KONO
Full Member
- Jul 2, 2013
- 190
- 66
- Detector(s) used
- Garrett ACE 350
- Primary Interest:
- All Treasure Hunting
UPDATE AT BOTTOM
Note on Story in Green, THIS STORY IS HYPOTHETICAL (The parts about the Box and its Burial)
THIS IS OUR THEORY, IT IS NOT CARVED IN STONE
The year is 1862, the day is April 24th: a wealthy, landed, Northerner living in New Orleans has just gotten word that Union ships have ran the Mississippi River Blockade at Forts Jackson and St. Philip. The city is in a state of chaos as the ill equipped Louisiana Militia scrambles to prepare for the defense of New Orleans. The man, whose name will not be revealed, is soon heading to his recently purchased state-of-the-art Louisiana Sugar Cane Plantation with one intention... to bury a strong box. This Strong Box is constructed with a quarter inch thick cast iron, lockable, lid; the sides of the box are constructed of solid Oak. The man arrives at the Plantation, and buries the strong box by a group of Slave huts, as to avoid detection by Yankees dispatched to the area. The Union Soldiers on patrol loot another man's small plantation just up the road , bayoneting family portraits, and stealing all valuables. The wealthy man has just left his plantation, and passes the Union Soldiers on the road. The wealthy man is headed back to New York, where he will remain until the war's end. The Union patrol makes it to the wealthy man's Plantation, only an unnoticed disturbance in the ground remains near the Slave Huts. While The Union Soldiers raid the Plantation Home little interest is given to the Slave Huts, they and the surrounding grounds go by unscathed.
The story you have just read is based upon both Historical Fact and Personal Theory.
Begin Playing Now.
The story resumes 151 years later in early July: The Garret Ace 350 Screamed as it maxed out on the detection 'key', this was caused by a large flat solid iron object 2 feet down that we had began to uncover. My fellow diggers and I knew that this object was abnormal in its size and material for being buried underground at a Plantation. I Personally Presumed, from the ornately rounded corners, it to be an Iron Plate over a casket, as I knew it was not an Iron Casket. We had only uncovered three sides and two corners at this point. We tired and left for the day, vowing to return. Since we could only presume the nature of the object we decided to dig to the object to determine if its length was 6 feet long, which would identify the objects possible ghoulish nature.
We returned Today, Thursday July 25th for a dig of a newly discovered Plantation site with the intention of finishing the dig of what we called "the coffin." Before the detecting could begin, my fellow metal detector, who brought the only metal detector of the day... sliced through his Ace 350 with a Carbide tipped Bush Clearing Circular Blade...
When a machine of discovery meets a machine of destruction...
We could no longer detect, so we decided to dig an already known object of interest. After several hours of digging we hit the fourth edge of the object, the object measured 2x2 Feet, revealing itself as a box... I quickly snapped a few photos...
I then proceeded to lift the quarter inch thick steel lid with my bare hands.... The box opened and we stared inside. The Oak still remained intact, preserved by the wet Louisiana Clay. The box interior was filled with 151 year old River Sand mixed with Clay...
View attachment 833991
And this is where the story ends for now...
UPDATE: We have not completed the Excavation of the Box, and the Exhuming of the Box. The water table is currently to high due to recent rain storms, and we do have a hand dredge pump. We will try digging the site tomorrow after the water level has settled. The Lid of the Box, as well as the very fragile Oak sides have been left in place. We will bring my metal detector to stick into the dig area, in absence of the iron lid. The area will be scanned thoroughly. So far, we have not hit the bottom of the box; we do not know if the contents are deeper in the ground, in the wet clay.
This is no treasure story, we believe it to be a civil war cache. We do not know if the box's contents were removed, or are still present. We do not know what was in the box. We know who owned the Plantation at the time, but their is no record of any box. The Plantation has been owned by the current owners only since the 1890's, so there are no family legends. We rely on Conveyance records, and some Private Records and Recollections. None of which mention the box. We obviously know the owner of the Plantation, where he was from, and the extent of his wealth. We also have all Plantation Manifest. We know that Union Soldiers did raid homes in the area, and did bayonet a neighbor's family portraits. We can safely assume a box was not buried with nothing it and for no purpose, though it's contents could have been removed after the war.
We discovered this chest, assumed it was a casket and left it be, we returned and proved our concerns ill founded. We then proceeded to dig the chest, if you had a sharp set of eyes you would have noticed I mentioned the "package" in a previous thread, and had the thread removed. We found the Clay marble on top of the "package", and took down the thread mentioning the "package", just in case we had found a casket which we would not disturb. We decided an iron plate would not be over a casket, and began to dig again on the 25th... and here we are today.
We will let you know what we find whether the box be empty or full. However, if it contains something extremely valuable, for obvious reasons I would not reveal it; I would be sipping Mint Juleps in Geneva.
I will now take your questions, and hear your theories, and hopefully not your hatred.
Note: I am surprised at the amount of dis-taste of my posting of such an amazing find (the buried box itself), I do not know if its jealousy, disbelief, or what... I hope this update will ease the tension and apprehension.
As GRiley put it: "I know one thing for sure you will not ever forget it empty or full of treasure.........."
It's Revealed!
http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/today-s-finds/367090-civil-war-era-strong-box-reveal.html
Follow my other digs here:
http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/relic-hunting/366228-official-louisiana-plantation-dig.html
So now one question remains... who will I be, Mel Fisher or Geraldo Rivera?
