Found A Buried Wagon In Missouri On A River Bend Need Help!

[GrizzlyFrost]

This is crazy, SO the other day I was kayaking the Missouri river and headed down a little side creek. When out of the corner of my eye i saw what looked to be a old wagon wheel with wood spokes. I decided to go closer and to my supersize it was! So with my wife and I both being on our day of we decided to go dig it up and metal detect around the area. Well after getting the wheel fully exposed we realized it was still attached to a axial so we freaked out. We decided to spend the next 4 hours digging 8 feet down and found the other wheel at the end of the axial which seems to be broken. The spokes are on it still but not the metal rim or the wooden rim.

Trying to dig further we found that its attached to what looks like where it would be drawn by horses. Here is the catch its upside down, we found some bits of old china and some glass bottles. After looking up the makers marks of the bottles and plates we come to the fact that they are from 1880-1930. Three of the glass items including the china are from WV but two are from local glass makers no longer around. Those two are St. Louis Glass Works 1821-1877 and Obear-Nestor Glass Company 1894-1978 From East Saint Louis.

Here is where we need help. We have no idea what to do at this point, we want this dug up and not to be taken hold of by the state and to be told to leave it alone. Ive Thought maybe call a local college to see if they will but I dont think they will care. This wagon has wooden axles and the wheels are roughly 54in with wooden spokes. I will attach photos, im sorry but at the point at which we dug down to the other wheel we were so covered in mud that we couldn't very well handle our phones for pictures.

Is there anyone from missouri willing to help us dig this up? After looking at wagons and types i think the one posted below is what we found.

 

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[GrizzlyFrost]

Sadly the video is to large to upload

 

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[Patriot Relics]

What a great story and piece of forgotten history, perhaps swept downstream during a river crossing- if it were me I'd just remove it piece by piece over a number of months rather than draw a bunch of attention to the site.

 

[GrizzlyFrost]

What a FABULOUS piece of history!!

I agree with the DIY approach. If you had another 4 to 6 healthy people, do you think it could be dug out by hand? If not, is there any way to get a small track hoe there without trespassing? Who owns the adjacent land?

After doing some research it is not private property

 

[GrizzlyFrost]

After doing some research it is not private property

yes with more people it could be done and sadly there is no way to get a truck or back hoe to this site without a lot of hacking and slashing

 

[BeenFishin]

Thats pretty cool to find out while kayaking. Hopefully they were transporting gold coins and eventually you will find the treasure chest full of them. Keep digging but i think you may want to upgrade your pink trowel to a real shovel *Har Har*. Also Jeff of PA posted those articles about mishaps along rivers with wagons. The imagination runs wild with these things. Awesome dig Grizzly, keep us updated when you flip it over!

 

[Ccarson]

You could try using a small generator and pressure washer. Or maybe a gold dredge that way anything you find stays in the sluice box.

 

[Cal_Cobra]

Looks like a great spot to dig a gold coin

 

[Ammoman]

awesome find! be sure and take lots of video!

 

[foiler]

That's a freight wagon. Many uses but not the type used for settlers moving west. These often used a 6 or 8 horse team sometimes training 2 wagons together. Your larger drygoods and mercantiel companies in the larger cities where also wholesalers for major manufactures and supplied small town stores with their goods. These wagons where used to deliver such goods as well as offload rail deliveries. A modified version of these wagons was used to move large trees to saw mills. I've see a 60" wheel version for moving trees. Barging these large freight wagons down river was a common practice. I'd be doing some research in your local area as to who the large suppliers were and river barging companies in the 1870 -1880's. Historic society would probably have the most info and if not they could tell you who did. A state college of university most likely. Good luck. Remember, loose lips sink ships.

 

[L.C. BAKER]

Outstanding find! Good luck on the recovery, take your time and be thorough in your search. Congratulations on a wonderful find.

L.C.

I would be interested to know where and when it was heading....

 

[mytimetoshine]

so cool!

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[Silver Tree Chaser]

I've seen a lot of incredible finds on T-Net, but never a wagon - until now. That's awesome.

 

[sutphin]

REMEMBER FINDERS KEEPERS AND ENJOY YOUR FIND ,CONGRATS. WELCOME NEW MEMBER AND WHAT A FIND.

 

[villagenut]

These things are common finds, I have dug dozens of wagons from creekbeds....