BuckleBoy
Gold Member
Hello All,
Yesterday I went out with Rodeo Recon, Digger Girl, and Bonzaibrandi (Recon's Girl--and a new Tnet member now!). We were on the trail of an ooooold house site in Indiana. I told them that I wanted to try out my research skills by walking (with the detectors off!) out in the field and getting to where I thought the site had been, and then turning them on. (Rather than our usual procedure of walking out through the fields metal detecting
toward the site, and gradually getting ourselves centered directly on top of it.) Well, we tried it--and no iron graced our ears![:-\](https://www.treasurenet.com/smilies/undecided.gif "Undecided :-\")
But as it turns out, I was only about 30 feet from the edge of the iron patch 
Wandering slightly up and over from our initial spot, I got a few choppy iron signals and then BAM! Upon seeing the first piece of the pot-bellied stove come out of the hole, I waved it over my head and yelled "We got a house site!" Ladies and Gentlemen, as soon as I hit that first piece of housesite iron in the cornfield, we were all business! We set up the "base camp"--with plenty of water for a long hot day in the dusty fields, and set to work.
Then we started concentrate our mental energy and detecting skills on figuring out the perimeters of the iron patch and artifacts. This took a while, since they were spread over a larger than usual area. We started pounding the cornfields--carefully gridding off rows since there was the benefit of some corn stubble left. Right off I got a pewter button--domed on one side and flat on the other, with an iron stain on the back from the long-ago broken shank. Unfortunately this was one of my few keepers from the hunt. I had the skunk coming eventually--and with as much as Lady Luck has smiled on what I have walked across in the past week, I can't complain :P Besides, I have to talk with great excitement about what the other talented members of the team found. Here’s some photos of our professionals: Rodeo Recon, DG, and BBrandi. I like the shot of the girls taking a short break. Special thanks to Rodeo for some of these awesome photos!
Just a short time into the hunt, DG got a Beautiful piece of a pewter spoon. I motioned for the others to come over and said "We've got an ooooold site here!" I was thrilled with the prospect of some old coppers and early buttons being recovered. We kept hitting the corn rows with the renewed excitement of older finds coming up.
Then--as I knew they would in a site where pewter was found--the flat buttons started turning up. Rodeo Recon was the Flat Button King on this hunt--and every single one (with the exception of my pewter button) made their way into his collecting pouch. There were several brass flats, a Beautiful larger Tombac button, and a great smaller flat button with a floral motif.
Then I saw DG staring at something for a while and wondered what in the heck she had. She said "Is this a...." and I saw the copper disk and completed the sentence for her--"LARGE CENT!" Well let me tell you, fellow Tnetters, we've had some Large Copper Imposters here recently--the French Franc that I was so *certain* was a LC that I carried it around in my pocket for hours before discovering the truth :P , the Hard Times Token that gave our pulses a jolt, and now this...so I carefully cleaned it just enough to see some detail. "This is not a LC" I said. It is actually a fantastic piece of local history--a souvenir medallion from the Southern Exposition in Louisville in 1884. Here's a photo of the obverse of the token:
I was actually able to locate the engraving of the Expo building used in cutting the dies for the token. Here it is, along with the reverse of the dug token:
And a portion of the wikipedia article on the Southern Expo. (The grounds were once where "Old Louisville" sits--and are now covered with blocks and blocks of Victorian mansions.)
The Southern Exposition was a five-year series of World's Fairs held in the city of Louisville, Kentucky from 1883 to 1887 in what is now Louisville's Old Louisville neighborhood. The exposition, held for 100 days each year on 45 acres immediately south of Central Park, which is now the St. James-Belgravia Historic District, was essentially an industrial and mercantile show. At the time, the exposition was larger than any previous American exhibition with the exception of the Centennial Exposition held in Philadelphia in 1876. U.S. President Chester A. Arthur opened the first annual exposition on August 1, 1883.
One highlight of the show was the largest to-date installation of incandescent light bulbs, having been recently invented by Thomas Edison (a resident of Louisville sixteen years before), to bring light to the exposition in the nighttime. 4,600 lamps, more than all the lamps installed in New York City at that time, were used.
For me, the most amazing part of this find is thinking about where the token was found...I won't reveal the location of this particular house site, but I will say that it was a good 45 minute drive by car from Louisville. And that's 45 minutes of travel at 55 or 60 mph. The person who left their house headed for this mercantile show was traveling by horse--and it would've taken most of a whole day to get there. After the long journey to the Ohio River, they would've crossed the river at one of the ferries--arriving either close to 2nd street from the New Albany side, or they might’ve come into Louisville by way of the Portland neighborhood. And then the long trek--block after block--through the city to where Central Park now stands. I would imagine that whoever lived in this house had never seen Louisville before--and I'm sure that such an incredible convention, big buildings, and horse-drawn street cars would've made a lasting impression. This is probably why the token was saved and cherished (notice the fact that it is holed for wearing).
