In my last article I briefly touched on the different types of detectors available to today’s treasure hunters. And yes, even though I’m sure some of you thought the article was a little long winded, I really only scratched the surface of what is out there.
So you’ve read the previous article, done a lot of your own research and then shelled out your hard earned cash for a detector, what do you do now? No matter if this is your very first detector or number twelve, you should practice, practice, practice! I can’t say that enough. Every detector is a little different even if it is from the same manufacturer. You need to learn the specific nuances of each detector you use. Not knowing how to use the detector to it’s full potential EVERY time you turn it on could literally cost you the find of a lifetime.
I have found the best way to practice is with your own “test garden”. It’s easy to do and will make a lot of difference when you practice. You simply need to find a place in your yard where you can bury different objects at different depths. Your biggest problem here is what your wife will think about you digging holes and burying things in the yard. I know ladies, there are women treasure hunters but let’s face it, we’re men, we don’t usually care if you are digging holes in the yard as long as we don’t have to dig them.
I keep several different coins buried at several different depths along with mason jar lids, a mason jar full of coins, a couple of different iron pots, one copper pot and some other iron objects like railroad spikes, horseshoes and an old knife. I also have a separate “trash” section for things like barbed wire, pull tabs, aluminum cans, etc.
Knowing what is buried at a certain depth allows me to know how each detector will react with each target and under different circumstances. A detector will work better, meaning finding deeper targets, if there is a little moisture in the soil, not soaking wet, just a little moisture. It will also react differently in topsoil, sand, clay and rock, etc. Having a little bit of each type of soil and a few rocks to detect over is a good thing.
What you bury and how deep you bury it falls into the same circumstance as which detector you choose. It will all depend on how you intend to use your detector. If you’re a coin shooter then you don’t need iron or copper pots or railroad spikes, etc. If you are a relic hunter you may not care about how deep the detector gets on coins because you know that what you are looking for could be deeper than the average coin anyway.
This treasure hunting stuff is starting to sound like a lot of work, huh?
It is work but if you get bitten by the bug then there’s nothing else like it and it won’t seem like work. If you are just a one day a month coin shooter then having a test garden could be a little bit of overkill. As a cache hunter I like to know how my detectors will react to different objects at different depths and in different types of moisture content.
OK, you have practiced, practiced and practiced so more and are ready to work a site. The first thing you need to do once you are at your site is to be logical about where you look. If you are coin shooting you need to be looking in the areas where there will probably be coins. If it’s an old homestead you work along the pathways where they walked, you look under the big old trees where people use to sit in the shade, you check under where the clothes line used to be (this is a great spot and has yielded me several silver coins, much to the dismay of my hunting partners) and you look anywhere else that would have had foot traffic where people could have dropped coins from their pockets.
If you are looking for the possible money stash of the home owner then you need to be looking where the gardens used to be or near or under a fence post. These types of caches usually were put within site of the home so the owner could keep an eye on the spot.
If you are cache hunting, like those left behind by outlaws or the Spanish then you will need more to go on and that’s where research comes in.
Once you start detecting and finding things the most important thing to remember is to ALWAYS check the hole again. Once you pull that coin or jar of coins out of the hole run your detector over it again to make sure there isn’t anything else below what you just took out. A lot of people forget this thinking, well, I found a coin, I will fill in the hole and move on. This can be a very big mistake! I think my record for coins in one hole is 13. You couldn’t see any of them but I just kept hitting the hole with the detector and kept getting readings. This is not a rare occurence. OK, maybe 13 coins in one hole is but finding a second or third coin happens all of the time and I can tell you that finding a jar of coins or an iron pot can definitely lead to finding a second one 6-12 inches deeper in the same hole.
Always check the hole before you fill it in!
Two more quick things. Headphones, do you or don’t you wear them? The idea behind wearing headphones is that you can hear the really faint signals and you won’t miss that one object you might really need to find. Personally, I like to hear what’s going on around me so if I do wear headphones (which is a rare occasion) then I only wear them on one ear. The only other reason to wear headphones is to keep anyone else from hearing your detector and maybe to keep your ears warm during the winter!
The other thing is batteries. The manufactures say you should remove the batteries from your detector if it is going to sit for any extended period unused. This is a very good suggestion and well worth heeding. The first time you have some batteries leak inside a compartment you will wish you paid attention.
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Sunday, April 24, 2011
Treasure Hunting 101, Part 1, Detectors
The blog has grown tremendously over the last year to the point that we have people from several different nations reading it. I know we have a lot of seasoned treasure hunters that visit this site but we are also starting to get a lot of “newbies” to the hobby looking for information.
Because of that we will be posting some different articles to try to help the new and the old with navigating their way through this great hobby of ours.
Part I of this article is about metal detectors. There are just about as many different metal detectors as there are treasures and sometimes it hard to choose what detector is the right one for you.
To decide what kind of detector you need (and there is a difference between what you need and what you want) you need to decide what type of treasure hunting you will be doing.
If the majority of your treasure hunting is going to consist of coin shooting then you have a myriad of detectors to choose from and several companies that make them. The most prominent brand names for these detectors would be Whites, Garrett, Tesoro, Fisher, Minelab and Bounty Hunter. There are others out there but these are the main names that come to mind to most treasure hunters.
The majority of these detectors all work on the same principal and it’s not until you get into the higher end detectors or ones with manual tuning that you will see any real difference in the amount of depth they get.
For coin shooting you can buy some pretty complicated machines with lots of bells and whistles or you can get pretty “plain Jane”. I personally tend to lean towards Tesoro and Garrett for my coin shooters although Whites makes some very nice machines. If I’m feeling particularly lazy I will opt for one of my Garretts just because I can set it on auto and go. I don’t have to worry about messing with the ground balance because their auto setting does a pretty good job. With that said, any of the companies I mentioned produce some really nice machines. I’m not real big on the Bounty Hunter detectors but that’s just me.
