notgittinenny, I was going to directly respond to you, until I saw that you have a fan out there (Blackx) so I will respond to both of you. First off it sounds like a dream come true site and I would have been right in there no questions asked. I do however, go to great lengths to record, catalog, and preserve my artifacts. My goal is to open a museum down the road so that people can actually see these finds. The Archies that I have met are a bunch of miserable, power tripping, self righteous, well I better stop here. After all the yelling and names they have called me, I have no use for them. One year, there was some major construction going on in my city. The site was where a major fort had once been and this fort was the start of our city. Very important site. When a few historical type people called up the government archies and told them that the digging was getting awfully close to the probable fort site, the archies told them that fort wasn't there. After half the fort was gone and people saw the old palisades exposed, Again the archies were called and they finally came out. Someone I know who used to work there said that they knew it was there and they had no money to do anything about it, so they where gonna let it be carried away to the landfill! I have saved many sites from development only to get yelled at about getting a permit. Where were you guys! I found human remains a few years ago along the river where arrowheads where being found. This was in a busy park on a long weekend. I covered up the remains since there were alot of fishermen and people milling about, called the park police who have a few archies on staff and brought them to the site. They were impressed with me. Monday morning back in the city, I called the government archies and they gave me sh** for not calling them first! I never did find out anything about my find. The archies have no money or funding to do anything so they would rather it rot in the ground or be destroyed by development. When they do dig something, it goes in a box and is buried in a warehouse full of amazing treasures never to be seen again. I haven't seen an archaeological report or book published in 30 years so the public isn't learning anything about their history from these guys. I have also learned about corruption within the archie community as collections went missing and things were sold behind closed doors. Like I said before, I better stop now.
notgittinenny, make sure your friend keeps the collection intact and documented. I hope he gets an opportunity to share this amazing collection with others. I'd hate to see it end up in a box, never to be seen again.
Dave.
,(now who has never done that before?) He found one of the crosses about 3 inches deep in the blackened area (huge firepit) The other was in the overburden that had been piled nearby. Then they started eyeballing trade beads. They went home and got their sifting equipment and shovels. Also while detecting, he located a silver trade thimble. they worked this site for over 6 weeks and nobody was the wiser. Just two people with incredibly tight lips. Heaven forbid a University should find out! Eventually as work progressed, they had a plan so they went and got 75 5 gallon buckets, and filled them with all the firepit material they could get, loaded them into several pickup truck loads, and they took it all home and dumped it in the middle of his garage floor, (so he could sift it during the winter months). Good Choice! They sifted all the dirt and charcoal, and found hundreds of trade beads of all colors including red, blue. When he decided to clean the blue clay out of the thimble, he had a fine mesh screen in the sink in the garage, and as he was picking the loosened clay out of it with a toothpick, he found 35 elongated beads that had holes drilled lengthwise through them. He later found out that they were wampum made out of black coral. I wish he would have told me about this site, while they were still working it. 
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