A few hours in the Town of Eagle

[watercolor]

On the way to my brother's place Friday, I stopped in the Town of Eagle for a few hours of MDing. I checked in at the Town Hall for permission and spent maybe 40-minutes talking with one of the town's officials who was extremely helpful with the town's history. He was a wealth of information. After we spoke, he introduced me to the one of the police officers on duty and explained that I wished to MD near where the old train depot (now gone) used to be and he said "No problem".

Before my trip, I super-imposed an early Sanborn map (thanks Kevo) with a current aerial photo so I could get an idea of what structures were still there. . . very helpful.



In this view, I was standing where the old depot was in 1900.
The tree between the two buildings (top right) is where I dug the brass RR lock. 15 paces to the left of this tree is where the bent 10" spike was dug.



In addition to the spike and lock, I dug a few pieces of lead, a memorial and a clad dime. . . Oh, and the 1925 buffalo, I got that in change at Starbucks on my way home. Maybe I should forget about MDing and just drink coffee instead




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[Bavaria Mike]

Interesting RR finds! If you are lucky, you might find a trash pit from the old RR station, the stations used to burn old RR ties in the wood ovens and throw the ashes into the pits, might be some old RR date nails in there. HH, Mike

 

[watercolor]

Mike, thanks! I never gave that a thought. . . I'm planning a trip back there within the next several weeks so I'll have more time to check this out.

Thanks again for your suggestion!

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[John (Ma)]

Nice finds.

 

[Bavaria Mike]

Another tip about date nails, if you have a bridge/tressle in the RR line it would be worth checking around the bases for old RR ties. I found a small stack of about 9 RR ties at the beginning of a bridge/tressle here in Germany, retrieved my oldest date nail from that stack of 1901, it is only a number 1 on the square nail head. I was not able to get to all the date nails as the RR tie stack had fused together from all the years of being stacked and decaying, I did not have the tools to pry them apart and tool of choice would have been a pick. Could have been a few outhouses in the area as well, that would be an interesting dig/sift. HH and good luck, Mike

 

[tymcmurray]

Anywhere near the railroads ore a lot of work, aren't they?

Good work. The nickel was a nice bonus.