WWII Dogtags Uncovered and Returned

"Evan Yeoman of Lewiston was cruising Demolay Park overlooking the Snake River with his new metal detector when it pinged, telling him there was a penny about 10 inches down.

It was the depth that was intriguing, Yeoman said. 'That's how I judge how long a thing's been setting there — how deep it is.'

He remembers thinking as he stuck his knife into the ground that..."

Read more HERE.

Photo Credits: AP Photo/Lewiston Tribune, Lewiston Tribune

Hit Up a Few Lakewood Parks

Started off the morning quite abruptly with an early wake up and getting the smoker ready for the two pounds brisket I had marinating all night. Come to find out, not enough coals, so had to make a quick run to the store to grab some more with just an hour left before Troy was meeting me at the house.

With the meat smoking, we grabbed some joe and headed out to our first haunt of the day, Morse Park off of 20th in Lakewood, CO. The hunt started off quite promising, I was up over a dollar within the first 30 feet of my starting point landing two, two stacked penny hits as well as a $0.45 spill consisting of one nickel and four dimes.

The park was plenty busy with a few dozen people playing tennis, part of some club I'd assume.My last dig of the park was a neat little FILA Pisces pendant and ended up with $1.68 across 44 coins.

Stop number two was O'Kane park off of 1st St. in Lakewood. This park is really big. It had two huge sports field that you'd think would be ripe for the picking. Sadly, the pickins' were slim here, but I did manage 3 recently dropped RTD tokens along with $0.89 over 14 coins.

The last stop was a small out of the way park in Lakewood off of Garrison called Holbrook Park. This park had a lot of odd-shaped area to cover. We started on the far end of the park near some old looking trees, but we really fell short on the finds here. My first decent signal ended up being this Armitron All Sport watch, probably a couple years old since it doesn't match any of the newer models.

Troy was having some issues with falsing and possibly some EMI, and after I had dug $1.02 over 6 coins, one dig being a double-quarter spill, we packed it up for the day and headed home.

Finished the day with some awesome brisket, baked beans, mashed potatoes, and the 2011 NFL Draft. I'll leave you with a pic of the days haul, including Troy's take.

The following is a cool find Troy had of what appeard to be a little stamped piece of aluminum with Arabic script on it. I could only read the numbers, which read 1213, and converted come out to about 1798/9. A member of FMDF came back to say that the writing appears to say "Minted in Misr (which is Egypt) 1213 (this is the AH year)" and that it's a "It's a copy of an Ottoman empire coin. Most of my Ottoman coins are bronzes, I think that the Misr mint would have been easier for the copier to make than the Constantinople mint"

94 yr old XLT User

Great pic and cool article from The Blue Mountain Eagle of John Day, OR...

"Stan Beck, of John Day, shows off about $460 worth of coins he's unearthed over the past few years with the help of his metal detector. According to his neighbor, Karen Chadwick, Beck, who turns 94 in May, gleaned the 'treasure' at such places as the Grant Union High School field, Seventh Street Complex and the fairgrounds, after ball games and other events."

Evidence Recovery, FAIL!

I posted this on FMDF and got some great responses.

This image comes from a article in an online Bermuda news source and depicts what appears to be a Policewoman searching for evidence after a recent gang incident.

You should notice quite a few thigns wrong with her technique, and even the setup of her machine:

1) Coil is on backwards
2) Coil cord is just hanging loose, who doesnt wrap those things?

What else can you see that just doesn't seem right? See the full image by clicking on it.

Filey Beach UK Grenade

"A WORLD War II hand grenade has been removed from a North Yorkshire beach, allowing holidaymakers to resume their Bank Holiday activities.

The south side of Filey beach was cordoned off and evacuated after the unexploded weapon from was found near Royal Parade at about 11am.

It was unearthed by a member of the public using a metal detector."

Read more HERE.

CT Lake Digging

"Tim Kelly and Steve Varga stalk along the beach abutting Fairfield’s Lake Mohegan accompanied by a string of beeps and buzzes. Suddenly, the sounds at Kelly’s feet intensify, and the two painters hit the ground and begin scooping up spadefuls of sand. They dig about eight inches when they hit the cause of their metal detector’s alarm — a small rock.

