Stream of time
By Dee Henry | Hickory Daily Record
Published: March 25, 2009
CONOVER - It was one of those discoveries by a child that creates images of pirate plunder found by following a map with an "X" marking the spot.
Mitchell Pitman and Kirk Bowman, both 11, began finding coin-like medallions in a creek near Pitman's grandfather's house about a month or so ago.
Pirate plunder? No. It's just a tale of a 30-year-old church robbery where the loot was found, but there's no explanation of how the coins wound up in the creek.
Most of the coins are in small plastic bags, one to a bag. The bags are filled with mud from the creek, running under a bridge carrying Station House Road into Conover. No one seemed to know the name of the creek.
And while the coins aren't worth much to most people, members at St. Peter's Lutheran Church are overwhelmed by the discovery.
Not only are the medallions valuable to them as commemoratives of the church's 150th anniversary in 1975, but they also disappeared from the church about 30 years ago. Members of the church such as Jeannette Gantt had given up hope of ever finding them.
"It's just an amazing thing that has happened," said Gantt, a member of St. Peter's since 1956. "In 30 years' time, it's hard to tell where they've been."
Gantt said the pastor of the church at the time of the theft said the box that was taken contained between 500 and 700 of the medallions, probably weighing 50 pounds. It must have been a disappointing surprise to the thief or thieves when they discovered what was inside the box.
While the boys found the first of their treasure months ago, Mitchell Pitman only recently told his father, Shane, about the coins — on Sunday while they were in church. When Pitman looked at the medallion his son showed him, he noticed the name St. Peter's Lutheran Church and the dates 1825 to 1975.
"So I called the church today and talked with a woman there," Pitman said, "and she said, 'Well, we'd love to have them back' and I told her we'd try to find as many as we can."
Eleven medallions were sent to the church through a Catawba County Sheriff's Office deputy Tuesday.
The boys found five more while braving the cold water of the creek after the deputy left.
They offered cool reactions when asked what they thought when they found the first coin.
"We thought they were plastic coins," Bowman said.
"I mean, they can't be too big," added Mitchell Pitman.
But their shouts of "I found another one!" while splashing in the creek belied their excitement.
"You'd think they'd found buried treasure," Shane Pitman said.
What puzzles him is where the coins have been for the last 30 years.
"They couldn't have been here the whole time because I used to play in this creek when I was their age," he said.
The year Shane Pitman moved into the house next to the creek? 1975.
http://www2.hickoryrecord.com/content/2009/mar/25/stream-time/
By Dee Henry | Hickory Daily Record
Published: March 25, 2009
CONOVER - It was one of those discoveries by a child that creates images of pirate plunder found by following a map with an "X" marking the spot.
Mitchell Pitman and Kirk Bowman, both 11, began finding coin-like medallions in a creek near Pitman's grandfather's house about a month or so ago.
Pirate plunder? No. It's just a tale of a 30-year-old church robbery where the loot was found, but there's no explanation of how the coins wound up in the creek.
Most of the coins are in small plastic bags, one to a bag. The bags are filled with mud from the creek, running under a bridge carrying Station House Road into Conover. No one seemed to know the name of the creek.
And while the coins aren't worth much to most people, members at St. Peter's Lutheran Church are overwhelmed by the discovery.
Not only are the medallions valuable to them as commemoratives of the church's 150th anniversary in 1975, but they also disappeared from the church about 30 years ago. Members of the church such as Jeannette Gantt had given up hope of ever finding them.
"It's just an amazing thing that has happened," said Gantt, a member of St. Peter's since 1956. "In 30 years' time, it's hard to tell where they've been."
Gantt said the pastor of the church at the time of the theft said the box that was taken contained between 500 and 700 of the medallions, probably weighing 50 pounds. It must have been a disappointing surprise to the thief or thieves when they discovered what was inside the box.
While the boys found the first of their treasure months ago, Mitchell Pitman only recently told his father, Shane, about the coins — on Sunday while they were in church. When Pitman looked at the medallion his son showed him, he noticed the name St. Peter's Lutheran Church and the dates 1825 to 1975.
"So I called the church today and talked with a woman there," Pitman said, "and she said, 'Well, we'd love to have them back' and I told her we'd try to find as many as we can."
Eleven medallions were sent to the church through a Catawba County Sheriff's Office deputy Tuesday.
The boys found five more while braving the cold water of the creek after the deputy left.
They offered cool reactions when asked what they thought when they found the first coin.
"We thought they were plastic coins," Bowman said.
"I mean, they can't be too big," added Mitchell Pitman.
But their shouts of "I found another one!" while splashing in the creek belied their excitement.
"You'd think they'd found buried treasure," Shane Pitman said.
What puzzles him is where the coins have been for the last 30 years.
"They couldn't have been here the whole time because I used to play in this creek when I was their age," he said.
The year Shane Pitman moved into the house next to the creek? 1975.
http://www2.hickoryrecord.com/content/2009/mar/25/stream-time/
