- #1
Thread Owner
I had a very serious accident just over 20 years ago that resulted in severe mobility issues for me. I started detecting on and off about 10 years ago.. On when health allows off when it does not;-) Now for the story...
In 1971 I was 10 years old. My mother would drop me off at my aunt's house during the day in the summer while she worked. I would spend the day playing with my 2 cousins ages 8, 10. One day my younger cousin came in from playing outside and asked if anyone would like to go and get ice cream. My aunt started yelling(she was always yelling about someting) about not having any money until my uncle got paid on Friday.. blah.. blah.. blah.. My 8 year old cousin said "it's OK I'll pay for it" and held out his hand in which there were 5 silver dollars.
My aunt then started yelling at my cousin for stealing money from someone.. My cousin started crying and said that didn't steal them he said that he had "dug up the coins with his Tonka" bulldozer. My aunt then asked my cousin to show her where. My cousin led us to the side of an old barn that was on the property and pointed to a small hole in the ground.
My aunt went to the garage to get a shovel. Over the next hour we dug another 43 silver dollars(the dollars were all Morgans) from the spot where my cousin had been playing. We spent the rest of the afternoon and most of the next couple of days enlarging the hole, but did not find anymore coins...
Two years later my cousins and I were playing hide and seek in the back yard. I ran to the side of the house and hid in a lilac bush. When I crawled to the middle of the bush I saw a couple off pennies on the ground next to one of the roots. I moved some of the dirt away with my fingers and found more pennies. We ran into the house to tell my aunt which resulted in another one of her tirades(more yelling) about tracking mud into her kitchen. After explaining why we were so excited it was off to the garage for the shovel and then out to the lilac bush.
That afternoon we dug over 300 Indian head pennies, around 120 Barber dimes, and 63 Barber quarters out of the lilac bush.
That was the last find that was made on the property that I know of.. My aunt and uncle got divorced and sold the property in the 90's. Where did the money come from? I have a couple of ideas. I think that cache that I found was probably buried by the farmer that sold the land to my uncle.. As for the silver dollars and whatever else may be buried there.... I have VERY good reason to believe and VERY specific details that the Johnston gang may have been involved.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_Johnston_(criminal)
Also check out the movie At Close Range.
As I mentioned I have other specific details that I will share with someone willing to help me. I can help with detecting I have a White's XLT. I need help with the diggin'.
******** Update *******10/04/07***
I went and met with the current owner of the property on Saturday. He's a nice guy and we actually talked for about 30min. During our conversation he joked that "there might be a million dollars buried here somewhere, the Johnston gang used to hang out here". He asked me why I was interested in the property, and I told him that my uncle was a former owner. It only took him a couple of seconds to put 2 and 2 together and then he asked me "What do you know?". I was vague, but I told him that I have very specific knowledge of the 1970's ;-). He said "absolutely, how about next weekend". I have another commitment for next weekend so we settled for 2 weeks from this past Saturday.
The aunt that I mentioned in the story was my aunt by marriage. Her brother was a member of the Johnston gang. Although I was a kid I knew her brother and several of his "friends" from when they would "visit" my aunt.
I've accepted the offer of a TNET member from southern Chester County, PA to help with this project. He lives only a few miles from the site and has extensive MDing experience. I would like to say THANK YOU to everyone that responded to my request for help. I still can't believe how MANY responses that there were. I'll update this story next weekend.
******** Update *******10/13/07***
I spoke to the home owner on Wed. night just to make sure that this weekend was going to be OK for him. He said that Sat. would be good and for us (myself and Ocean7) to show up anytime after 11:00am. I called Ocean7 and we agreed to meet at a location near the site around 10:30am on Sat..
I started having problems with my back on Thurs. night which continued into Fri. and Sat. I called my doctor on Sat. morning and she called in a script for pain meds. Once I was "OK" to drive I hit the road. Ocean7 and I met up at around 11:30am and after discussing our plan of action we left for the site.
We arrived at the site at around 12:00pm and met with the owner. Ocean7 brought along a Salvage Agreement that we all discussed (50-50 split) and signed. The owner mentioned that his father in law was going to come and hunt with us. After waiting for about 10min the father in law arrived, then another 10min of introductions and conversation about the property we started our day.
I told the owner and the father in law the story about the silver dollars that were found in 1971 and we decided that we would begin our hunt there. Ocean7, the father in law, and I spread out and fired up our detectors. I started getting hits right away.. junk.. junk and more junk. Then I got a got dime signal with a depth of 4/12 in. I dug down around 4 in. and there in the bottom of the hole was a very nice 42 merc. I scanned the hole again and got another signal. I was pretty excited at this point. I dug another inch or so out of the whole and found a Jefferson nickel(#!@!).
We hunted till around 3:00pm and decided to take a break. As we sat and talked for about 15min my back started really bothering me.. I told the guys that I was going to have to stop. Ocean7 and the father in law decided to continue for the rest of the afternoon.
I found a total of 19 cents... 1 42 merc. 1 Jeff nickel. 4 Lincoln mems.. Not what I wanted, but exciting to me all the same. It was a beautiful day and everyone involved in the hunt was just top notch. The owner is a fantastic guy. The father in law is also a great guy. Ocean7 is a class act! No BS and a good guy to hunt with.
As I was driving home Ocean7 called me on the cell.. said that he was on his way home as well. He said that he found some misc... items and that he would post pictures when he has a chance.. We will both probably hit the site again as time allows.
Ocean7's finds from the hunt http://forum.treasurenet.com/index.php/topic,114005.0.html
A bit of a let down, but sometimes the treasure's in the journey and not the destination. I hope that EVERYONE had a great day..
