New Year's Eve hunt

[pepperj]

Considering the date, and conditions I'll take it.
Did the chores, time left in the day so I figured why not go for a year end hunt.
Really I wouldn't be inclined on doing a post, but trying to make an effort.
So I went to the GW site (GW button) always thinking there might be more, right.
This site is heavy iron, easy digging but there's so much of it here.
I went more than 2 hrs with not a single non-ferrous target.
Found another iron patch, went to parts of the site I hadn't detected, nothing.
Then in the meadow field they had mowed the brush down.

So my first good dig-able target was the pocket watch.
Wesclox Peterborough Canada
Cheap brass farmers watch from 20's/30's er

It was getting late so I figured to call it, then another little keeper was a rein guide. Kind of a different type with the hole in the base. I'll take it for sure

So I had 2 items in the pouch, and I was calling it, so I just started up the slope to the actual site

yup, I got a sweet mid 90s signal. Dig wide, dig deep flipped the clod and saw the edge.

Ok photo time.

Half penny, green being left behind, not the best sign.
But what the heck, it's 167 yrs old and it's going home with me.

So there you good folks go, a making leather out of an old sow's ear post.
Happy New year to all.
Thanks for looking.

 

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[Digger RJ]

Considering the date, and conditions I'll take it.
Did the chores, time left in the day so I figured why not go for a year end hunt.
Really I wouldn't be inclined on doing a post, but trying to make an effort.
So I went to the GW site (GW button) always thinking there might be more, right.
This site is heavy iron, easy digging but there's so much of it here.
I went more than 2 hrs with not a single non-ferrous target.
Found another iron patch, went to parts of the site I hadn't detected, nothing.
Then in the meadow field they had mowed the brush down. View attachment 1999893
So my first good dig-able target was the pocket watch.
Wesclox Peterborough Canada
Cheap brass farmers watch from 20's/30's er


View attachment 1999879 View attachment 1999880
It was getting late so I figured to call it, then another little keeper was a rein guide. Kind of a different type with the hole in the base. I'll take it for sure View attachment 1999881 View attachment 1999882
So I had 2 items in the pouch, and I was calling it, so I just started up the slope to the actual site View attachment 1999900 yup, I got a sweet mid 90s signal. Dig wide, dig deep flipped the clod and saw the edge.
View attachment 1999902
Ok photo time.
View attachment 1999903
Half penny, green being left behind, not the best sign.
But what the heck, it's 167 yrs old and it's going home with me.
View attachment 1999907 View attachment 1999908

So there you good folks go, a making leather out of an old son's ear post.
Happy New year to all.
Thanks for looking.

Nice!!!!! Congrats!!!!!

 

[billb]

Considering the date, and conditions I'll take it.
Did the chores, time left in the day so I figured why not go for a year end hunt.
Really I wouldn't be inclined on doing a post, but trying to make an effort.
So I went to the GW site (GW button) always thinking there might be more, right.
This site is heavy iron, easy digging but there's so much of it here.
I went more than 2 hrs with not a single non-ferrous target.
Found another iron patch, went to parts of the site I hadn't detected, nothing.
Then in the meadow field they had mowed the brush down. View attachment 1999893
So my first good dig-able target was the pocket watch.
Wesclox Peterborough Canada
Cheap brass farmers watch from 20's/30's er
Congratulations on your nice recoveries
Beautiful scenery is a gift also
Happy New Year

View attachment 1999879 View attachment 1999880
It was getting late so I figured to call it, then another little keeper was a rein guide. Kind of a different type with the hole in the base. I'll take it for sure View attachment 1999881 View attachment 1999882
So I had 2 items in the pouch, and I was calling it, so I just started up the slope to the actual site View attachment 1999900 yup, I got a sweet mid 90s signal. Dig wide, dig deep flipped the clod and saw the edge.
View attachment 1999902
Ok photo time.
View attachment 1999903
Half penny, green being left behind, not the best sign.
But what the heck, it's 167 yrs old and it's going home with me.
View attachment 1999907 View attachment 1999908

So there you good folks go, a making leather out of an old son's ear post.
Happy New year to all.
Thanks for looking.

