Johnny Cache
Greenie
- Oct 18, 2008
- 13
- 30
- Detector(s) used
- Garrett Deepseeker w/ BloodHound Antenna
- Primary Interest:
- All Treasure Hunting
I had been hunting for a buried treasure over long weekends for several years at a location outside of Logansport, Indiana. One day as I operated my metal detector along a river bank, I stopped to contemplate the search area and to look over the terrain.
"Let's see... if I was going to stash a treasure around here, it'd be someplace that would represent a prominent landmark that would assure that I could return to recover it. Now, what's around here that would'a been a landmark over a hundred years ago?"
"Ahh, there's a likely place!" I instinctively said to myself as I thrashed my way through a thicket of briars and nettles to the base of a gigantic sycamore tree. I discovered that the tree was hollow with a gaping hole in one side that allowed me entry into the interior. I stood up inside the trunk of the tree and decided that this would be the next most likely place to search.
I retrieved my detector and began sweeping left and right with the audible sounds of "tick, tick, tick, tick, tick... " when all of a sudden, there was a solid "tickticktickticktick..." as it found something! Nah, it couldn't be. Or could it? I set my shovel underfoot and removed several large portions of soft, woody pulp and dirt, heaving them outside as I tried to contain my composure.
The next sweep of the searchcoil brought forth, "tick, tick, tickticktickeeeeeEEEeeetickticktick, tick tick, tick" and I knew it (whatever it was - was still THERE! - and closer!). After years of searching and camping out on the river and dreaming about what I would do if I ever did make the find, maybe it was about to pay off? All those false attempts and the briar scratches, the chiggers, mosquitoes and the sacrifices might somehow actually be ready to culminate into my good fortune?
After digging out several more shovels full of dirt, I brought the detector back over the hole and to be honest, I really expected that the target had been cast outside and that there would only be the solemn "tick, tick, tick." Surprisingly though, the instrument emitted a loud, steady scream. I froze in place!
OMG! What if this was IT?!!! What if I was about to expose to air and sunlight what hadn't seen the light of day for over a century? For long minutes, I couldn't move. My heart was racing and I was immobilized with excitement. I had to settle down or I'd never learn what I'd found!
Words rushed through my mind... "I'm all alone. Nobody here but me. Just take a deep breath and calm down because there's plenty of time. If it hasn't gone anywhere in the last hundred years, it isn't going anywhere in the next twenty minutes! Just put the detector down and go outside and regain some composure. It's early in the day and there's plenty of time to dig it out. OMG... I think I'm RICH beyond all imagination!!! Stop, now, thinking that and just concentrate on the task at hand. It's not been touched by human hands since it was placed there and I'm the first one to lay eyes on it since then. What am I going to carry it in? Maybe I won't need to go to work tomorrow. Maybe I'll never have to go to work ever again! Just take another deep breath and stop thinking about it."
Once my breathing returned to normal, I stepped back inside the tree, picked up the shovel and continued severing chunks of soil out of the hole and heaving them out into the sunlight. Once the hole was about the size of a bushel basket, I laid the shovel aside and took up the detector again. Sweeping the searchcoil from side-to-side now brought only the monotonous "tick, tick, tick." It was GONE! Oh, NO - It was GONE" I stood in the dim light inside the tree in great dismay with my hopes and my fortune dashed.
Oh, well. I had to know what it was. I went back outside and looked at all the clods of dirt laying about and wondered which one held the object that set me alight? The detector coil was swept along all of them and only one produced the high-pitched scream from the speaker. It had to be something pretty big to sound like that... but what? I broke that piece apart with my bare fingers and came out with a rectangular aluminum plate with screwholes in the corners. Turning it over and rubbing the dirt off revealed that I had an identification plate from a 3 1/2 horsepower Briggs & Stratton engine. How did an engine ID plate end up inside a hollow sycamore tree. I dunno - but I was RICH - for about twenty minutes! There have been other times in many other places but this was by far the most exhilarating thing that I've never found.