If you like to do your coin shooting underwater then you options get more limited and you will switch from a VLF machine to a pulse induction machine. You will also pay a LOT more for an underwater machine but if you have to have it, you have to have it. Again, there are several companies that make the underwater machines and for the most part, it will boil down to your personal preference and budget on which you choose.
If you are a relic or cache hunter then you will be wanting a machine that has all of the manual settings on it so that you can get the best depth possible in any condition. I am partial to the Tesoros for this type of hunting. They get great depth, are very light and easy to use.
If you cache hunt more than relic hunt then you will be looking at purchasing more than one detector and getting a more specialized version for your needs. One of these versions is called a two-box. This term refers to a “box” being at each end of the detector and you will hole it so it is horizontal to the ground. These days there really isn’t a box at each end on most models. They have switched those to metal loops. The one glaring exception would be the two box detector by Fisher. It actually has a box at each end.
Now here’s a warning for all prospective buyers of metal detectors. If you are wanting something that looks deep into the ground, say more than 3-4 feet then buyer beware. In my opinion, the ads that most companies use are really generous with the amount of depth their detectors will get. Most of the “tests” used to measure this depth are open air tests. This means they stand on a ladder and go up until they no longer get a reading from a car battery sized metal object. This works great if what you are looking for isn’t buried but then you wouldn’t need a metal detector now would you?
A lot of the two-box detectors are said to get 15-20 feet. Good luck with that! You can figure that in any given soil you are going to get four, maybe five feet and even six feet if the conditions are absolutely perfect.
Another type of cache hunting machine is the pulse induction detector. These work on the exact same principal as the underwater PI machines but you can get them with loops as large as four feet. These types of PI detectors can be pricey but they will get you a lot more depth. Something with a four foot loop can easily detect a car battery sized metal object at ten feet or better. I have mentioned this before on this blog but Whites has come out with a new PI machine that works with a smaller loop and has shown very good results for cache and relic hunters.
One of the lesser known detectors for cache hunting isn’t really a detector. The company that makes it refers to it as a metal locator and that’s exactly what it does. The Schondstedt is used by surveyors and pipe companies. It will only locate iron and steel but it’s the best machine out there for finding ferrous metals. It’s small, light and simple to use and it will find a ¾ inch round pipe at a depth of nine feet every day, all day.
Besides the two-box, pulse induction and the Schondstedt you also can choose from several more extremely pricey machines such as ground penetrating radar, cesium magnetometers and electro-magnetic induction tools. You’ll probably have to rob a bank or find a treasure before you can afford one of these so I’m not going to go into a lot of detail about them. I will say that all of these are very specialized machines and require a lot of time using them to accurately interpret the data they present you with.
This is by no means a complete catalog of the different types of detectors out there but it will get you started. It also ends Part I of this article.
Please remember that although we aren’t “experts” (between all of the contributors on this blog we have over 90 years of experience in treasure hunting) we will gladly try to help you with any questions that you may have so please feel free to e-mail us.
Because of that we will be posting some different articles to try to help the new and the old with navigating their way through this great hobby of ours.
Part I of this article is about metal detectors. There are just about as many different metal detectors as there are treasures and sometimes it hard to choose what detector is the right one for you.
To decide what kind of detector you need (and there is a difference between what you need and what you want) you need to decide what type of treasure hunting you will be doing.
If the majority of your treasure hunting is going to consist of coin shooting then you have a myriad of detectors to choose from and several companies that make them. The most prominent brand names for these detectors would be Whites, Garrett, Tesoro, Fisher, Minelab and Bounty Hunter. There are others out there but these are the main names that come to mind to most treasure hunters.
The majority of these detectors all work on the same principal and it’s not until you get into the higher end detectors or ones with manual tuning that you will see any real difference in the amount of depth they get.
For coin shooting you can buy some pretty complicated machines with lots of bells and whistles or you can get pretty “plain Jane”. I personally tend to lean towards Tesoro and Garrett for my coin shooters although Whites makes some very nice machines. If I’m feeling particularly lazy I will opt for one of my Garretts just because I can set it on auto and go. I don’t have to worry about messing with the ground balance because their auto setting does a pretty good job. With that said, any of the companies I mentioned produce some really nice machines. I’m not real big on the Bounty Hunter detectors but that’s just me.
If you like to do your coin shooting underwater then you options get more limited and you will switch from a VLF machine to a pulse induction machine. You will also pay a LOT more for an underwater machine but if you have to have it, you have to have it. Again, there are several companies that make the underwater machines and for the most part, it will boil down to your personal preference and budget on which you choose.
If you are a relic or cache hunter then you will be wanting a machine that has all of the manual settings on it so that you can get the best depth possible in any condition. I am partial to the Tesoros for this type of hunting. They get great depth, are very light and easy to use.
If you cache hunt more than relic hunt then you will be looking at purchasing more than one detector and getting a more specialized version for your needs. One of these versions is called a two-box. This term refers to a “box” being at each end of the detector and you will hole it so it is horizontal to the ground. These days there really isn’t a box at each end on most models. They have switched those to metal loops. The one glaring exception would be the two box detector by Fisher. It actually has a box at each end.
Now here’s a warning for all prospective buyers of metal detectors. If you are wanting something that looks deep into the ground, say more than 3-4 feet then buyer beware. In my opinion, the ads that most companies use are really generous with the amount of depth their detectors will get. Most of the “tests” used to measure this depth are open air tests. This means they stand on a ladder and go up until they no longer get a reading from a car battery sized metal object. This works great if what you are looking for isn’t buried but then you wouldn’t need a metal detector now would you?
