mpostma
Bronze Member
Last fall an older gentleman told me about a picnic grove that had been the site for church picnics and revival meeting in the early days of Northern Michigan.
The grove was used from late 1800s up until the late 20's.
Made a few tries to reach the owner last fall, but got no answer, and no answering machine. Last week as I left on a fishing trip I scored a cell number!
After leaving a few messages, and trying not bug him too much, he called me back. I explained what I wanted to do. He said "feel free" but warned that over the winter much of the gove had been logged.
Saturday morning I woke to 40 degrees and rain! I decided I just couldn't wait, so I packed up the Quattro, with the rain cover on, and drove the 15 miles over to the grove. When I got there I saw that the loggers had left treetops all over the grove. It was going to be a little tougher than I had hoped!
Waited in the van for the rain to taper off a little. After about 20 minutes I decided to give it a go anyway.
Had the procoil on the Quattro, and a fresh set of rechargables inside. As I loaded up my diggers etc I realized I had left my pinpointer at home, but that wasn't going to stop me.
Within 5 minutes I got a solid nickel hit. Out came an undated buff from 6 inches! Good start! I wandered all over between the brush piles and tree tops looking the grove over, and swinging. After another 20 minutes or so I got another undated buff.
I settled on an area on a hillside not far from the road, and not burried in brush, where I had found quite a few iron signals. I slowed down and started working the hillside. Penny hits started coming. Some were only 4 or 5 inches down, while others were 8 to 10 inches. I had 4 or 5 pennies in the pouch within an hour.
I had no idea if they were wheaties or indians. There was so much mud on my gloves and the coins were coming out caked in crud.
Pinpointing with the procoil is one of the areas that I really need to work on. Recovering coins seemed to take forever. The holes were full of roots and I was trying to be very careful. I was wet, and at 40 degrees I was getting cold.
Finally I hit a barber dime! 1909, and in pretty good shape.
Decided to drive home, eat some lunch, get dry clothes on, see what I had found, and get my pinpointer!
Within an hour I was back out in the grove. The rain had tapered off. I had on warm clothes, had my pinpointer, and had changed to the 5" coil on the Quattro. I was ready.
I concentrated on the hillside where I had been finding coins. Within minutes I was hitting multiple penny type signals! I was putting coins in the pouch without even trying to see if they were indians or wheaties. Then I got a nice silver tone! Another barber dime! Within a couple of minutes I had a third!
Still finding pennies. And then another silver tone! This time it was a flattened silver thimble! Cool. ( McConnon's Vanilla Compound) and then a strange tone and up came a round rusty tin item about 1/2 inch thick and 2 inch diameter.
Since I was out of time I worked my way back to the van. What a day. First day in the Grove and I had:
3 Barber dimes 1899, 1906 and 1909
3 Indians 1892, 1896, and 1906
2 undated buffalo nickels
5 wheaties 1910, 1911, 1912, 1917 and 1920
1 silver thimble
The round disk turned out to be a Penny Bank! empty of course, and it started to fall apart when I rinsed it off, but cool!
I'm pretty sure I will find time to go back out to the grove again soon!
Thanks for reading this long winded post.
Mark
The grove was used from late 1800s up until the late 20's.
Made a few tries to reach the owner last fall, but got no answer, and no answering machine. Last week as I left on a fishing trip I scored a cell number!
After leaving a few messages, and trying not bug him too much, he called me back. I explained what I wanted to do. He said "feel free" but warned that over the winter much of the gove had been logged.
Saturday morning I woke to 40 degrees and rain! I decided I just couldn't wait, so I packed up the Quattro, with the rain cover on, and drove the 15 miles over to the grove. When I got there I saw that the loggers had left treetops all over the grove. It was going to be a little tougher than I had hoped!
Waited in the van for the rain to taper off a little. After about 20 minutes I decided to give it a go anyway.
Had the procoil on the Quattro, and a fresh set of rechargables inside. As I loaded up my diggers etc I realized I had left my pinpointer at home, but that wasn't going to stop me.
Within 5 minutes I got a solid nickel hit. Out came an undated buff from 6 inches! Good start! I wandered all over between the brush piles and tree tops looking the grove over, and swinging. After another 20 minutes or so I got another undated buff.
I settled on an area on a hillside not far from the road, and not burried in brush, where I had found quite a few iron signals. I slowed down and started working the hillside. Penny hits started coming. Some were only 4 or 5 inches down, while others were 8 to 10 inches. I had 4 or 5 pennies in the pouch within an hour.
I had no idea if they were wheaties or indians. There was so much mud on my gloves and the coins were coming out caked in crud.
Pinpointing with the procoil is one of the areas that I really need to work on. Recovering coins seemed to take forever. The holes were full of roots and I was trying to be very careful. I was wet, and at 40 degrees I was getting cold.
Finally I hit a barber dime! 1909, and in pretty good shape.
Decided to drive home, eat some lunch, get dry clothes on, see what I had found, and get my pinpointer!
Within an hour I was back out in the grove. The rain had tapered off. I had on warm clothes, had my pinpointer, and had changed to the 5" coil on the Quattro. I was ready.
I concentrated on the hillside where I had been finding coins. Within minutes I was hitting multiple penny type signals! I was putting coins in the pouch without even trying to see if they were indians or wheaties. Then I got a nice silver tone! Another barber dime! Within a couple of minutes I had a third!
Still finding pennies. And then another silver tone! This time it was a flattened silver thimble! Cool. ( McConnon's Vanilla Compound) and then a strange tone and up came a round rusty tin item about 1/2 inch thick and 2 inch diameter.
Since I was out of time I worked my way back to the van. What a day. First day in the Grove and I had:
3 Barber dimes 1899, 1906 and 1909
3 Indians 1892, 1896, and 1906
2 undated buffalo nickels
5 wheaties 1910, 1911, 1912, 1917 and 1920
1 silver thimble
The round disk turned out to be a Penny Bank! empty of course, and it started to fall apart when I rinsed it off, but cool!
I'm pretty sure I will find time to go back out to the grove again soon!
Thanks for reading this long winded post.
Mark
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It's must be a great feeling to find a place that produces like that?
