Something New

OK, so this isn’t THAT new but it’s new to me and hopefully to some of our readers.

I’ve been doing some research lately on detectors searching for one with a specific use in mind. During my research I came across this little jewel that looks like it would be a good thing for the coin shooters and relic hunters and those of us that need to pinpoint something at a fairly good depth.

The machine I am talking about is the Detector Pro Pistol Probe. I have not personally used one of these yet but the reviews have been good enough that I thought I would pass the information along.

The Pistol Probe is a miniature pulse induction unit designed specifically for pinpointing small targets at maximum depth. The unit is about 14 inches long with a barrel length of six and one half inches. The probe will pick up a coin in the ground at a depth of 5-6 inches. This is great compared to the other probes on the market the generally only get about two inches of depth.
The unit runs on two nine volt batteries and has audio and visual cues. If you are hunting somewhere where you don’t want any noise heard you can turn off the sound and just use the L.E.D. lights on the unit to determine the location of your target.

The Pistol Probe retails for about $180.00 and comes with a two year warranty and it’s own holster to wear on your belt.

The unit has only three knobs and one button. The first is a power knob to change the pitch or go to a silent search mode with lights instead of sound. The second is a frequency control knob to help overcome any interference that might crop up and the third is a threshold control to tune & adjust the sensitivity level on the probe. These three knobs are behind a closed door on the top of the unit.

The button is a momentary on/off switch so that you can turn the machine on and set it the way you want it and then when you are ready to actually use it you just push the momentary on/off button and wave the unit around. The L.E.D.s are on top of the unit for easy viewing.
If you think this might be the thing for you then you should check them out at Detector Pro’s website: http://www.detectorpro.com/pistolprobe.htm

Here is a link to a youtube video that was made about the unit. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rEffmfzN8pc&feature=player_embedded

This is about a ten minute video so make sure you have some time to sit and watch. I don’t want this article to sound like an advertisement for the Pistol Probe but this is something a little different from the regular probes since it is a pulse unit so I thought I would make our readers aware of it’s existence just in case someone might be interested.

The Emerald Boulder

Are you tired of hunting for all of that Spanish gold and silver? Maybe you are bored with the picturesque markers and clues they left behind. If so, you might try your hand at some frog treasure, French that is.

I have one more for you in Arkansas, just because I can. This one is a rumor that has been floating around since the 1700’s. It is said that the French officer, explorer and trader, Jean-Baptiste Bénard de La Harpe, the man who discovered the present day site of Little Rock, Arkansas was actually searching for a large emerald encrusted boulder when he staked his claim for the Frogs on Arkansas.

La Harpe definitely got around and did his share of exploring and trading. He is known to have been in Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana during his explorations. In 1722 La Harpe left Louisiana on an expedition on the Red River. This trip took him into present day Arkansas and to the Arkansas River where he discovered “a short range of three steep hills, the first outcropping of rock the party had encountered since entering the Arkansas River. The outcropping was on the right bank of the river, ascending about 160 feet high (fifty meters) and veined with a very hard, marble-like stone; La Harpe also described a large waterfall and several fine slate quarries nearby. According to his journal, he named this point “Le Rocher Français” (“French Rock”) and took possession of it on April 9 by carving the coat of arms of the French king on a tree trunk on its summit.”

Now I’ve been to Arkansas in the summer and I just about got eaten alive by the June bug sized horse flies. As far as I’m concerned the frogs could have kept Arkansas and the horse flies but as the frogs would say, C’est la vie or, such is life.

Anyway, according to the story La Harpe was actually looking for a gigantic (something just a little smaller than gi-normous) boulder encrusted with emeralds. According to the legend, La Harpe had heard about the boulder from the local Indians and spent many months looking for it along the Arkansas River.

Much to his dismay, he never found the emerald encrusted boulder and in later years even denied looking for it. Does such a boulder exist? It could, there is almost always a little bit of truth in every legend.

Maybe it wouldn’t hurt to take a stroll along the river outside of Little Rock, preferably during the winter when the horse flies are gone!