Since the events of that day, I've moved away from Indiana and have given up on a hunt that lasted more than eleven years. Oh, yes... and it's still there waiting for someone more persistent than me. But I've been amply rewarded for all my efforts with all the experiences and the memories like this one of the hollow tree.
"Let's see... if I was going to stash a treasure around here, it'd be someplace that would represent a prominent landmark that would assure that I could return to recover it. Now, what's around here that would'a been a landmark over a hundred years ago?"
"Ahh, there's a likely place!" I instinctively said to myself as I thrashed my way through a thicket of briars and nettles to the base of a gigantic sycamore tree. I discovered that the tree was hollow with a gaping hole in one side that allowed me entry into the interior. I stood up inside the trunk of the tree and decided that this would be the next most likely place to search.
I retrieved my detector and began sweeping left and right with the audible sounds of "tick, tick, tick, tick, tick... " when all of a sudden, there was a solid "tickticktickticktick..." as it found something! Nah, it couldn't be. Or could it? I set my shovel underfoot and removed several large portions of soft, woody pulp and dirt, heaving them outside as I tried to contain my composure.
The next sweep of the searchcoil brought forth, "tick, tick, tickticktickeeeeeEEEeeetickticktick, tick tick, tick" and I knew it (whatever it was - was still THERE! - and closer!). After years of searching and camping out on the river and dreaming about what I would do if I ever did make the find, maybe it was about to pay off? All those false attempts and the briar scratches, the chiggers, mosquitoes and the sacrifices might somehow actually be ready to culminate into my good fortune?
After digging out several more shovels full of dirt, I brought the detector back over the hole and to be honest, I really expected that the target had been cast outside and that there would only be the solemn "tick, tick, tick." Surprisingly though, the instrument emitted a loud, steady scream. I froze in place!
OMG! What if this was IT?!!! What if I was about to expose to air and sunlight what hadn't seen the light of day for over a century? For long minutes, I couldn't move. My heart was racing and I was immobilized with excitement. I had to settle down or I'd never learn what I'd found!
Words rushed through my mind... "I'm all alone. Nobody here but me. Just take a deep breath and calm down because there's plenty of time. If it hasn't gone anywhere in the last hundred years, it isn't going anywhere in the next twenty minutes! Just put the detector down and go outside and regain some composure. It's early in the day and there's plenty of time to dig it out. OMG... I think I'm RICH beyond all imagination!!! Stop, now, thinking that and just concentrate on the task at hand. It's not been touched by human hands since it was placed there and I'm the first one to lay eyes on it since then. What am I going to carry it in? Maybe I won't need to go to work tomorrow. Maybe I'll never have to go to work ever again! Just take another deep breath and stop thinking about it."
Once my breathing returned to normal, I stepped back inside the tree, picked up the shovel and continued severing chunks of soil out of the hole and heaving them out into the sunlight. Once the hole was about the size of a bushel basket, I laid the shovel aside and took up the detector again. Sweeping the searchcoil from side-to-side now brought only the monotonous "tick, tick, tick." It was GONE! Oh, NO - It was GONE" I stood in the dim light inside the tree in great dismay with my hopes and my fortune dashed.
Oh, well. I had to know what it was. I went back outside and looked at all the clods of dirt laying about and wondered which one held the object that set me alight? The detector coil was swept along all of them and only one produced the high-pitched scream from the speaker. It had to be something pretty big to sound like that... but what? I broke that piece apart with my bare fingers and came out with a rectangular aluminum plate with screwholes in the corners. Turning it over and rubbing the dirt off revealed that I had an identification plate from a 3 1/2 horsepower Briggs & Stratton engine. How did an engine ID plate end up inside a hollow sycamore tree. I dunno - but I was RICH - for about twenty minutes! There have been other times in many other places but this was by far the most exhilarating thing that I've never found.
Since the events of that day, I've moved away from Indiana and have given up on a hunt that lasted more than eleven years. Oh, yes... and it's still there waiting for someone more persistent than me. But I've been amply rewarded for all my efforts with all the experiences and the memories like this one of the hollow tree.
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