BuckleBoy
Gold Member
Hello All,
Rodeo Recon and I got a chance to hit several great spots, and we finally got all the finds cleaned, ID'ed, and ready to post. It has taken a while. We did two hunts on the same property, and so now I'm posting both the first hunt and the return trip. (Yes, there will be yet another return trip after this cold snap breaks...
) Sorry for the lack of "action" photos--we were too busy diggin!
So here's the story. We are hunting a very old parcel of land for our area, and the jury is still out on whether or not we've found our target--the Oldest Structure built on that land. (Although we have found Two other house sites and a Mill in the last two hunts, and had a Lot of fun finding those
)
We first secured permission from the wonderful property owner (we've developed a great relationship with him and his sons--after hunting several other sites this summer and fall that he owned). Then we got out on the site. Looking at the deeds, census records, topo maps, plat maps, and other Top Secret Documents from the Buckleboy Files
we got hunting. Here's a photo Rodeo snapped of me during his "briefing" before the hunt:
We walked out into the middle of the 170 acre plot of land and started up on a knoll at one of the "target areas" I wanted to hit. After seeing some brick, pottery, and other items, we knew we should turn the machines on and take the bean field by storm. Flat buttons immediately started coming up--a Good sign. Here's a photo of one in the clod:
We seemed to have walked ourselves into a little button patch. The buttons were everywhere. (It is unusual for us to dig more than a couple flat buttons per hunt, but this hunt we found 19 of them.) Pretty soon I dug a deep, iffy signal and out popped a "muffin-style" cuff button that I just *knew* would be a good one. Picking the button up, I could make out the motto from the Kentucky State Seal "United We Stand / Divided We Fall" shimmering in GOLD underneath the dirt.
After sharing the find with Rodeo, we kept at it--digging two IH's in the process. (These appear in the "uncleaned finds" photos--but they were given to the property owner, along with a Fine display case of items.) Here's one of those Fatties:
Pretty soon, I dug the back from a "muffin-style" coat button--then another, and I started to wonder if there were more intact State Seal buttons there waiting for us. Sure enough, I dug a Kentucky State Seal Coat button:
Then I got another back from one (front had disintegrated and was nowhere to be found). I'd now found a total of three partial KY Coat buttons, one complete coat button, and one cuff button. At this point I realized that the whole coat had been tossed out at some point, and had rotted, the buttons to be scattered around by the plow. The whole while, Rodeo was cleaning up on the flat buttons and other cool relics--including a nice intact Crotal Bell and a Colonial Era Barrel Tap.
About 15 minutes later, I dug a nice brass signal and saw this in the clod--yet another KY button. With this, my final KY button for the day, the total stood at Five Coat buttons and one Cuff button.
The finds in the button patch started to slack off a bit, so I circled around behind the site, following the ridge back toward the road, looking for the barn site. I've seen three late-date Indian Head Cents, a Two Cent Piece, and a CN Indian Head come from barn sites this year--and that's plenty reason for me to try and find the sites, dig through the iron and brass rivets, and find the relics and coins! Well, I got out there and found...no iron! So I circled back around the other way after taking this photo of Rodeo as a speck in the distance:
Although we couldn't manage to find the barn (too much area and not enough time!), we thinned the site out considerably before we had to walk the half a mile back through the field to get Rodeo to work on time. I fanned out and dragged my feet a bit on leaving the site because I wanted to run a quick pattern through a few more "target areas" on the way back to the car. The first area I hit was a strikeout. No iron anywhere. The second area I hit--I started seeing brick! I heard Rodeo say "I'm going to the car to drop off the gear--meanwhile see if you can dig up a find!" I lit into that iron patch with a vengeance, since there were so many tiny pieces of brick in the field there it was like walking on a Brick Carpet. Sure enough, flat buttons started turning up. Rodeo ran back from the car swinging like a Rabid Alpaca, hoping to snag just one more find before leaving the site. We got a few more buttons with our last minutes there, and then I had to "bend" the speed limit a hair to get him to work on time. 
So here are the Barrel Tap, a Cool Pewter button with an "X" on it, and the Crotal Bell. (The rest of the story, and more good photos are in the first reply below...)