A lot of the two-box detectors are said to get 15-20 feet. Good luck with that! You can figure that in any given soil you are going to get four, maybe five feet and even six feet if the conditions are absolutely perfect.
Another type of cache hunting machine is the pulse induction detector. These work on the exact same principal as the underwater PI machines but you can get them with loops as large as four feet. These types of PI detectors can be pricey but they will get you a lot more depth. Something with a four foot loop can easily detect a car battery sized metal object at ten feet or better. I have mentioned this before on this blog but Whites has come out with a new PI machine that works with a smaller loop and has shown very good results for cache and relic hunters.
One of the lesser known detectors for cache hunting isn’t really a detector. The company that makes it refers to it as a metal locator and that’s exactly what it does. The Schondstedt is used by surveyors and pipe companies. It will only locate iron and steel but it’s the best machine out there for finding ferrous metals. It’s small, light and simple to use and it will find a ¾ inch round pipe at a depth of nine feet every day, all day.
Besides the two-box, pulse induction and the Schondstedt you also can choose from several more extremely pricey machines such as ground penetrating radar, cesium magnetometers and electro-magnetic induction tools. You’ll probably have to rob a bank or find a treasure before you can afford one of these so I’m not going to go into a lot of detail about them. I will say that all of these are very specialized machines and require a lot of time using them to accurately interpret the data they present you with.
This is by no means a complete catalog of the different types of detectors out there but it will get you started. It also ends Part I of this article.
Please remember that although we aren’t “experts” (between all of the contributors on this blog we have over 90 years of experience in treasure hunting) we will gladly try to help you with any questions that you may have so please feel free to e-mail us.
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Learning a lesson (or two)
I would like to thank Rob for sending me the information for this article. Not only is it an article about finding treasure but there are at least two very imporant lessons to be learned from reading it.
The first lesson is that you have to be persistent in treasure hunting. It is the very, very rare occasion that a treasure hunter finds a cache of anything in the first few tries. It usually takes a continued effort and there usually seems to be a massive learning curve to finding any cache you are hunting.
The second lesson is to never turn off your detector until you get ready to get into your car. One of the very first things I was taught by another treasure hunter, many, many years ago, is that you should be running your detector while walking to and from your vehicle. You never know what you'll run across.
I'll admit that if you do this it usually makes your trip to and from the vehicle take a lot longer but you just never know. I can't tell you how many stories I have heard (and a couple that I have told) about the things people find while just walking to or from the car with their detector on. A couple of really big finds have been uncovered this way. This should be S.O.P. for every treasure hunter if you are hunting a cache or just coin shooting. Luck is always a welcome thing in treasure hunting!
Now for the article, straight from the web.
The first lesson is that you have to be persistent in treasure hunting. It is the very, very rare occasion that a treasure hunter finds a cache of anything in the first few tries. It usually takes a continued effort and there usually seems to be a massive learning curve to finding any cache you are hunting.
The second lesson is to never turn off your detector until you get ready to get into your car. One of the very first things I was taught by another treasure hunter, many, many years ago, is that you should be running your detector while walking to and from your vehicle. You never know what you'll run across.
I'll admit that if you do this it usually makes your trip to and from the vehicle take a lot longer but you just never know. I can't tell you how many stories I have heard (and a couple that I have told) about the things people find while just walking to or from the car with their detector on. A couple of really big finds have been uncovered this way. This should be S.O.P. for every treasure hunter if you are hunting a cache or just coin shooting. Luck is always a welcome thing in treasure hunting!
Now for the article, straight from the web.
Treasure hunter finds Bronze Age founders hoard
A treasure hunter has found 18 Bronze Age items in a field near Newark in Nottinghamshire.
Maurice Richardson stumbled across the collection, which includes four socket axes, a spear head, a chisel and a fragmented sword, by mistake.
"I was on my way back to the car after being out all afternoon and wandered off the track," he said. "If I hadn't I wouldn't have found it."
This is the third major discovery Mr Richardson has made. In 2005 he dug up an ancient necklace valued at £350,000 while in 2010 he found a hoard of Roman coins.
The tools were found just a foot below the surface of a farmer's field.
The first things to be dug out were three of the four axes; Mr Richardson said he immediately knew what they were.
The items have been confirmed by Dr Chris Robinson, an archaeological officer from Nottinghamshire County Council, as a founders hoard.
"Bronze Age metal workers tended to be itinerant. They would travel around the land plying their trade," said Dr Robinson.
"Often they would bury their produce and come back for it later."
The finds will now be submitted to the Portable Antiques Scheme (PAS) so that they can be recorded.
All prehistoric base-metal artefacts found after 1 January 2003 qualify as treasure and the PAS will forward the items to the British Museum for further assessment, dating and valuation.
Research by Mr Richardson suggests that his latest hoard may be worth a few thousand pounds.
But the tree surgeon said his hobby, which he has been doing every Saturday and Sunday afternoon for 40 years, is nothing to do with the money.
"It's the interest in the local history and the buzz from handling something that is thousands of years old," he said.
Mr Richardson confessed that there was no secret to his success.
"It's embarrassing really. There's no recipe. It just seems to happen," he said.
Maurice Richardson stumbled across the collection, which includes four socket axes, a spear head, a chisel and a fragmented sword, by mistake.
"I was on my way back to the car after being out all afternoon and wandered off the track," he said. "If I hadn't I wouldn't have found it."
This is the third major discovery Mr Richardson has made. In 2005 he dug up an ancient necklace valued at £350,000 while in 2010 he found a hoard of Roman coins.
The tools were found just a foot below the surface of a farmer's field.
The first things to be dug out were three of the four axes; Mr Richardson said he immediately knew what they were.
The items have been confirmed by Dr Chris Robinson, an archaeological officer from Nottinghamshire County Council, as a founders hoard.
