I'm also a newbee to this forum and live near Baton Rouge. I've had a MD for about 4 years now and hardly use it; mainly because I never really learned how. At first I thought it might be defective but I think it is me that is the problem. It has way too many knobs and settings. It is a Tesoro Bandido II umax. Can someone direct me somewhere to learn how to use this thing properly? An old friend of mine, that I don't see any more, has been MDing for years and has found all sorts of relics; including gold coins, and he was unable to tell me anything about the MD I have. He used a very old White MD, I think it was and he had marks-a-lot , marks to set all his knobs. He never made any adjustments to his MD unless the knobs had moved from his marks.
Without giving too many clues, I know of a place that still probably has relics left over from the Civil War - all of them would be Confederate though. The place is heavily wooded now but the problem is that quite a few homeless people live in the woods - mainly alcohol and drug addicts. I tried the site once by myself but finally left after coming across a camp site with a makeshift tent and a camp fire. I could hear them talking all around me off in the bushes. I assume they heard me and went off and hid. I had a pistol with me but I decided it was best that I leave without coming into contact with any of them. A few dead bodies have been found on the site.
I grew up near this site back in the 1960's and although I never found anything, not that I was looking, I can remember some of my friends that lived near to the site showing me plenty of mini-balls and even a few small caliber cannon balls that they had found in the area. One friend even had what I would guess was the handle from a sword. It was quite corroded and probably of little value but it was easy to tell what it was. All of these items were found on the surface which was strange but it finally dawned on me why? My friends had maybe a year before started raising a few pigs and obviously the pigs had rooted around and brought these things up to the surface. There must still be relics in the area. It once was a large cotton plantation and I can just barely remember the old house before it was torn down in the early 60's.
Don't know if it will help, but for the poster that lives in Galvez; I read a fairly new book not long ago from the library about the history of Bayou Manchac. The Lady authors last name was Sternberg. Plenty of maps etc. A well traveled area from prehistoric times till about the 1930's. A very interesting book.