XLT.

Happy huntin' folks, and may the next dig be a good one.

WWII UXO on UK Beach

"A novice metal dectoristist had the shock of his life when he dug up an unexploded WW2 bomb instead of treasure.

Colvyn Gillmon, 46, discovered the mortar bomb whilst out searching for hidden gold or metal artefacts near to Dorchester Cemetery on Saturday afternoon.

It was only the second time the Dorchester man had used his metal detector."

Read more HERE.

Image Credit: Steve Greaves

Minnesota Man Enjoying His Finds

"Sartell resident Cy Schaefer, 77, is a modern-day treasure hunter. Wihttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifth his metal detector in hand, he can be found around St. Cloud five to six nights per week searching for coins and long-lost artifacts.

Retired more than 20 years from the St. Cloud reformatory, where he was a shop supervisor, Schaefer is a widower with eight grown children. He uses his hobby “just to get out and do an activity.”

'It’s all the anticipation ... to hit on something good,' Schaefer said."

Read more HERE.

Image Credit: Jenny Berg

Marlyand Union POW Camp

"Volunteer archaeologists are descending on leafy Lafayette Square in West Baltimore this weekend in an effort to uncover relics from Camp Hoffman, a Union army encampment that stood there during the Civil War.

Just hours into the project Friday, while dodging rain showers and swarms of June bugs, the diggers had already turned up fragments of mid-19th-century tableware and decorative wrought iron, nails, birdshot and even a piece of an old pocket watch.

'We popped down on stuff right away, which I didn't expect. And it's definitely 19th-century stuff,' said Charlie Hall, terrestrial archaeologist with the Maryland Historical Trust."

Read more HERE.

Cheesman Ring Hunt

It has seemed like forever since I've been able to get out and hunt. This morning around 10a I got a call from my hunting buddy Troy regarding him heading out towards downtown Denver in search of a lost wedding set he had been in contact with a woman about. I agreed to tag along and by 1130a we were on the case.

We met up at Cheesman Park and my first thought was, wow... this is a lot of real estate to cover. Turns out it is about 80 acres worth of old trees and nicely groomed grass that had been a park since 1907, and was previously a cemetery that opened in 1858 (they even have modern-day ghost bus tours through the park).

The hunt started by hitting the area along the southern side of The Acropolis and fountains. As initially all we had to work on was that the rings where lost roughly in front of the structure on the southern side. We hit the area pretty intensely for a couple hours, and besides a couple dollar or more pocket spills I came across, there wasn't much to be said for the area.

Troy got on the horn and contacted the lady to get help narrow down the search. Sadly, the area was still a good 2-3 acres of land to cover, and after an hour or so of no luck, a thunderstorm rolled in and rained us out. Throughout the entire hunt we saw at least four other hobbyists scouring the area, likely searching for the same rings as a Craigslist ad was posted on the subject.

It was a great few hours of swinging the coil, really happy to have gotten out, especially since I don't so often anymore. I did manage $3.49 over 38 coins though, so the day wasn't lost. A '57 Wheatie, small pile of keys, pulltabs, broken sunglasses, and other miscellaneous metal scrap rounded out the afternoon.

One last thing to add. Today was the first time I've actually used my new Garrett ProPointer on a hunt. I've been a true blue Vibra-Probe 570 guys since I started the hobby. I REALLY enjoyed the Garrett, but did have one negative to throw out there. Apparently this is a known issue, but it's something that on my Vibra-Probe it wasn't an issue. I'm very used to jamming the VP 570 into a hole and being pretty rough with it, even slightly bending it in tight spaces to get the direction of a target. With the Garrett, you can't do this. Well, you can, but it causes the thing to false. I added a little video illustrating the point.