Mayo South Elgin
Sr. Member
"Dinosaur" discovery in the woods 12-13-09
After a good hearty breakfast with Lowbatts, Watercolor and Kimsdad, we ventured into the wilds of an abandoned and long gone camp and possible home site(s). I had never hunted in the snow before and was a bit reluctant to go - not wanting to get frostbite or chip away at ice blocks just for clad.
Since the temperature was nice enough and the snow cover wasn't too deep, I decided to go and see what this winter hunting stuff was all about. Little did I know that I would be the first to discover...
CLAD-REX. This particular "dinosaur" was totally covered in mud (as was I by the end of the hunt).
Descendants of it are still able to be found in Franklin Park, IL as evidenced by recent research on Google.
The most exciting find for me however was a rectangular piece of metal.
It also was covered in mud and caked on gunk that prevented me from seeing what it really was.
I was very tempted to just toss it out since it didn't look that different from similar pieces of junk metal I had found in other places, and there was nothing embossed on it.
I decided to wash off the metal since it was a piece that had been intentionally made to that size.
It seemed out of place compared to the other junk I had found around it.
A little background about myself before I get to the point of this...
My grandfather was a commercial artist that specialized in hand lettering original product labels - some of which were small labels that had hand lettering done as small as 1/16th of an inch, and it looked perfect as if it was machine type or lithography. While I was never that good at the small lettering, I did go to sign painting school and had a sign shop (where I started out with hand lettered signs) for about 23 years. OK that's the preface. And the reason why the following was so exciting to see.
While washing off that rectangular plate, all of a sudden I see some very fine lettering appear.
What the heck is this? I says to myself... I continue to scrub the plate and it revealed some engraved lettering, which was being done on this plate as a practice exercise. Complete with the guidelines. Very cool! So then I flip it over and start to clean up the other side, and more lettering! Very small and delicate script engraved letters. Whoever had done it still needed practice, but was well on the way to becoming a very skilled engraver.
Other things found... the boy scout neckerchief slide, the ladies compact (which had an intact working hinge and was full of gross moldy face powder), the top handle/closure bracket off a mess kit - stamped Korea, the harmonica reeds, a brass pipe fitting, the mason jar top with the glass insert, a salt shaker top or possible bottle stopper for shaking water onto clothes when ironing, a chung of decorated metal - possibly Clad-Rex in blue?, a couple small button like things about the size of a cigarette lighter flint wheel, the ring and lag bolt, and an antique hare krishna cymbal. Well, maybe it was an embossed washer. Not pictured were the two mem cents I found and the metal tube which I originally thought was glue but turned out to be Clearasil.
It was a fun time even though I didn't get any silver or old coins - the engraved plate alone was worth it for me! But I can't figure out how the other 3 Amigos were able to hunt in the same conditions and NOT get all covered in mud like I did...
After a good hearty breakfast with Lowbatts, Watercolor and Kimsdad, we ventured into the wilds of an abandoned and long gone camp and possible home site(s). I had never hunted in the snow before and was a bit reluctant to go - not wanting to get frostbite or chip away at ice blocks just for clad.
Since the temperature was nice enough and the snow cover wasn't too deep, I decided to go and see what this winter hunting stuff was all about. Little did I know that I would be the first to discover...
CLAD-REX. This particular "dinosaur" was totally covered in mud (as was I by the end of the hunt).
Descendants of it are still able to be found in Franklin Park, IL as evidenced by recent research on Google.
The most exciting find for me however was a rectangular piece of metal.
It also was covered in mud and caked on gunk that prevented me from seeing what it really was.
I was very tempted to just toss it out since it didn't look that different from similar pieces of junk metal I had found in other places, and there was nothing embossed on it.
I decided to wash off the metal since it was a piece that had been intentionally made to that size.
It seemed out of place compared to the other junk I had found around it.
A little background about myself before I get to the point of this...
My grandfather was a commercial artist that specialized in hand lettering original product labels - some of which were small labels that had hand lettering done as small as 1/16th of an inch, and it looked perfect as if it was machine type or lithography. While I was never that good at the small lettering, I did go to sign painting school and had a sign shop (where I started out with hand lettered signs) for about 23 years. OK that's the preface. And the reason why the following was so exciting to see.
While washing off that rectangular plate, all of a sudden I see some very fine lettering appear.
What the heck is this? I says to myself... I continue to scrub the plate and it revealed some engraved lettering, which was being done on this plate as a practice exercise. Complete with the guidelines. Very cool! So then I flip it over and start to clean up the other side, and more lettering! Very small and delicate script engraved letters. Whoever had done it still needed practice, but was well on the way to becoming a very skilled engraver.
Other things found... the boy scout neckerchief slide, the ladies compact (which had an intact working hinge and was full of gross moldy face powder), the top handle/closure bracket off a mess kit - stamped Korea, the harmonica reeds, a brass pipe fitting, the mason jar top with the glass insert, a salt shaker top or possible bottle stopper for shaking water onto clothes when ironing, a chung of decorated metal - possibly Clad-Rex in blue?, a couple small button like things about the size of a cigarette lighter flint wheel, the ring and lag bolt, and an antique hare krishna cymbal. Well, maybe it was an embossed washer. Not pictured were the two mem cents I found and the metal tube which I originally thought was glue but turned out to be Clearasil.
It was a fun time even though I didn't get any silver or old coins - the engraved plate alone was worth it for me! But I can't figure out how the other 3 Amigos were able to hunt in the same conditions and NOT get all covered in mud like I did...