"Bronze Age metal workers tended to be itinerant. They would travel around the land plying their trade," said Dr Robinson.
"Often they would bury their produce and come back for it later."
The finds will now be submitted to the Portable Antiques Scheme (PAS) so that they can be recorded.
All prehistoric base-metal artefacts found after 1 January 2003 qualify as treasure and the PAS will forward the items to the British Museum for further assessment, dating and valuation.
Research by Mr Richardson suggests that his latest hoard may be worth a few thousand pounds.
But the tree surgeon said his hobby, which he has been doing every Saturday and Sunday afternoon for 40 years, is nothing to do with the money.
"It's the interest in the local history and the buzz from handling something that is thousands of years old," he said.
Mr Richardson confessed that there was no secret to his success.
"It's embarrassing really. There's no recipe. It just seems to happen," he said.
Saturday, April 16, 2011
Need a vacation?
We all need some time away when we can get it. Now a days it seems harder and harder and more expensive but here's something the whole family might enjoy and as treasure hunters, we could learn a few things while we are there. It's all about pirates you see. Arrrrrrrggggg!!!
Pirate Museum Moves to New Florida Digs
Avast Ye Mateys! Fans of all things pirate will want to visit a newly opened museum in the historic Florida city of St. Augustine.
The St. Augustine Pirate & Treasure Museum is the brainchild of former Philadelphia 76ers president Pat Croce, who has a passion for both basketball and pirates.
"It just happened when I was a kid. I fell in love with Errol Flynn and "Captain Blood" movies," Croce tells AOL Travel News. "I would write a skull and cross bones in notebooks, and the nuns would smack me. And I was a pirate for Halloween as a kid."
As his wealth grew from businesses, Croce, an entrepreneur and motivational speaker, started collecting pirate artifacts including one of only two original Jolly Roger flags known to exist (the other is in Finland), the only authentic pirate chest in America, a journal from Captain Kidd's last journey, and real weapons and pieces of eight.
About six years ago, Croce opened Pirate Soul in Key West to display his collection, with exhibits featuring not only memorabilia but Disney Imagineer-designed animatronics, interactive displays and technologies such as creepy 3-D sound, all used in an attempt to re-create the Golden Age of Piracy (1690-1730).
The museum was popular, but given Key West's somewhat remote location, hours from Miami, it didn't attract the family and school group tourist crowd that Croce was hoping for, he says. He decided to close up shop and move the museum to St. Augustine in northern Florida, the oldest city and port in the U.S.
"I love Key West. I have a home in Key West. But you go there to party. In St. Augustine, heritage is number one. And families go there."
The former museum's exhibits are back in the St. Augustine venue. But there are also new displays outlining local routes where famous pirates walked the streets, plundered and pillaged – Sir Francis Drake and Robert Searles even burnt St. Augustine to the ground in 1586 and 1688, respectively.
Added attractions at the new museum, which is located across from a 17th century fort, also include a participatory treasure hunt, 17th century cannons that fire (in electronically simulated fashion) and pirate movie memorabilia.
"We now have Hollywood pirates, props from "Pirates of the Caribbean," "Hook," and "The Goonies," Croce says. "I took it up a notch."
Movie items on display include Captain Jack Sparrow's sword and cursed Aztec coin and Captain Hook's hook.
Among nearly 800 museum-quality artifacts are borrowed historical items from the State of Florida collection including gold, rings, jewels and sword handles.
Croce is still collecting too.
"I just got some really cool coins from the 1715 fleet off the east coast of Florida," he says.
Avast Ye Mateys! Fans of all things pirate will want to visit a newly opened museum in the historic Florida city of St. Augustine.
The St. Augustine Pirate & Treasure Museum is the brainchild of former Philadelphia 76ers president Pat Croce, who has a passion for both basketball and pirates.
"It just happened when I was a kid. I fell in love with Errol Flynn and "Captain Blood" movies," Croce tells AOL Travel News. "I would write a skull and cross bones in notebooks, and the nuns would smack me. And I was a pirate for Halloween as a kid."
As his wealth grew from businesses, Croce, an entrepreneur and motivational speaker, started collecting pirate artifacts including one of only two original Jolly Roger flags known to exist (the other is in Finland), the only authentic pirate chest in America, a journal from Captain Kidd's last journey, and real weapons and pieces of eight.
About six years ago, Croce opened Pirate Soul in Key West to display his collection, with exhibits featuring not only memorabilia but Disney Imagineer-designed animatronics, interactive displays and technologies such as creepy 3-D sound, all used in an attempt to re-create the Golden Age of Piracy (1690-1730).
The museum was popular, but given Key West's somewhat remote location, hours from Miami, it didn't attract the family and school group tourist crowd that Croce was hoping for, he says. He decided to close up shop and move the museum to St. Augustine in northern Florida, the oldest city and port in the U.S.
"I love Key West. I have a home in Key West. But you go there to party. In St. Augustine, heritage is number one. And families go there."
The former museum's exhibits are back in the St. Augustine venue. But there are also new displays outlining local routes where famous pirates walked the streets, plundered and pillaged – Sir Francis Drake and Robert Searles even burnt St. Augustine to the ground in 1586 and 1688, respectively.
Added attractions at the new museum, which is located across from a 17th century fort, also include a participatory treasure hunt, 17th century cannons that fire (in electronically simulated fashion) and pirate movie memorabilia.
"We now have Hollywood pirates, props from "Pirates of the Caribbean," "Hook," and "The Goonies," Croce says. "I took it up a notch."
Movie items on display include Captain Jack Sparrow's sword and cursed Aztec coin and Captain Hook's hook.
Among nearly 800 museum-quality artifacts are borrowed historical items from the State of Florida collection including gold, rings, jewels and sword handles.
Croce is still collecting too.