Note on Story in Green, THIS STORY IS HYPOTHETICAL (The parts about the Box and its Burial)
THIS IS OUR THEORY, IT IS NOT CARVED IN STONE
The year is 1862, the day is April 24th: a wealthy, landed, Northerner living in New Orleans has just gotten word that Union ships have ran the Mississippi River Blockade at Forts Jackson and St. Philip. The city is in a state of chaos as the ill equipped Louisiana Militia scrambles to prepare for the defense of New Orleans. The man, whose name will not be revealed, is soon heading to his recently purchased state-of-the-art Louisiana Sugar Cane Plantation with one intention... to bury a strong box. This Strong Box is constructed with a quarter inch thick cast iron, lockable, lid; the sides of the box are constructed of solid Oak. The man arrives at the Plantation, and buries the strong box by a group of Slave huts, as to avoid detection by Yankees dispatched to the area. The Union Soldiers on patrol loot another man's small plantation just up the road , bayoneting family portraits, and stealing all valuables. The wealthy man has just left his plantation, and passes the Union Soldiers on the road. The wealthy man is headed back to New York, where he will remain until the war's end. The Union patrol makes it to the wealthy man's Plantation, only an unnoticed disturbance in the ground remains near the Slave Huts. While The Union Soldiers raid the Plantation Home little interest is given to the Slave Huts, they and the surrounding grounds go by unscathed.
The story you have just read is based upon both Historical Fact and Personal Theory.
Begin Playing Now.
The story resumes 151 years later in early July: The Garret Ace 350 Screamed as it maxed out on the detection 'key', this was caused by a large flat solid iron object 2 feet down that we had began to uncover. My fellow diggers and I knew that this object was abnormal in its size and material for being buried underground at a Plantation. I Personally Presumed, from the ornately rounded corners, it to be an Iron Plate over a casket, as I knew it was not an Iron Casket. We had only uncovered three sides and two corners at this point. We tired and left for the day, vowing to return. Since we could only presume the nature of the object we decided to dig to the object to determine if its length was 6 feet long, which would identify the objects possible ghoulish nature.
We returned Today, Thursday July 25th for a dig of a newly discovered Plantation site with the intention of finishing the dig of what we called "the coffin." Before the detecting could begin, my fellow metal detector, who brought the only metal detector of the day... sliced through his Ace 350 with a Carbide tipped Bush Clearing Circular Blade...
When a machine of discovery meets a machine of destruction...
We could no longer detect, so we decided to dig an already known object of interest. After several hours of digging we hit the fourth edge of the object, the object measured 2x2 Feet, revealing itself as a box... I quickly snapped a few photos...
I then proceeded to lift the quarter inch thick steel lid with my bare hands.... The box opened and we stared inside. The Oak still remained intact, preserved by the wet Louisiana Clay. The box interior was filled with 151 year old River Sand mixed with Clay...
View attachment 833991
And this is where the story ends for now...
UPDATE: We have not completed the Excavation of the Box, and the Exhuming of the Box. The water table is currently to high due to recent rain storms, and we do have a hand dredge pump. We will try digging the site tomorrow after the water level has settled. The Lid of the Box, as well as the very fragile Oak sides have been left in place. We will bring my metal detector to stick into the dig area, in absence of the iron lid. The area will be scanned thoroughly. So far, we have not hit the bottom of the box; we do not know if the contents are deeper in the ground, in the wet clay.
This is no treasure story, we believe it to be a civil war cache. We do not know if the box's contents were removed, or are still present. We do not know what was in the box. We know who owned the Plantation at the time, but their is no record of any box. The Plantation has been owned by the current owners only since the 1890's, so there are no family legends. We rely on Conveyance records, and some Private Records and Recollections. None of which mention the box. We obviously know the owner of the Plantation, where he was from, and the extent of his wealth. We also have all Plantation Manifest. We know that Union Soldiers did raid homes in the area, and did bayonet a neighbor's family portraits. We can safely assume a box was not buried with nothing it and for no purpose, though it's contents could have been removed after the war.
We discovered this chest, assumed it was a casket and left it be, we returned and proved our concerns ill founded. We then proceeded to dig the chest, if you had a sharp set of eyes you would have noticed I mentioned the "package" in a previous thread, and had the thread removed. We found the Clay marble on top of the "package", and took down the thread mentioning the "package", just in case we had found a casket which we would not disturb. We decided an iron plate would not be over a casket, and began to dig again on the 25th... and here we are today.
We will let you know what we find whether the box be empty or full. However, if it contains something extremely valuable, for obvious reasons I would not reveal it; I would be sipping Mint Juleps in Geneva.
I will now take your questions, and hear your theories, and hopefully not your hatred.
Note: I am surprised at the amount of dis-taste of my posting of such an amazing find (the buried box itself), I do not know if its jealousy, disbelief, or what... I hope this update will ease the tension and apprehension.
As GRiley put it: "I know one thing for sure you will not ever forget it empty or full of treasure.........."
It's Revealed!
http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/today-s-finds/367090-civil-war-era-strong-box-reveal.html
Follow my other digs here:
http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/relic-hunting/366228-official-louisiana-plantation-dig.html
So now one question remains... who will I be, Mel Fisher or Geraldo Rivera?
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