Now back to the hunt... The finds continued--including a hulking brass wedding band for Bonzaibrandi and a beautiful little brass cross for Rodeo. (This is actually one of my favorite finds from the hunt). Unfortunately (and all too soon) it was getting dark. I was still detecting like a man with a fever until the sun was almost down:
Pretty soon, DG had done it again. (She's a force to be reckoned with!). She found a little token which she gave little thought to--thinking it was a brass washer--until we got home for the cleaning party... Here's a photo of our cleaning party, complete with Beer, Pizza, and Hearty Congratulations:
Yesterday I went out with Rodeo Recon, Digger Girl, and Bonzaibrandi (Recon's Girl--and a new Tnet member now!). We were on the trail of an ooooold house site in Indiana. I told them that I wanted to try out my research skills by walking (with the detectors off!) out in the field and getting to where I thought the site had been, and then turning them on. (Rather than our usual procedure of walking out through the fields metal detecting
toward the site, and gradually getting ourselves centered directly on top of it.) Well, we tried it--and no iron graced our ears
But as it turns out, I was only about 30 feet from the edge of the iron patch Wandering slightly up and over from our initial spot, I got a few choppy iron signals and then BAM! Upon seeing the first piece of the pot-bellied stove come out of the hole, I waved it over my head and yelled "We got a house site!" Ladies and Gentlemen, as soon as I hit that first piece of housesite iron in the cornfield, we were all business! We set up the "base camp"--with plenty of water for a long hot day in the dusty fields, and set to work.
Then we started concentrate our mental energy and detecting skills on figuring out the perimeters of the iron patch and artifacts. This took a while, since they were spread over a larger than usual area. We started pounding the cornfields--carefully gridding off rows since there was the benefit of some corn stubble left. Right off I got a pewter button--domed on one side and flat on the other, with an iron stain on the back from the long-ago broken shank. Unfortunately this was one of my few keepers from the hunt. I had the skunk coming eventually--and with as much as Lady Luck has smiled on what I have walked across in the past week, I can't complain :P Besides, I have to talk with great excitement about what the other talented members of the team found. Here’s some photos of our professionals: Rodeo Recon, DG, and BBrandi. I like the shot of the girls taking a short break. Special thanks to Rodeo for some of these awesome photos!
Just a short time into the hunt, DG got a Beautiful piece of a pewter spoon. I motioned for the others to come over and said "We've got an ooooold site here!" I was thrilled with the prospect of some old coppers and early buttons being recovered. We kept hitting the corn rows with the renewed excitement of older finds coming up.
Then--as I knew they would in a site where pewter was found--the flat buttons started turning up. Rodeo Recon was the Flat Button King on this hunt--and every single one (with the exception of my pewter button) made their way into his collecting pouch. There were several brass flats, a Beautiful larger Tombac button, and a great smaller flat button with a floral motif.
Then I saw DG staring at something for a while and wondered what in the heck she had. She said "Is this a...." and I saw the copper disk and completed the sentence for her--"LARGE CENT!" Well let me tell you, fellow Tnetters, we've had some Large Copper Imposters here recently--the French Franc that I was so *certain* was a LC that I carried it around in my pocket for hours before discovering the truth :P , the Hard Times Token that gave our pulses a jolt, and now this...so I carefully cleaned it just enough to see some detail. "This is not a LC" I said. It is actually a fantastic piece of local history--a souvenir medallion from the Southern Exposition in Louisville in 1884. Here's a photo of the obverse of the token:
I was actually able to locate the engraving of the Expo building used in cutting the dies for the token. Here it is, along with the reverse of the dug token:
And a portion of the wikipedia article on the Southern Expo. (The grounds were once where "Old Louisville" sits--and are now covered with blocks and blocks of Victorian mansions.)
The Southern Exposition was a five-year series of World's Fairs held in the city of Louisville, Kentucky from 1883 to 1887 in what is now Louisville's Old Louisville neighborhood. The exposition, held for 100 days each year on 45 acres immediately south of Central Park, which is now the St. James-Belgravia Historic District, was essentially an industrial and mercantile show. At the time, the exposition was larger than any previous American exhibition with the exception of the Centennial Exposition held in Philadelphia in 1876. U.S. President Chester A. Arthur opened the first annual exposition on August 1, 1883.
One highlight of the show was the largest to-date installation of incandescent light bulbs, having been recently invented by Thomas Edison (a resident of Louisville sixteen years before), to bring light to the exposition in the nighttime. 4,600 lamps, more than all the lamps installed in New York City at that time, were used.
For me, the most amazing part of this find is thinking about where the token was found...I won't reveal the location of this particular house site, but I will say that it was a good 45 minute drive by car from Louisville. And that's 45 minutes of travel at 55 or 60 mph. The person who left their house headed for this mercantile show was traveling by horse--and it would've taken most of a whole day to get there. After the long journey to the Ohio River, they would've crossed the river at one of the ferries--arriving either close to 2nd street from the New Albany side, or they might’ve come into Louisville by way of the Portland neighborhood. And then the long trek--block after block--through the city to where Central Park now stands. I would imagine that whoever lived in this house had never seen Louisville before--and I'm sure that such an incredible convention, big buildings, and horse-drawn street cars would've made a lasting impression. This is probably why the token was saved and cherished (notice the fact that it is holed for wearing).
Now back to the hunt... The finds continued--including a hulking brass wedding band for Bonzaibrandi and a beautiful little brass cross for Rodeo. (This is actually one of my favorite finds from the hunt). Unfortunately (and all too soon) it was getting dark. I was still detecting like a man with a fever until the sun was almost down:
Pretty soon, DG had done it again. (She's a force to be reckoned with!). She found a little token which she gave little thought to--thinking it was a brass washer--until we got home for the cleaning party... Here's a photo of our cleaning party, complete with Beer, Pizza, and Hearty Congratulations:
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