I'm so excited I have to share the news.

[Truth]

Congratulations!! I would hope they would let let you keep at least one thing.

 

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[kingskid1611]

Absolutely amazing. I was driving through that area today....I cannot wait for your pictures....a great opportunity.

 

[cw0909]

very cool sounds like a lot of fun, some maps put on your phone
to keep an idea which part of battle your @ bottom of pg, open
map for description of battle

https://www.civilwar.org/learn/civil-war/battles/pea-ridge

 

[cactusman]

That's great news -- no doubt you will be helping to recover history, making tons of great finds and memories, as well as enhancing the image of metal detecting -- great job!

 

[Honest Samuel]

I would not do it, but, each to own.

 

[villagenut]

Sometimes it is not about filling our glass cases with relics....But rather, what we can save for the next generations. This is a perfect case of a relic hunter who has good balance, seeing that digging artifacts is important not for just his own best interests, but that of others. Nice job and keep us posted. I would go help in a heartbeat and have great satisfaction taking nothing home.

 

[Discrimination Dave]

Dream hunt!!!!! Cleared ground too! True you can’t keep anything but imagine if this were 15 or 20 years ago and everyone didn’t have a quality camera in their pocket.
You’ll keep every find, Virtually.

 

[sprailroad]

I was actually contacted by one of the bosses at the military park who works for the National Parks service but the AAS is who is in charge of the dig. The way I see it it's a good way to learn what to look for, where to look for it and, what it sounds like under my coil. It's also a good way to build a good reputation with people who may help me to getting permission on some good private properties.

Seeing as how it's a Federally protected archeology site, this is the only way anyone can dig there without risking going to prison, and a good way to shed some of the pounds I put on over this frozen winter.

Yes it too have my objections to how archeologists act toward some of us at times and how they think we are just looters. But we can take the high road and try to change their perspective. If that doesn't work, as a volunteer I can get in my truck and go home whenever I want.

I'm there to learn and have fun doing it. Hopefully my efforts will also contribute to the educations of our future generations.

My collection is only as nice as it is because I'm willing to put in the the time and effort that I do.

It all sounds really good, but I will admit that I have mixed emotions about it, me being me, I can't help but remember how for years archeologist have viewed us as villain's or looters, until they might need some assistance, much like some people who do not like cops, or even having them around UNTILL they need them, and then after all is done, do not want them around again, ironic isn't it. HOWEVER, having said that, this COULD be a beginning, as you said to "Change their perspective", at least perhaps with the current and future generations of said archeologist, and I believe that you Icewing would be a excellent ambassador of our hobby/obsession. So, a sincere "Good Luck" with it all, and I as well as many others on the Forum I believe, look forward to your whole experience with it sometime around March.

 

[Rookster]

Congrats on being selected.Your best is all you can do. Sounds like a detecting dream.

 

[Joe-Dirt]

This would be a “dream hunt” for me, you my friend are one lucky SOB, please post everything you find!!

 

[lookingharder]

I would love to be involved with something like that. There are many advantages to being invited. Being out doing something I truly enjoy, meeting new friends and being a good ambassador to our sport. I do a lot of research on troop movements to find camp sites. In my experience, camps are where you find the good stuff. Hunting this battle site would defiantly give one an exact location to start working away from. Find neighboring privately owned land and use the being invited to the battle site as a credential to get permission. Plus, I think it would be really cool to have an artifact I found in a museum somewhere that everyone can see.

 

[Red James Cash]

Icewing,you don't have to be in a particular battle to know tactics and guns.Canister was used on massed targets that were advancing towards you.It was fired towards the ground at a shallow angle so the balls would skip along the ground much like skipping flat stones across the water.

 

[Red James Cash]

 

[Icewing]

Icewing,you don't have to be in a particular battle to know tactics and guns.Canister was used on massed targets that were advancing towards you.It was fired towards the ground at a shallow angle so the balls would skip along the ground much like skipping flat stones across the water.

Feel free to come tell this guy with a PhD who specializes in battlefield archeology that he's wrong while I dig and smile.
I still don't understand what you think is wrong or why, I just know when they say we will find something in a particular location, we always do, so I don't question them, I just dig and smile.

 

[Red James Cash]

A PhD doesn't give one a bit of common sense now does it.Whats wrong is you're being used by people who think the people that use detectors are looters.All the while they don't have the morals not to touch a grave while we do.Using canister on entrenched,fortified,etc, troops and gun positions on a ridge is comparable to going elephant hunting with a bb gun.The only thing you're going to end up doing is screw yourself.

 

[Icewing]

A PhD doesn't give one a bit of common sense now does it.Whats wrong is you're being used by people who think the people that use detectors are looters.All the while they don't have the morals not to touch a grave while we do.Using canister on entrenched,fortified,etc, troops and gun positions on a ridge is comparable to going elephant hunting with a bb gun.The only thing you're going to end up doing is screw yourself.

Again, I provided you with enough information to figure out that these were not entrenched or fortified troops. The confederate troops were advancing on the Union troops (also not entreched or fortified) from the north, and the Union was firing at them. All that separated them was a small valley. I don't know how I can be "screwing myself". I'll be learning and getting some good exercise by volunteering to dig on a National Military Park. Doing so without permission will land you in a Federal prison, a risk I'm not willing to take.

Have a nice day.

 

[GA_Boy]

Icewing,you don't have to be in a particular battle to know tactics and guns.Canister was used on massed targets that were advancing towards you.It was fired towards the ground at a shallow angle so the balls would skip along the ground much like skipping flat stones across the water.

Correct, primarily used to repel Infantry charges.
Marvin

 

[GA_Boy]

The National Parks Service and the Arkansas Archeological Survey ask me and a select few others to help them with an upcoming Civil War relic hunt this coming March. Apparently they located a 38 acre ridge where the Confederates had set up their guns and the Union spent over 2 hours firing canister shot at them. I went out there yesterday and they gave me a quick look at the ridge we are to be clearing. According to them it's virgin ground that's never been dug and it's supposedly loaded with relics.

They only invited about 10 or 12 of us who they already know are good at what we do to help them clear 38 acres, and we are only getting 5 days to do it. Since it is a ridge top out in the forest they will be burning off the leave and vegetation to help prep the site for us.

The only down side is we will be doing it as unpaid volunteers and they of course will be cataloging and keeping everything we find. Of course that's how it always works when we work with archeologists so it's not really anything new. The only new rule for this dig is that we can't invite any of our friends.

As I already mentioned the hunt won't be taking place till the middle of March but I'll be sure to take lots of pictures this time and post them here when the time comes.

Lucky you-------take lots of pictures for those of us that can't attend.
Marvin

 

[Red James Cash]

Icewing your op states fed guns firing canister at the guns positioned on a ridge.Nothing about advancing reb troops.

 

[devldog]

Very well said. I agree on all counts.