Hernando de Soto

Are you looking for a treasure to find? Would you be happy with some Spanish gold? Do you live in Arkansas? Well if you do, you may want to do a little searching for a sealed up cave said to hold the gold, silver and jewels that De Soto had with him when he passed through the area.

In the 1500’s Hernando de Soto and six hundred men traveled into the area that is now Arkansas during an exploration of the “New World”. With them they carried gold and silver and jewels that they had found and/or pilfered along the way.

They had been suffering losses due to hostile Indians (image that) and illness of the men so when they reached Brushy Creek just south of present day Berryville they decided to hide their heavy cargo and return for it at a later date. That’s right, they supposedly never returned to retrieve their treasure.

This is about all of the information I have on this one, Spanish treasure, sealed cave near a creek and just south of Berryville, Arkansas. If it helps in your research any, De Soto died in Arkansas in 1542. The information indicates he died on the banks of the Mississippi River at the present day location of Lake Village, Arkansas.

I guess it would be hard to return for your treasure if you didn’t live to make the return trip. This could be a pretty good lead to check out.

Treasure Hunter Get Together

Folks it's the time of the year again that we start planning our annual get together. This years event will be held in Cement Oklahoma at the Jesse James Museum. The month of June is what we are shooting for but we need suggestions for dates that will fit the majority of your schedules. Please e-mail dates and suggestions to me at okietreasurehunter@msn.com. There will be new items of interest for our show and tell and if it works out we may even get the chance to visit a treasure site or two.

Arkansas Outlaw Loot

For those of you living in Arkansas who find yourself bored with no where to go, you might want to do a little research on a place called Big Rock, about eight miles east of Little Rock.

According to legend and the newspapers Big Rock was supposed to be the major hub of activity for outlaws in that area during the 1880‘s. It is said that several outlaw groups used the area around Big Rock as their “base of operations” and that several caches of loot were planted there.

The stories would seem to hold true since there have already been a few small caches recovered in the area around Big Rock with rumors of many more still in the ground just waiting for someone who knows how to use a detector to come along and dig them up.

This is all of the information on this spot that I have. I didn’t have time to do a lot of research on this one because as you know, I’m doing a little hunting myself before the weather gets to be 100 frickin’ degrees. And the way it's going that may be next week!

I might take this chance to remind everyone to be ever vigilant for snakes and ticks when you are hunting now. Being bitten by a poisonous snake can put a real damper on your day and having lyme disease for a few months won’t be too much fun either.

Stay safe and hunt smart!

Arizona Gold Nuggets

I apologize for the delay in getting a new post up. I have been in the field treasure hunting and just haven't had the time. I will try to manage my time better in the future, unless of course one of the trails I am following breaks open and then I may fall behind again.

This story comes from our good friend Homer who seems to be watching out for me.

Many years ago an epidemic of cholera struck Caborca, Sonora, Mexico leaving homeless a young Mexican girl and a Papago Indian boy.

Neither having any relatives to care for them, the boy suggested to the girl that she go with him to Gila City, Arizona (Now only a site on the Gila River about 24 miles West of Yuma) where he had some distant relatives they could live with.

She agreed to accompany him and they traveled across the waterless stretches of the Camino del Diablo, that awesome stretch of desert country that has claimed so many lives.

Along the way, the girl suffered so many hardships that she came to a point where she could no longer go on. The young Papago boy found a shady spot for her and instructed her to remain there until he had returned with water.

In the nearby Cabeza Prieta Mountains the boy found a tank (a natural depression in rock where rainwater is held until it evaporates) and he managed to take some of it to the suffering girl.

When she was able to travel again, they made their way to the tank which is now known as Tule Tank (not to be confused with Tule Well which is to the East in the same general area.) Here the couple rested until the girl had regained her strength.

When they were ready to leave the boy led the girl up an arroyo and on the top of a granite mesa they looked down into a draw on the opposite side. In the clear water of a small stream they could see a layer of gold nuggets, much as if the stream had been paved with them.

Picking their way down to the waters edge, the girl gathered some of the nuggets and tied them in her rebozo. They then proceeded on their journey, eventually arriving in Gila City where both were taken in by the boy’s people.