In 1971 I was 10 years old. My mother would drop me off at my aunt's house during the day in the summer while she worked. I would spend the day playing with my 2 cousins ages 8, 10. One day my younger cousin came in from playing outside and asked if anyone would like to go and get ice cream. My aunt started yelling(she was always yelling about someting) about not having any money until my uncle got paid on Friday.. blah.. blah.. blah.. My 8 year old cousin said "it's OK I'll pay for it" and held out his hand in which there were 5 silver dollars.
My aunt then started yelling at my cousin for stealing money from someone.. My cousin started crying and said that didn't steal them he said that he had "dug up the coins with his Tonka" bulldozer. My aunt then asked my cousin to show her where. My cousin led us to the side of an old barn that was on the property and pointed to a small hole in the ground.
My aunt went to the garage to get a shovel. Over the next hour we dug another 43 silver dollars(the dollars were all Morgans) from the spot where my cousin had been playing. We spent the rest of the afternoon and most of the next couple of days enlarging the hole, but did not find anymore coins...
Two years later my cousins and I were playing hide and seek in the back yard. I ran to the side of the house and hid in a lilac bush. When I crawled to the middle of the bush I saw a couple off pennies on the ground next to one of the roots. I moved some of the dirt away with my fingers and found more pennies. We ran into the house to tell my aunt which resulted in another one of her tirades(more yelling) about tracking mud into her kitchen. After explaining why we were so excited it was off to the garage for the shovel and then out to the lilac bush.
That afternoon we dug over 300 Indian head pennies, around 120 Barber dimes, and 63 Barber quarters out of the lilac bush.
That was the last find that was made on the property that I know of.. My aunt and uncle got divorced and sold the property in the 90's. Where did the money come from? I have a couple of ideas. I think that cache that I found was probably buried by the farmer that sold the land to my uncle.. As for the silver dollars and whatever else may be buried there.... I have VERY good reason to believe and VERY specific details that the Johnston gang may have been involved.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_Johnston_(criminal)
Also check out the movie At Close Range.
As I mentioned I have other specific details that I will share with someone willing to help me. I can help with detecting I have a White's XLT. I need help with the diggin'.
******** Update *******10/04/07***
I went and met with the current owner of the property on Saturday. He's a nice guy and we actually talked for about 30min. During our conversation he joked that "there might be a million dollars buried here somewhere, the Johnston gang used to hang out here". He asked me why I was interested in the property, and I told him that my uncle was a former owner. It only took him a couple of seconds to put 2 and 2 together and then he asked me "What do you know?". I was vague, but I told him that I have very specific knowledge of the 1970's ;-). He said "absolutely, how about next weekend". I have another commitment for next weekend so we settled for 2 weeks from this past Saturday.
The aunt that I mentioned in the story was my aunt by marriage. Her brother was a member of the Johnston gang. Although I was a kid I knew her brother and several of his "friends" from when they would "visit" my aunt.
I've accepted the offer of a TNET member from southern Chester County, PA to help with this project. He lives only a few miles from the site and has extensive MDing experience. I would like to say THANK YOU to everyone that responded to my request for help. I still can't believe how MANY responses that there were. I'll update this story next weekend.
******** Update *******10/13/07***
I spoke to the home owner on Wed. night just to make sure that this weekend was going to be OK for him. He said that Sat. would be good and for us (myself and Ocean7) to show up anytime after 11:00am. I called Ocean7 and we agreed to meet at a location near the site around 10:30am on Sat..
I started having problems with my back on Thurs. night which continued into Fri. and Sat. I called my doctor on Sat. morning and she called in a script for pain meds. Once I was "OK" to drive I hit the road. Ocean7 and I met up at around 11:30am and after discussing our plan of action we left for the site.
We arrived at the site at around 12:00pm and met with the owner. Ocean7 brought along a Salvage Agreement that we all discussed (50-50 split) and signed. The owner mentioned that his father in law was going to come and hunt with us. After waiting for about 10min the father in law arrived, then another 10min of introductions and conversation about the property we started our day.
I told the owner and the father in law the story about the silver dollars that were found in 1971 and we decided that we would begin our hunt there. Ocean7, the father in law, and I spread out and fired up our detectors. I started getting hits right away.. junk.. junk and more junk. Then I got a got dime signal with a depth of 4/12 in. I dug down around 4 in. and there in the bottom of the hole was a very nice 42 merc. I scanned the hole again and got another signal. I was pretty excited at this point. I dug another inch or so out of the whole and found a Jefferson nickel(#!@!).
We hunted till around 3:00pm and decided to take a break. As we sat and talked for about 15min my back started really bothering me.. I told the guys that I was going to have to stop. Ocean7 and the father in law decided to continue for the rest of the afternoon.
I found a total of 19 cents... 1 42 merc. 1 Jeff nickel. 4 Lincoln mems.. Not what I wanted, but exciting to me all the same. It was a beautiful day and everyone involved in the hunt was just top notch. The owner is a fantastic guy. The father in law is also a great guy. Ocean7 is a class act! No BS and a good guy to hunt with.
As I was driving home Ocean7 called me on the cell.. said that he was on his way home as well. He said that he found some misc... items and that he would post pictures when he has a chance.. We will both probably hit the site again as time allows.
Ocean7's finds from the hunt http://forum.treasurenet.com/index.php/topic,114005.0.html
A bit of a let down, but sometimes the treasure's in the journey and not the destination. I hope that EVERYONE had a great day..
? He bought a metal detector just for that! He wasnt a hobbiest.....just wanted to find a cache he knew existed somewhere on old family property.