"I just got some really cool coins from the 1715 fleet off the east coast of Florida," he says.
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Fact or fiction?
I received a story from one of our readers who, for reasons that will become obvious, requested to remain anonymous. This is his story.
If you have the time, I have a tale I can give you that actually happened. This is not a “made up” story manufactured out of thin air. This happened in my past. Actually this one happened about thirty five years ago, when I was younger and much more active in treasure hunting.
Our local newspaper used to have a section called “News From the Past” which was tidbits taken from the historical archives of the paper. Items were dated 25 years ago, 50 years ago and 100 years ago. One of the stories from the 50 years ago part told about the death of a local gentleman by the hand of someone unknown. Our hero was found lying in his living room apparently several days after someone blew a very large hole in his chest area. The home had obviously been looted because everything was strewn out onto the floor. The story went on to tell that the deceased seemed to have no relatives and was famous for lending money to people who needed it. Until three years before his demise, he had lived on a farm about five miles from town, had no apparent income but always had cash to loan to his acquaintances. The recipients of this favor always came to his house after dark and told him of their needs. The man would tell them to sit down for a while and he would leave out of the back door. After about fifteen minutes or so, he would return with greenbacks or gold coins. These always smelled “musty” and it was assumed that our hero had to dig the cash up somewhere in the back of the house. When a debt was repaid, the borrower was told to take a seat and wait. After about fifteen minutes, the loaner would return through the back door and brew up a pot of coffee for the two of them. (Believe it or not, this was really in the newspaper.)
While I didn’t think that there would still be any cash left at the farm site, I thought it may be a good idea to check it out. The property was now owned by a large agricultural aggregate so I sought permission to go onto the site with a detector and “Look for coins where the house used to be”. They didn’t know that a “two-box” detector wasn’t exactly a coin hunting machine. No problem gaining access but as I had imagined, no luck at all.
Next came the problem of hunting the house in town. He had lived there for three years and I figured that even though the murderer had thoroughly searched the house, if he buried it while on the farm he would also bury it in town. Naturally, there was a family living in the home but they didn’t know of the story. It didn’t take long to learn that no one was going on the property “To look for lost pennies and old toys”, even if a 50/50 split was offered. How to get onto the property proved to be a perplexing problem. Would posing as a water department worker for the city work???? That would gain someone access to all of the back yard.
I’ll leave it to you to decide the answer to this perplexing question. If I told you that it didn’t, you would think that I’m just an old windbag, spouting stories. If I told you that it did, the IRS might think that I needed to be audited. It’s your call.
Oh yeah, as far as I know the murderer was never caught.
I will add that I have known this treasure hunter for a few years now so I have no problem believing the story. I am also leaning towards the fact that the water department employee ruse was a good one and worked well but as he said, "it's your call".
This should serve as a reminder about how to find clues to lost treasure. They are everywhere, you just have to be paying attention.
I would especially like to thank this reader for sharing this with our readers. We all need that little extra incentive sometimes to keep us going.
If you have the time, I have a tale I can give you that actually happened. This is not a “made up” story manufactured out of thin air. This happened in my past. Actually this one happened about thirty five years ago, when I was younger and much more active in treasure hunting.
Our local newspaper used to have a section called “News From the Past” which was tidbits taken from the historical archives of the paper. Items were dated 25 years ago, 50 years ago and 100 years ago. One of the stories from the 50 years ago part told about the death of a local gentleman by the hand of someone unknown. Our hero was found lying in his living room apparently several days after someone blew a very large hole in his chest area. The home had obviously been looted because everything was strewn out onto the floor. The story went on to tell that the deceased seemed to have no relatives and was famous for lending money to people who needed it. Until three years before his demise, he had lived on a farm about five miles from town, had no apparent income but always had cash to loan to his acquaintances. The recipients of this favor always came to his house after dark and told him of their needs. The man would tell them to sit down for a while and he would leave out of the back door. After about fifteen minutes or so, he would return with greenbacks or gold coins. These always smelled “musty” and it was assumed that our hero had to dig the cash up somewhere in the back of the house. When a debt was repaid, the borrower was told to take a seat and wait. After about fifteen minutes, the loaner would return through the back door and brew up a pot of coffee for the two of them. (Believe it or not, this was really in the newspaper.)
While I didn’t think that there would still be any cash left at the farm site, I thought it may be a good idea to check it out. The property was now owned by a large agricultural aggregate so I sought permission to go onto the site with a detector and “Look for coins where the house used to be”. They didn’t know that a “two-box” detector wasn’t exactly a coin hunting machine. No problem gaining access but as I had imagined, no luck at all.
Next came the problem of hunting the house in town. He had lived there for three years and I figured that even though the murderer had thoroughly searched the house, if he buried it while on the farm he would also bury it in town. Naturally, there was a family living in the home but they didn’t know of the story. It didn’t take long to learn that no one was going on the property “To look for lost pennies and old toys”, even if a 50/50 split was offered. How to get onto the property proved to be a perplexing problem. Would posing as a water department worker for the city work???? That would gain someone access to all of the back yard.
I’ll leave it to you to decide the answer to this perplexing question. If I told you that it didn’t, you would think that I’m just an old windbag, spouting stories. If I told you that it did, the IRS might think that I needed to be audited. It’s your call.
Oh yeah, as far as I know the murderer was never caught.
I will add that I have known this treasure hunter for a few years now so I have no problem believing the story. I am also leaning towards the fact that the water department employee ruse was a good one and worked well but as he said, "it's your call".
This should serve as a reminder about how to find clues to lost treasure. They are everywhere, you just have to be paying attention.
I would especially like to thank this reader for sharing this with our readers. We all need that little extra incentive sometimes to keep us going.
Friday, April 8, 2011
Will part of a treasure do?