One day, the girl happened to show the gold nuggets to a man named George Whistler and of course he wanted to know where they had come from, but the girl would not tell. They became friendly and were later married, but still the orphan kept the secret of the gold nuggets to herself.

Eventually the Whistler family had two boys and they moved to Burk’s Station where Whistler was killed by a Mexican named Nunez. A party of Mexicans were sent out to capture the fleeing Nunez and they finally caught him in the Cabeza Priea Mountain and he was taken to Agua Caliente and hanged.

After the death of her husband, Whistler’s wife revealed to her sons that she had never told him where the stream bed of gold nuggets was because she was afraid he might have only married her to obtain their location.

Now she told the boys and along with Thomas Childs, they went in search of the treasure. They never could find the stream, though they found the tank and what they believed to be the mesa. the stream had either dried up or been diverted from its source and the gold nuggets probably remain there in this very inhospitable region to this very day.

(from the memory of Thomas Childs Jr, Pioneer Historical Society of Tuscon, Az)

The Boy Scout Motto

For those of you that were never Boy Scouts or that may have been living in a cave for most of your life, the motto is Be Prepared.

You can consider this the annual “lets be safe out there” article. For those of you that have been reading the blog for a while this may be a little boring but we are continually getting new folks as readers so I like to repeat myself on occasion. And let’s face it, we all get a little complacent at times in what we do.

Spring has sprung and for some of us the temperatures have already been in the 90’s. This means that you will be consuming more liquids as you hike and you may run into some nasty little things like snakes and bugs that can be detrimental to your health.

I know that I have been guilty of not taking my gear with me on what is supposed to be a short walk from time to time, thinking I won’t be that far away and if I need something I can always come back for it. Well, if any of you are like me, you almost always have to come back for something or wish that you had or that short walk turns into a hike and then you don’t have your gear.

I almost always have my obligatory 30 pound pack with me but I occasionally leave my camera behind. Why thirty pounds worth of stuff? Some would say I’m just a glutton for punishment but I would said I’m just a little anal about being prepared. I was an Eagle Scout after all!

What should you have with you on your treasure hunts? That will depend on where you are hunting, the type of terrain, the weather, etc. There are many variables about the type of things you should have but in my opinion you should always have enough liquids to get you twice as far as you expect to be. This would include plenty of water and a back up bottle of Gatorade. Gatorade is almost a must if you are hunting in the heat. It will do a lot more for you than just plain water.

I know a lot of you will say you can go without water for a while but why? I know it can be a pain in the ass to carry your backpack with you if you think you are just going to be gone a short time but you never know what might happen or what you might find that will keep you out longer than you expect. Seasoned hunters are almost as guilty of this as the newbies. Just last year I went on a short hike with a friend of mine the day before the annual treasure hunters get together and although he was giving me a hard time about not taking my camera he only had one small bottle of water with him. That’s it, nothing else.

So here it was June, about 90 degrees outside with about 75% humidity and we were walking in the mountains. Needless to say, I had to keep filling his water bottle up from my camel back just so I wouldn’t have to carry him out of the mountains. OK, it wasn’t quite that bad, I guess I could have dragged him instead of carrying him but the point is, you need to be prepared for more than just what you expect.

Along with plenty of liquids I would suggest having a small first aid kit, an emergency blanket, a knife, some matches or other fire starting equipment, a flashlight, preferably with some spare batteries and a pair of leather gloves.

This is of course on top of what I would consider as standard equipment such as a GPS, a compass, cell phone, two way radio and a sidearm with spare ammo.

See, I am just a little anal!

I can’t begin to break down every little thing that you might need because that changes from location to location but I would implore our readers to take some time and consider where you are hunting and the dangers that may be involved and plan accordingly. Take the time to sit down and make a list of what you will need and what you might need and then figure out a way to put it into a package that can be carried by one person comfortably.

It’s always nice to hunt with a partner so someone can be there to go get help if necessary or just to laugh at you when something stupid happens. You should also always let someone know where you are going to be and when you will be back, just in case. It never hurts to Be Prepared you know!

Let’s be careful out there!