Rodeo Recon and I got a chance to hit several great spots, and we finally got all the finds cleaned, ID'ed, and ready to post. It has taken a while. We did two hunts on the same property, and so now I'm posting both the first hunt and the return trip. (Yes, there will be yet another return trip after this cold snap breaks...
) Sorry for the lack of "action" photos--we were too busy diggin! So here's the story. We are hunting a very old parcel of land for our area, and the jury is still out on whether or not we've found our target--the Oldest Structure built on that land. (Although we have found Two other house sites and a Mill in the last two hunts, and had a Lot of fun finding those
) We first secured permission from the wonderful property owner (we've developed a great relationship with him and his sons--after hunting several other sites this summer and fall that he owned). Then we got out on the site. Looking at the deeds, census records, topo maps, plat maps, and other Top Secret Documents from the Buckleboy Files
we got hunting. Here's a photo Rodeo snapped of me during his "briefing" before the hunt:
We walked out into the middle of the 170 acre plot of land and started up on a knoll at one of the "target areas" I wanted to hit. After seeing some brick, pottery, and other items, we knew we should turn the machines on and take the bean field by storm. Flat buttons immediately started coming up--a Good sign. Here's a photo of one in the clod:
We seemed to have walked ourselves into a little button patch. The buttons were everywhere. (It is unusual for us to dig more than a couple flat buttons per hunt, but this hunt we found 19 of them.) Pretty soon I dug a deep, iffy signal and out popped a "muffin-style" cuff button that I just *knew* would be a good one. Picking the button up, I could make out the motto from the Kentucky State Seal "United We Stand / Divided We Fall" shimmering in GOLD underneath the dirt.
After sharing the find with Rodeo, we kept at it--digging two IH's in the process. (These appear in the "uncleaned finds" photos--but they were given to the property owner, along with a Fine display case of items.) Here's one of those Fatties:
Pretty soon, I dug the back from a "muffin-style" coat button--then another, and I started to wonder if there were more intact State Seal buttons there waiting for us. Sure enough, I dug a Kentucky State Seal Coat button:
Then I got another back from one (front had disintegrated and was nowhere to be found). I'd now found a total of three partial KY Coat buttons, one complete coat button, and one cuff button. At this point I realized that the whole coat had been tossed out at some point, and had rotted, the buttons to be scattered around by the plow.
The whole while, Rodeo was cleaning up on the flat buttons and other cool relics--including a nice intact Crotal Bell and a Colonial Era Barrel Tap. About 15 minutes later, I dug a nice brass signal and saw this in the clod--yet another KY button. With this, my final KY button for the day, the total stood at Five Coat buttons and one Cuff button.
The finds in the button patch started to slack off a bit, so I circled around behind the site, following the ridge back toward the road, looking for the barn site. I've seen three late-date Indian Head Cents, a Two Cent Piece, and a CN Indian Head come from barn sites this year--and that's plenty reason for me to try and find the sites, dig through the iron and brass rivets, and find the relics and coins! Well, I got out there and found...no iron! So I circled back around the other way after taking this photo of Rodeo as a speck in the distance:
Although we couldn't manage to find the barn (too much area and not enough time!), we thinned the site out considerably before we had to walk the half a mile back through the field to get Rodeo to work on time. I fanned out and dragged my feet a bit on leaving the site because I wanted to run a quick pattern through a few more "target areas" on the way back to the car. The first area I hit was a strikeout. No iron anywhere. The second area I hit--I started seeing brick! I heard Rodeo say "I'm going to the car to drop off the gear--meanwhile see if you can dig up a find!" I lit into that iron patch with a vengeance, since there were so many tiny pieces of brick in the field there it was like walking on a Brick Carpet.
Sure enough, flat buttons started turning up. Rodeo ran back from the car swinging like a Rabid Alpaca, hoping to snag just one more find before leaving the site. We got a few more buttons with our last minutes there, and then I had to "bend" the speed limit a hair to get him to work on time. So here are the Barrel Tap, a Cool Pewter button with an "X" on it, and the Crotal Bell. (The rest of the story, and more good photos are in the first reply below...)
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