- Joined
- Jun 1, 2026
- Messages
- 273
- Reaction score
- 834
- Golden Thread
- 0
- Location
- Roswell, NM
- Detector(s) used
- All Garrett: Ace 250 (two), AceApex, VX-9. Have owned just about every Garrett ever made. First three detecter I made myself, with the first one in 1962.
- #1
Thread Owner
One indelible fact of getting old is the tendency to pontificate. With that knowledge, allow me to continue.
I started to metal detect after I built my first detector, a BFO design included in an old G&B kit bought from Bernstein-Applebee Electronics in Kansas City. Suffice to say, I was hooked without even knowing it. Several home brew ones came after, along with a slew of Garrett models over the years. I now own three Garrett models. But this isn’t about Garrett per se. Rather it is about the state of the state! If I was forced to give it a name, it would be Capitalization!
I was born, raised, and lived in the Kansas City, area until 1973. At the time, you could metal detect just about anywhere without the local gendarmerie pestering you. One of my best sites was the exit paths for the Starlight Theater located within the Swope Park and Zoo. If the performance was rained out, all the better! I found keys galore, spilled change, a ring now and then, and even a money clip once in a while. Today? Even carrying a metal detector at that location would be next to suicidal!
Another example I mentioned elsewhere on this site… Ghost towns. Vicksburg, Colorado was once a bunch of dilapidated buildings waiting for Mother Nature to do her work. Most of the structures weren’t much more than scrap lumber with little value. Most other Colorado ghost towns suffered the same fate.
Jump forward to legalized gambling and cannabis in Colorado (et. al.), and ghost towns suddenly became bustling, money-making areas of commerce! And it doesn’t matter how remote the site, what mining once built, is being rebuilt as meccas of slots, weed, liquor, and tourist dives!
Let us all pray that our favorite swing spots don’t become verboten.
I started to metal detect after I built my first detector, a BFO design included in an old G&B kit bought from Bernstein-Applebee Electronics in Kansas City. Suffice to say, I was hooked without even knowing it. Several home brew ones came after, along with a slew of Garrett models over the years. I now own three Garrett models. But this isn’t about Garrett per se. Rather it is about the state of the state! If I was forced to give it a name, it would be Capitalization!
I was born, raised, and lived in the Kansas City, area until 1973. At the time, you could metal detect just about anywhere without the local gendarmerie pestering you. One of my best sites was the exit paths for the Starlight Theater located within the Swope Park and Zoo. If the performance was rained out, all the better! I found keys galore, spilled change, a ring now and then, and even a money clip once in a while. Today? Even carrying a metal detector at that location would be next to suicidal!
Another example I mentioned elsewhere on this site… Ghost towns. Vicksburg, Colorado was once a bunch of dilapidated buildings waiting for Mother Nature to do her work. Most of the structures weren’t much more than scrap lumber with little value. Most other Colorado ghost towns suffered the same fate.
Jump forward to legalized gambling and cannabis in Colorado (et. al.), and ghost towns suddenly became bustling, money-making areas of commerce! And it doesn’t matter how remote the site, what mining once built, is being rebuilt as meccas of slots, weed, liquor, and tourist dives!
Let us all pray that our favorite swing spots don’t become verboten.
