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

Fort Lincoln - Larkspur, CO

From the Denver Daily

"Recently the Jellystone Park Camp-Resort in Larkspur uncovered a historic fort on its ground, Fort Lincoln, also known as the People's Fort. Fort Lincoln was built in response to the Sand Creek Massacre on Nov. 29, 1864. Jellystone Park owner Ian Steyn along with a team of archaeologists, surveryors, metal detector professionals, members of the Colorado Historical Society and the community will come together at 9:30 a.m. April 2, 2011 at the campground to continue their work in uncovering the fort and formally reporting the findings. Steyn plans to rebuild and recreate the fort to provide the community with an important part of Colorado's history."

"Daniel C. Oakes builds Fort Lincoln (People’s Fort) for the protection of settlers from Indian uprisings. 30 families lived there 6 months."

Image above actually of Fort Collins.

Boulder Hunt With Troy

This morning I met up with my new huntin' buddy Troy (Digger Magoo on FMDF) at 7am in the Coors brewery Factory Tour parking lot at the corner of 13th & Ford in Downtown Golden. We loaded up in my truck and hit 93 up to Boulder.

Just getting into town, turning left on Baseline, and a few blocks down on the left was our first destination, Chautauqua Park. It's nestled right at the base of an outcropping of flatirons that just make for the best scenery one could ask for. It didn't take long to gear up and begin our conquest of the parks green.

The main area we hit was the large Chautauqua Green. It's surrounded by large trees and has a few large rocks where one can imagine people have sit under or on for decades. And it just so happens that Troy scored two silver rings in exactly those type of spots. In the top/down image below, the yellow dots mark the two areas the rings where found. One ring appeared to be a small, silver and turquoise ring, the other, a thick silver band with a typical Colorado Native American motif.

We stumbled around for a bit after hitting around the green, making our way up towards the auditorium. We then headed back towards the truck, hitting up the middle of the green before retiring for some pictures and a lunch of Taco Bell. We should have done our homework beforehand though, because up by that auditorium is where the older stuff probably was, being as the building has been there since 1898.

After lunch, we rolled on over to Scott Carpenter Park. This place is pretty interesting, in the fact that prior to 1955, it was a dump. They filled it with dirt, planted grass, and now it's a nice large park for the masses right up next to Boulder Creek.

I was pretty skeptical about this site. Just a few inches down is layers of trash, so who knew what we might find. But it turned out to be another great location. We hunted all over from the baseball field to the creek, and between the two of us landed lots of clad. The only place there I regret not hitting up was the tot lot. It looks really busy, as it was on this day, and I'm sure there's a few bucks in clad floating around in there.

A few neat instances occurred at this park. The first being a sweet 5 quarter pocket spill Troy landed in the grass on the backside of the tot lot. He said it rang up as a +90 on his M6, and his first plug produced two quarters stacked on top. He put his pinpointer back in the plug and it kept ringing... landing him 3 more. Not long after, in the huge field in front of the mound, he scores a 1980 SBA dollar, a really cool find. And on my last dig for the day, I hit a solid +88 on my XLT and pulled out a plug with two stacked quarters (one was a 1976 Bicentennial), but my pinpointer hinted towards more. Ended up with another nickel, dime and two pennies in the hole. At this point while I was digging, Troy was walking over with a large silver bracelet in his hand he had just found inscribed with "Movement With Meaning", which turns out to be a multi-sensory program for Alzheimer's patients.

And my one cool find of the day was a neat City of Boulder "Voice & Site" Tag Program dog tag. These little green tags are for dogs to wear when they have proven their ability to be walked and controlled by Voice & Sight and do not require a leash. How proactive of the city.

After the park, and with the impending doom of rain and thunder presiding over the flatirons, we headed back to Golden and stopped at the small Vanaover Park right off of Clear Creek. Neither of us landed much coinage here, myself only getting a quarter, but we were able to get this really cool picture taken in front of this massive tree cross-section.

It was a really nice day to get out, enjoy the air and view, and bring home a few bucks. Below are some pics of our final counts, 201 coins @ $18.06

CO Trip, Books + Tokens

I spent the past week in Colorado visiting a friend and experiencing some of the state. It has 10+ years since I remember traveling through and seeing my Great Aunt who lived in Colorado Springs, so it was nice to return. I wasn't prepared for the cold, and witnessed the first snow of the year in Golden.

I had high hopes of going to see the Rockies in the playoffs against the Phillies, or even the Broncos hosting the Patriots, but both fell through. But I had many other adventures on the trip so it was all good. Below are images of said adventures. As far as nature goes, I made it out to Red Rocks, and also Estes Park, which is an entrance to the Rocky Mountain National Park. Estes Park is also where the hotel from the movie, The Shining is located. I also HAD to visit Casa Bonita, a huge, themed Mexican restaurant that I first heard of from watching South Park, and couldn't believe it was real. I saved a token from here.

On my last full day there I made it out to Gold-N-Detectors, a sweet prospecting and MD shop in downtown Golden that is a must visit if you are ever in the area. It's run by a fun gentleman by the name of Bill. He has all sorts of cache finds displayed, and many machines to play around with in the store, or across the street at Cleer Creek History Park. Bill gave me a token on my way out after purchasing two books for my XLT.

Enjoy the pics!