My Other Hobby

[Smoke]

Hi folks, my other hobby is Relic Hunting with a Metal Detector. I wanted to share my last weekend find with you. Like a 1/2 hp New Holland is on everyones wish list in the engine world, this Union Army Civil War Officers Sword Belt Plate is a trophy in the Relic Hunting World. I dug it up in an open field at a depth of about 9 inches. I actually thought it was a pop can since it almost blew my headphones off and I almost passed it by. Sure glad now that I dug it up.

PS. Hope to see some of you at Beilers Sale Tomorrow.

[Rex Pyles]

way cool!

[BobRR]

Nice FIND! Nothin like finding old stuff! BobRR

[Jake Lessen]

My dad was mowing the yard last summer and found something sort of shiny under a tree. Not wanting to pull a piece of metal into the lawn mower, he picked it up, and found that it was a 1 cent piece from 1850. Just goes to show that you will never know where you can find stuff like that. Needless to say, he's hanging onto that penny.

[Motormowers]

Sounds like you have a piece of history there! It may be worth it to find out if a battle was fought in that field or the belt was discarded because it broke as they were travelling on and it wasnt noticed missing until later in the day. It may have been where that soldier had fallen in battle. I have a piece of the instrument panel off a jap zero from WWII that was brought back by my late friend who was in New Zealand, New Guinea,New Caledonia for the duration. It has a hole in it where a 50cal shell came through! I am trying to find pix of where it was located in the dash of those planes. Again, an important piece of history. John.

[Smoke]

John, while I did find two period general staff buttons in the same area, If I am correct, I think the site was a camp or a stop over. I found out that the soldiers trained about 30 miles east of me, they marched through this area to catch a steam train to head south. Or it could have been a veteran who let his kids play with it and they lost it. I guess we will never really know how it got there for sure.

[Robt.]

It's a great hobby and I wish I had time to do it myself. The sad part is a great deal of history has been destroyed by unscrupulous detectorists going over battle fields etc. The study that was done of the Little Big Horn battlefield showed just how much could be learned from an properly conducted survey: the movements of individuals could be traced by the cartridge cases they dropped and the bullets they fired and where they were found and the progress of the whole battle charted. Sadly the same thing will never be done for most battlefields in the USA because they have been picked over by trophy hunters. On the other hand a lot of very significant material has been found elsewhere that would never have seen the light of day otherwise, like your belt buckle. Enjoy!