birdman
Gold Member
I know where an old general store was washed into the bay(Mobile Bay ) in 1979. As a kid we used to go into old man Snider's store ,my father was the local cop on Fort Morgan rd and always made his rounds to catch up on local gossip,like" who's boat sank or who had family visiting" you know small town type stuff. I remember as a child there was hundreds of old cork bottles, a large brass ships bell and a lot of cannon balls that the old man had collected all his life . There was lots of war of 1812 and civil war activity there and he had all kinds of stuff in his store. In 1979 hurricane Fredrick came through and where the store used to be is still to this day now a slew that goes up and down with the tide. About 12 years ago I bought a water detector and went out there to clean house. I did not make much money in those days and saved for about 8 months for all my gear. I drove down and parked my car by the road and started to head to where old man Snyder's store used to be . I approached the water and some guy ran out of his little travel trailer and told me it was all his land now and that he knew there was alot of antiques in the water and he owned the land. I told him that he did not own the bay and he did not own the water, so as long as I went back out and came in by the water he could not stop me. I was respectful as I could be and told him that we used to know old man Snyder and we had been around the area sense the 1800 s but that did not matter. Then He said he has the deed to the land and a judge deeded him the slew where the old store used to be because it used to be land . I backed down then and said well let me hunt and we would split what ever I found and he said "well there is lot s of stuff here and I am going to find it". I left feeling like I had been poked in the eye. Last time I rode by the spot it looked the same and I have had people say that I got bluffed which at the time I was a little more timid. I left the area in 1993 and have planed on going back by water but now I am over sea s and after that who know s where after that. As God is my wittiness this is the truth. I don't know how easy it would be after all these years but I do know the heavy stuff should be right about where the store was. I hope you all enjoy this story and maybe can even give it a shot. A small Jon boat and a water detector would be about all you needed. HH