Do you ever find yourself in New Castle County Delaware? Will having just part of a treasure make you happy or do you need the whole thing?
Well if you need the whole thing then you are just S.O.L. If you can be happy with just part of a treasure, the good part I might add, then this just may be the ticket for you.
During the revolutionary war the Brits were headed towards a spot known as Cooch’s Bridge. Thomas Cooch operated a mill at the bridge and when he heard the British were coming he gathered up all of his family’s valuables including silver and jewelry, placed them in an iron chest and took them to an area called Purgatory Woods located between White Clay Creek and St. George’s Creek. Purgatory Woods was adjacent to Cooch’s Bridge so Thomas Cooch didn’t have to go far to get to where he was going.
Once in the woods Thomas Cooch buried the iron chest in one spot and then buried an iron pot in another spot in the woods. The iron pot contained a “peck” of gold coins.
How much is a “peck” of gold coins? According to the imperial standard a peck is the equivalent of TWO GALLONS of “dry volume”. Two gallons of gold coins is going to be a pretty good size pot of gold!
As luck would have it the British did arrive at Cooch’s mill and made themselves at home. Once they decided to leave they set fire to the mill and burned it to the ground. The fire from the mill also burned down the majority of Purgatory Woods.
Once Thomas Cooch returned to the area to retrieve his valuables he ran into the problem of not having the trees to use as landmarks. This made it difficult for him to find what he had buried. Luck was with Thomas Cooch, at least partially, because he was able to find and retrieve the iron chest with his silver and jewels and other valuables. His luck didn’t hold for finding the iron pot of gold coins and although he searched for a long time, it was never found.
So that leaves you looking for an iron pot somewhere along the old road running between Newark and Cooch’s Bridge. Keep in mind that it was in the woods at one time so I wouldn’t think it would be too close to the road. The good news is an iron pot should be really easy to find with a detector.
The bad news is, Purgatory Woods was described as a “wooded, marshy area”. There is a chance that the iron pot has settled or sank deeper into the “marshy” ground over the years so it could be a lot deeper than it started out as.
Good luck!
Well if you need the whole thing then you are just S.O.L. If you can be happy with just part of a treasure, the good part I might add, then this just may be the ticket for you.
During the revolutionary war the Brits were headed towards a spot known as Cooch’s Bridge. Thomas Cooch operated a mill at the bridge and when he heard the British were coming he gathered up all of his family’s valuables including silver and jewelry, placed them in an iron chest and took them to an area called Purgatory Woods located between White Clay Creek and St. George’s Creek. Purgatory Woods was adjacent to Cooch’s Bridge so Thomas Cooch didn’t have to go far to get to where he was going.
Once in the woods Thomas Cooch buried the iron chest in one spot and then buried an iron pot in another spot in the woods. The iron pot contained a “peck” of gold coins.
How much is a “peck” of gold coins? According to the imperial standard a peck is the equivalent of TWO GALLONS of “dry volume”. Two gallons of gold coins is going to be a pretty good size pot of gold!
As luck would have it the British did arrive at Cooch’s mill and made themselves at home. Once they decided to leave they set fire to the mill and burned it to the ground. The fire from the mill also burned down the majority of Purgatory Woods.
Once Thomas Cooch returned to the area to retrieve his valuables he ran into the problem of not having the trees to use as landmarks. This made it difficult for him to find what he had buried. Luck was with Thomas Cooch, at least partially, because he was able to find and retrieve the iron chest with his silver and jewels and other valuables. His luck didn’t hold for finding the iron pot of gold coins and although he searched for a long time, it was never found.
So that leaves you looking for an iron pot somewhere along the old road running between Newark and Cooch’s Bridge. Keep in mind that it was in the woods at one time so I wouldn’t think it would be too close to the road. The good news is an iron pot should be really easy to find with a detector.
The bad news is, Purgatory Woods was described as a “wooded, marshy area”. There is a chance that the iron pot has settled or sank deeper into the “marshy” ground over the years so it could be a lot deeper than it started out as.
Good luck!
Saturday, April 2, 2011
Digging For Jesse James
Deep in the haze filled woods of the Arkansas hills lives a grizzled old friend of mine named Lefty. I am pretty sure any give afternoon you might find him with a shovel in his hand, clothes soiled and digging a hole that his detector sounded of at. In his old grizzled gruff ways he sent me this one by carrier pigeon. He said he thought some you old conspiracy theoriest out there may enjoy it. So while ya'll are trying to disprove history he says he'll be out digging it up. Either way I hope you all enjoy this little article. It is from a Arkansas news paper dated December 10, 1953
Digging For Jesse James Gold
Recalls story here 13 years ago
Digging For Jesse James Gold
Recalls story here 13 years ago
Recent news accounts from Arkansas tell of a hunt for buried gold reportedly concealed many years ago by Jesse James. The present hunt, near Paragould in northeastern Arkansas has been abandoned temporarily when a 22-foot wooden shaft collapsed and the armed diggers ran out of money.
The object of the digging, on the sandy banks of the Black river, is a chest believed to be filled with gold and flung into the river by James as he fled from a posse. The chest is presumed to be at a depth of 30 feet.
Thirteen years ago-Feb. 28, 1940, to be exact – The Constitution-Tribune told a story of buried gold in Arkansas, treasure which bandit Jesse James was said to have buried. The story, preceding the present interview with a business school student who felt sure his grand-father was Frank James. The interview, by Carl McIntire, now news editor of the Sedalia Democrat (near the scene of the first daylight train robbery), is reprinted below:
Thoroughly convinced that he is the grandson of Frank James, brother and :business” associate of the more notorious Jesse James of the pioneer days in Missouri, Coumbus Vaughn, student at the Jackson School of Business from Newton county, Arkansas, tell his story as he learned it and says he can produce evidence and affidavits of proof. However, he adds that he can expect no one to believe him for the tale is fantastic in the light of what has been told in years gone by.