'You have to have patience,' Varga says. 'A lot of people that buy this equipment end up putting them in the closet because they didn’t find that gold ring they thought they were going to find on the beach.'"

Read more HERE.

Image Credits: Greg Canuel

Cali Treasure Seeker

"Ten thousand times every year, Dwight Reed drops to his knees when the hum in his headphones hits a certain pitch, carves up a divot of earth with a hand spade and coaxes something metal out of the soil.

It might be a diamond ring, but usually it's a penny or a bottle cap.

Either way, Reed is perfectly content: Metal detecting, for this long-time Vista resident, is retirement."

Read more HERE.

Image Credits: Tom Pfingsten / North County Times

William Clark Canoe Camp

"River crossings and lousy weather didn’t dampen the spirits of an intrepid corps of Montana State University Billings students searching for traces of William Clark along the Yellowstone River.

The students in history professor Tom Rust’s Historical Archaeology in the Americas class have been hunting for the camp where Clark and his band of explorers stopped for five nights in July 1806 to make canoes from lofty cottonwood trees along the banks.

On a recent wet, chilly day, seven students and Rust crossed a short stretch of the Yellowstone to a privately owned island in search of Clark’s canoe camp."

Read more HERE.

Image Credits: David Grubbs / Billings Gazette

AU Gold Region Still Producing

"As the wet season ends gold prospectors will return to Charters Towers. A hundred and forty years after gold was first found in the region you can still strike it lucky thanks to modern technology.

Anyone with a metal detector can still find gold around Charters Towers.

But it may take a while.

That's according to Tom Lawn who has been prospecting in the region for more than 50 years. "

Read more HERE.

Image Credits: Nathalie Fernbach

Decades Old Class Ring Returned

Check out the above video from FOX43... a nice feel good story about a fellow hobbyist finding and returning a class ring from a park.

"A York County man makes quite the find with his metal detector. Larry Daigle was scanning around a tree at an Emigsville park when he struck gold, literally.

'I came out with a big pile of mud, but it was in a clump, a circle, so I knew whatever it was it was round, I said there is a good chance it is a ring,' said Daigle.

It was a ring, a class ring. It was buried about 10 inches in the dirt, under a tree root. Daigle took his finding and cleaned it up. He quickly realized it belonged to a 1993 Northeastern High School graduate. After a little digging at the school, Daigle tracked down the owner, Jerome Weigel."

Read more HERE.

More UK Treasure Tension

"When friends Michael Darke and Keith Lewis unearthed a hoard of Iron Age gold coins, it should have been one of the greatest moments of their lives.

But the pair are no longer on speaking terms following a dispute over how the £300,000 spoils of the so-called Dallinghoo Gold should be shared.

The 840 pieces, which date back to the first century BC, are one of the most significant archaeological discoveries of their kind for 150 years."

Read more HERE.

Image Credits: Albanpix

Kansas Trip - Diggin' It With Friends

Day 1: The Drive (04/08/2011)

Picked up Brea's G'ma and was on the road by about 830a. About three hours later we had made our first stop in Goodland, KS to drop G'ma off and ate a delicious Fried Chicken Buffet at Hank's Cafe.

After lunch we were back on the road and made it to the Cedar Court Motel there in Clay Center, KS just before 5p. After unloading the truck we walked out over by the pool for a brief meet and greet with the handful of folks who had shown up already (Harold, Dave, Rhonda, Vlad, Carol, Bob, Jason). Dave and Harold answered my call on FMDF for a few of the remaining slots I had open ion my 50 State Quarter book... it's now finished, thanks guys.

Most of the group headed over to El Puerto, the Mexican restaurant. Me and Brea where still full from the trip, but did take a ride over to grab some alcohol for the next two nights. Around 9 we finally migrated to El Puerto, and though the food wasn't bad, we were totally disappointed that there were NO MARGARITAS!!!???

Day 2: The Hunt (04/09/2011)

Started the day off by meeting everyone up at Huntress Park by 8a. We spent the next four hours or so scouring the park (which had obviously been hit before).

The day was spent digging pull tab after pull tab for me, resulting in $1.58 in clad over 36 coins and not much else in the way of goodies.

