CampSite Artifacts  ·

   10-15-06   Well, Shoot !  Last weekend's hunt was a bust for Jack and I . We went to a familiar area, seeking a new site, but were unable to locate it. At day's end, we fell back on an old hard hunted place that barely gave us enough to say we weren't entirely skunked ! No other locals that we know of, dug much either, but I wanted to post something here for folks to enjoy.  So, I am falling back again, to an old story. Last season, Jack and I were seeking to dig a few bullets close to home. Hit a couple of spots, one old mill, one prospect of a camp, and found no landowner's home. Spent a large part of our afternoon in the process, and ended up digging at a hammered camp near the house. And, I do mean hammered. This site near a well known battlefield, has been hunted since the 1960s, according to the landowner. Anyway, as dusk neared, and we were without relics yet, we decided to follow a barbed wire fenceline, and scan as close to it as we could. It worked for a knapsack hook, a bullet, and then just as we neared the metal panel gate, Jack dug the wreath to the buckle below ! Wow, what an eye opener for such a site. He asked me to help in case the other half was still there, and in about 5 minutes, I had the tongue. The only way we can figure that this plate lasted all the years of detecting, is the proximity of the fenceline and panel gate. The gate was where everyone enters the property, and I guess for years we were all walking over the two halves, tuning up and getting ready to hit the fields and woods !!  This is what the plate looked like "Just Out Of The Ground", and back together again for the first time in almost 145 years.  Later, it would get a gentle rinsing in tap water.

  9-27-06     Well, we've had good rain, but the foilage is still a bit tall.  But all that thunder and lightning makes you want to get out, if even for only a few minutes. Doug Dorothy hit a spot near his home recently and pulled up a few nice bullets, and what we think is a piece of large harmonica. Jack and I did about the same in a hard hunted old camp. He dug a nice brass sword hanger and lead disc, while I found the side plate from a M-1816 musket and 1 dropped .58 three ringer. Certainly not much for any of us, but it was good to get out and pull a few Civil War Relics out of the ground.   UPDATE -  Thanks to Mr. Jim Layes, we now know that the reed type object that Doug found is actually from a Bandoneon, a type of squeezebox, and not a harmonica. Thanks Jim !

    Wow, Mr. Doug Dorothy got out Labor Day weekend, and had some luck digging.  I have hunted with Doug a few times, and it was always fun, but I hate wearing that blindfold on the drive to the site !  Don't know where he was this time, but looks like either a Union Veterans homesite, or a homesite that was used during and after the war. Doug found a super condition, Union eagle -I- button, that looks like it's gonna clean up and have 80-90% gold gilt  ! In the process of course, being a house site, he found several of those pesky post war round things with dates on them. I always throw them back, but Doug likes to keep everything. Since he's so particular, I added a photo of them too, just under the BEAUTIFUL Eagle button.                                                    Congratulations Doug !

    August 27th,  Sunday afternoon  -  We finally got some rain in NW Arkansas, and my digging partner, Jack Ferguson and I got out to see if our metal detectors still work. His does . It rained off and on part of the day, we got muddy, went to hunt the woods, and stuck around the site of a structure that was burnt in 1864. I found a musket ball, a buckshot, and then got sidetracked digging really nice, almost rustless square nails of all sizes near the former structure. Jack stayed focused on high-grading, and right at quiting time, it paid off GREAT !  I got a large nail collection and Jack got this really, really, superb bullet ! Confederate as it gets !  A dropped .69 caliber Gardner Bullet !  I don't need anymore nails, so next time I'm high grading too !   

                                               Congratulations Pard !