Columbus says that Jesse James was not killed by Bob Ford and that Frank James never surrendered as Missouri history relates. He adds that Robert T. James who lives on the old James farm near Kearney, Mo., is no real relative of the James boys, though he is known as the son of Frank.
The Vaughn family lived quietly and with notoriety near Jasper in Newton County, Arkansas, until 1926 when Columbus’s grandfather, known as Joe Vaughn, died. Joe Vaughn had come to Newton County a long time before and had settled there and had lived a quit life. He raised a family of two children, Wm. Nelson Vaughn, father of Columbus, and a daughter.
When Joe died he left a member of papers and one included a history of his life in which stated that he was Frank James, brother of Jesse. He told the complete story of the James’ boys life in this tale and added what the members of the family are now the final chapters to the biographis of Frank and Jesse James.
The story written by Joe Vaughn, according to the local student, included the statements that Robert Bigelow was the man who was shot by Bob Ford and believed to be Jesse James and that another man who looked somewhat like Frank James, was paid $35,000 by the brothers to “take the rap” for Frank by surrendering to Governor Crittenden. That man has heired the James homested near Kearney, according to Vaughn, and it is his son who lives there now in the belief that his father was the real Frank James.
“It seemed unreal that we were the blood relatives of the James boys,” Columbus said, “so my father and aunt started immediately after reading the history to determine whether or not it was true.” The family tried as hard to prove Joe Vaughn was really Joe Vaughn as it did to prove he was Frank James. There was no connection ever made t substantiate the fact that Vaughn was the man’s real name but many facts led to the belief among members of Columbus’ family that their father and grandfather was really one of America’s most notorious outlaws.
Some of the facts are startling, some rather “happen so” yet when they are all placed together even the skeptics must say that Columbus Vaughn and his family have certain right to claim relationship to the James boys. They are all convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that Joe Vaughn was Frank James. A book is to be published in the near future, according to the business college student in which all of the information left by Joe Vaughn will be included. Moving picture right, too, have been sold on the story, he says.
Some of the facts that have made the Vaughn family believe Joe’s history are:
(1) Joe’s brother, William Nelson, has the same first names that Jesse James had.
(2) The man who for years has claimed he was Jesse James, appearing on the stage of a New York theater in 1936 and relating some of the tales of the past, was contacted and asked what he though of Joe Vaughn’s story. He wrote back he most interesting of all the facts that have been found, He said, however, these are not his own words:
“Many years ago (about 1920, according to the Vaughn family) I visited your home in Newton County. At that time Joe Vaughn was living. My name then, to you people, was “Santa Mire” and I was taken to your house by William Nelson Vaughn because he thought I looked like his father. I was with a carnival playing at a small town near your home. I stayed all night in your home on that occasion but I saw Joe Vaughn only once, that man was my brother, Frank James.”
(It has been learned by the Vaughn family since that Frank and Jesse were at odds toward the end of their lives. Once the story is told, they rode all day trying to get the draw on the other to shoot to kill. This possibly explains the reason what the two saw each other only for a minute when they were under the same roof in 1920.)
(3) In the story written by Joe Vaughn was the statement that on a 7-acre strip of land in Sebastian County, Arkansas, there were buried two trunks, one containing clothing worn by him in the early days and another containing his guns and some loot money. Columbus says that he himself found a rock with dates cut on it on this 7-acre strip of land. The family dug down 15 feet and found two hinges, a lock and other hardware off a trunk. They thought this was the trunk that had contained clothing. The other trunk was never found.
(4) Joe Vaughn’s story conforms so nearly perfectly with information that has been brought to light on the James boys and the Vaughn family has be unable to disprove any part of this tale.
Truly, Columbus Vaughn has an interesting story of his family live. Whether he can ever convince the public that all of it is true and the disproof of the better known stories of the James boys, is a matter to decided in time. For the present it leaves a question in the minds of many persons as to which story is really true.
This original clipping may be found at http://www.usgennet.org/usa/ar/county/greene/arkansastellhuntjjames1953.htm
Friday, April 1, 2011
Atlantis found???
I don't know why it's so hard for everyone to find this place, it's a very nice hotel in the Bahamas!
I'm a little late getting this posted, it seems that has been my theme for the last couple of months, a day late and a dollar short. OK, a week or two late and several dollars short! I'm only human you know.
Homer sent this one to me about two weeks ago and I just haven't had the time to get through all of my e-mails every day. The National Geographic channel did a show on this find and even though the show ran a couple of weeks ago you know they will run it over and over again. So if you didn't already know about it you might take a peak. One of these days somebody is going to get it right and Atlantis will be found.
I know this isn't your standard treasure hunting story but again, it's one of those things that has intrigued me since I was a teenager and I thought some of our readers might have the same curiosity.
From the web:
Freund, a University of Hartford professor, believes he and his research team have found the legendary island-city described by Plato in about 360 B.C. as having "in a single day and night ... disappeared into the depths of the sea."
Using satellite photography, ground-penetrating radar, underwater technology and some old-fashioned reasoning, Freund said his team pinpointed the city in a vast marsh in southern Spain that dries out one month a year. Their findings are featured in a National Geographic special premiering tonight, "Finding Atlantis."
"'Follow the stones' means that you have to find the artifacts," he told AOL News in a telephone interview today. "And certain types of stones give you clues about where certain types of things came from."
His team's search began in 2008 with a space satellite photograph showing what looked to be a submerged city in Spain's Dona Ana Park. In 2009 and 2010, Freund's researchers worked with Spanish archaeologists and geologists to explore beneath the mud flats using radar and imaging.