But a few folks were able to grab an Indian Head penny or two and even a Mercury dime while two other hunters landed a gold plated ring and a delicate necklace.

Around noon it was time to head on over to Utility Park where we had our lunch planned. On the way over, Brea and I stopped by the Clay Center town square and took a few pics of their old courthouse and a neat pic of the marker for a time capsule.

Over at the park everyone gathered up as the food was cooked and set out. It was a great little feast full of burgers, dogs, ziti, 7 layer dip, potato salad and loads of cake. After the eating, it was time to dish out the goods. Raffle tickets were sold for a chance to win a Minelab Explorer SE Pro donated by New England Detectors with all the ticket proceeds benefiting Brian Duvall's Clad 4 Kids Charity.

There were a few other prizes handed out (all of which were generously donated by New England Detectors) for categories such as "Oldest Coin", "Best Jewelry", "Silver Coin", "Weirdest Object". I ended up bringing home prizes for "Most Pull-Tabs" with a winning total of 31 for the morning, and also for "Farthest Drive" which we trumped the 2nd place people by almost 150 miles... as Denver was a good 455 mile drive. One of the prizes, an 1864 2 Cent donated by Harold was the 3rd of it's kind now in my collection.

After all of that was said and done, most of the group followed Dave up a farm field he had gotten permission to hunt (Pictures HERE). In the meantime, since Brea and I had a dinner appointment with my cousins John and Susan later on in Salina, we opted out and visited the small, dilapidated Clay Center Zoo. The animals all looked miserable and the larger ones, like the bear and wolves just did not have the space to do much more than pace back and forth.

That evening after dinner at Logan's in Salina with my cousin John, whom I hadn't seen since around October 2003 when we were both in Scania CSC in Iraq, and then my cousin Susan of which this was our first time meeting each other... ever... but anyhow, right, so on the way back, around 8p and just turning on to Route 24, I was pulled over by a Sheriff. HE said I was doing a 51 in a 35 and a construction zone. He didn't give me a ticket, but I swore the only posted speed was 65 MPH. Sure enough, the next morning on the way out... there was no 35 MPH zone posted on my side... so WTF!?

Day 3: Back to The Farm (04/10/2011)

We said a few goodbyes and left the Cedar Court Motel around 11a. Having seen a wind-farm that stretched for miles, we decided to see how far it really went... turned out to be 15 miles along the interstate... that's a lot of real estate.

Our first stop on the way back to the farm in Goodland was one of The 8 Wonders of Kansas... the St. Fidelis Church, better known as "The Cathedral of The Plains" in Victoria, KS (a fun fact about Victoria.. the first Black Angus steer in the US were raised here).

Wanting to add to our pressed penny collection, our last stop before the farm was at the Oasis Travel Center in Colby, KS where we picked up our lovely "Kansas Oil" pressed penny.

Day 4: The Hunt Continues (04/11/2011)

Started the morning with some delicious homemade biscuits and gravy just before we were out the door and headed out to "The Smoky Gardens", otherwise known as Soldier's Memorial Park. This park has been here and been in use since at least when Brea's G'ma was a child, so we thought it might be a good place to metal detect. We didn't leave with too much, and with all the trash it just ended up a big disappointment. Even the water that was once here was dried up, but the bed was so littered with trashed, finding anything good would have been a yearlong chore.

We drove back to the farm and I got to thinking, I'm gonna boost my pre-amp gain on my XLT up to 4 and see what happens. So I started hunting around the old farm house (which used to be a one room schoolhouse way back in the day) and started consistently pulling clad around the 6" mark. Sadly, I was getting any deeper. I ended the day with a multitude of finds, and the oldest coin being a '52 wheat.

Day 5: On The Road Again (04/12/2011)

We were to leave and head back to Denver by noon, and we were right on time... but not before we stopped by Main St. in town and picked up an antique 1919 C19 Edison Disc Phonograph. Why? Well because we could I guess, and it was free.

Our only stop on the way home was in Genoa, CO to check out "The Wonder Tower". This place is just wierd. The guy who runs the place is an eccentric old fellow and he has SO MUCH STUFF. It's definitely worth checking out and paying the $1 to climb the tower for the view.

So that was the Kansas trip. Hope you enjoyed the read and pictures.