The discovery was clinched, Freund said, with the later find of "standing stones" and a series of memorial cities in central Spain built in the image of Atlantis.
"We found something that no one else has ever seen before, which gives it a layer of credibility, especially for archaeology, that makes a lot more sense," Freund told Reuters.
The memorial sites are significant to Freund's theory because refugees from the lost city would have built smaller-scale versions in tribute. And so when a Spanish scientist led him to ancient sites surrounded by concentric moats -- and a museum featuring standing stones with a symbol similar to Plato's drawing of Atlantis -- Freund was convinced these were commemorations of the destroyed city.
"There are more than 100 of them, and they come from all different places in the area," Freund told AOL's local news site Canton Patch.
"In crime, you follow the money," he told Patch. "In archaeology, you follow the stones."
His team also found ancient wood dating back to 440 B.C. A core sample taken at the marsh showed a layer of methane -- an indication to Freund that a lot of living things all died at once.
His team also found ancient wood dating back to 440 B.C. A core sample taken at the marsh showed a layer of methane -- an indication to Freund that a lot of living things all died at once.
"Finding this one layer of methane is a very telltale sign of a society that is destroyed in one fell swoop," he told the Hartford Courant. "This was in the middle of nowhere, and there was no methane layer found in the area except where we were working."
Explorers looking for Atlantis previously have focused on the Mediterranean Sea as well as the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. The lost city has been "found" many times over the years, including by Russian scientists who pinpointed a ruined town in the Black Sea; an American who found man-made walls a mile deep in the Mediterranean; and Swedish researchers who found it in the North Sea.
The lost city even was proclaimed found when people searching Google Earth spotted lines resembling a city street grid in the ocean off the coast of Africa. Google squelched the revelation when it explained the lines actually were left by a boat collecting data.
Researchers plan more excavations at the Spanish site, and Freund agreed his current findings won't put a definitive end to the debate.
"It's never like finding the Titanic. It's never like finding Tutankhamun's tomb. That's the way, in the best of all circumstances, that you find something intact," Freund told the Courant.
"You'll not be able to convince all the people all the time," he said.
I'm a little late getting this posted, it seems that has been my theme for the last couple of months, a day late and a dollar short. OK, a week or two late and several dollars short! I'm only human you know.
Homer sent this one to me about two weeks ago and I just haven't had the time to get through all of my e-mails every day. The National Geographic channel did a show on this find and even though the show ran a couple of weeks ago you know they will run it over and over again. So if you didn't already know about it you might take a peak. One of these days somebody is going to get it right and Atlantis will be found.
I know this isn't your standard treasure hunting story but again, it's one of those things that has intrigued me since I was a teenager and I thought some of our readers might have the same curiosity.
From the web:
Was Lost City of Atlantis Found in Spanish Marsh?
Crime solvers follow the money, but experts searching for the lost city of Atlantis? In archaeology, "you should follow the stones," Richard Freund said.
Freund, a University of Hartford professor, believes he and his research team have found the legendary island-city described by Plato in about 360 B.C. as having "in a single day and night ... disappeared into the depths of the sea."
Using satellite photography, ground-penetrating radar, underwater technology and some old-fashioned reasoning, Freund said his team pinpointed the city in a vast marsh in southern Spain that dries out one month a year. Their findings are featured in a National Geographic special premiering tonight, "Finding Atlantis."
"'Follow the stones' means that you have to find the artifacts," he told AOL News in a telephone interview today. "And certain types of stones give you clues about where certain types of things came from."
His team's search began in 2008 with a space satellite photograph showing what looked to be a submerged city in Spain's Dona Ana Park. In 2009 and 2010, Freund's researchers worked with Spanish archaeologists and geologists to explore beneath the mud flats using radar and imaging.
The discovery was clinched, Freund said, with the later find of "standing stones" and a series of memorial cities in central Spain built in the image of Atlantis.
"We found something that no one else has ever seen before, which gives it a layer of credibility, especially for archaeology, that makes a lot more sense," Freund told Reuters.
The memorial sites are significant to Freund's theory because refugees from the lost city would have built smaller-scale versions in tribute. And so when a Spanish scientist led him to ancient sites surrounded by concentric moats -- and a museum featuring standing stones with a symbol similar to Plato's drawing of Atlantis -- Freund was convinced these were commemorations of the destroyed city.
"There are more than 100 of them, and they come from all different places in the area," Freund told AOL's local news site Canton Patch.
"In crime, you follow the money," he told Patch. "In archaeology, you follow the stones."
His team also found ancient wood dating back to 440 B.C. A core sample taken at the marsh showed a layer of methane -- an indication to Freund that a lot of living things all died at once.
His team also found ancient wood dating back to 440 B.C. A core sample taken at the marsh showed a layer of methane -- an indication to Freund that a lot of living things all died at once.
"Finding this one layer of methane is a very telltale sign of a society that is destroyed in one fell swoop," he told the Hartford Courant. "This was in the middle of nowhere, and there was no methane layer found in the area except where we were working."
Explorers looking for Atlantis previously have focused on the Mediterranean Sea as well as the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. The lost city has been "found" many times over the years, including by Russian scientists who pinpointed a ruined town in the Black Sea; an American who found man-made walls a mile deep in the Mediterranean; and Swedish researchers who found it in the North Sea.
The lost city even was proclaimed found when people searching Google Earth spotted lines resembling a city street grid in the ocean off the coast of Africa. Google squelched the revelation when it explained the lines actually were left by a boat collecting data.
Researchers plan more excavations at the Spanish site, and Freund agreed his current findings won't put a definitive end to the debate.
"It's never like finding the Titanic. It's never like finding Tutankhamun's tomb. That's the way, in the best of all circumstances, that you find something intact," Freund told the Courant.
"You'll not be able to convince all the people all the time," he said.
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