 

[Cuda74]

Considering the date, and conditions I'll take it.
Did the chores, time left in the day so I figured why not go for a year end hunt.
Really I wouldn't be inclined on doing a post, but trying to make an effort.
So I went to the GW site (GW button) always thinking there might be more, right.
This site is heavy iron, easy digging but there's so much of it here.
I went more than 2 hrs with not a single non-ferrous target.
Found another iron patch, went to parts of the site I hadn't detected, nothing.
Then in the meadow field they had mowed the brush down. View attachment 1999893
So my first good dig-able target was the pocket watch.
Wesclox Peterborough Canada
Cheap brass farmers watch from 20's/30's er


View attachment 1999879 View attachment 1999880
It was getting late so I figured to call it, then another little keeper was a rein guide. Kind of a different type with the hole in the base. I'll take it for sure View attachment 1999881 View attachment 1999882
So I had 2 items in the pouch, and I was calling it, so I just started up the slope to the actual site View attachment 1999900 yup, I got a sweet mid 90s signal. Dig wide, dig deep flipped the clod and saw the edge.
View attachment 1999902
Ok photo time.
View attachment 1999903
Half penny, green being left behind, not the best sign.
But what the heck, it's 167 yrs old and it's going home with me.
View attachment 1999907 View attachment 1999908

So there you good folks go, a making leather out of an old son's ear post.
Happy New year to all.
Thanks for looking.

Good job!

 

[pepperj]

Nice!!!!! Congrats!!!!!

Thanks
Happy new year

 

[pepperj]

Good job!

Thanks Cuda74

 

[ANTIQUARIAN]

Congrats on the 1854 Halfpenny and the Peterborough watch Jim.
I'd say that was a decent hunt for the end of December in the snow.

Westclox History in Canada
Little is known about the marketing of early Westclox products in Canada, but by 1910 Big Ben and probably other clocks were being sold there. The Oct. 8, 1910, Big Ben advertisement in the Saturday Evening Post states that Big Ben sells for $2.50 in the United States and $3.00 in Canada. It seems likely that the printing on the dials and stamping on the backs of some of the clocks sold in Canada was different from that on their U.S. market contemporaries.

In 1912 the Western Clock Company opened a sales office in Toronto, Canada, as part of its policy to establish itself in the world's markets. The demand for Westclox products gradually grew, leading to the incorporation of the Western Clock Company, Limited in 1919. The city of Peterborough, Ontario, Canada was selected and a small factory building was obtained, and in January 1920 operations were started with a force of 20 employees. At this time, parts from the LaSalle-Peru plant were shipped to Peterborough for assembly. By mid-1921 about 10,000 four-inch clocks were being assembled per month.

Production gradually increased and larger facilities became necessary. Fifteen acres of land in Peterborough were purchased and a brick and artificial stone building was constructed. The main building was four stories high and 160 feet long. It was first occupied in late December 1922. There’s no information on which clock models were made in Canada and which parts were actually manufactured in the Peterborough plant. The earliest Canadian Big Ben we have examined has a movement date of 12-27-23 and says "Made By Western Clock Co., Limited, Peterborough, Canada" at the bottom of the dial.

I always loved that site Jim, it was such a shame about the modern shotgun casings discarded there.
Dave

 

[Blak bart]

Nice work pepper...wow that looks cold...ill stick to the tropical sand this time of year !!

 

[pepperj]

Congrats on the 1854 Halfpenny and the Peterborough watch Jim.
I'd say that was a decent hunt for the end of December in the snow.

Westclox History in Canada
Little is known about the marketing of early Westclox products in Canada, but by 1910 Big Ben and probably other clocks were being sold there. The Oct. 8, 1910, Big Ben advertisement in the Saturday Evening Post states that Big Ben sells for $2.50 in the United States and $3.00 in Canada. It seems likely that the printing on the dials and stamping on the backs of some of the clocks sold in Canada was different from that on their U.S. market contemporaries.

In 1912 the Western Clock Company opened a sales office in Toronto, Canada, as part of its policy to establish itself in the world's markets. The demand for Westclox products gradually grew, leading to the incorporation of the Western Clock Company, Limited in 1919. The city of Peterborough, Ontario, Canada was selected and a small factory building was obtained, and in January 1920 operations were started with a force of 20 employees. At this time, parts from the LaSalle-Peru plant were shipped to Peterborough for assembly. By mid-1921 about 10,000 four-inch clocks were being assembled per month.

Production gradually increased and larger facilities became necessary. Fifteen acres of land in Peterborough were purchased and a brick and artificial stone building was constructed. The main building was four stories high and 160 feet long. It was first occupied in late December 1922. There’s no information on which clock models were made in Canada and which parts were actually manufactured in the Peterborough plant. The earliest Canadian Big Ben we have examined has a movement date of 12-27-23 and says "Made By Western Clock Co., Limited, Peterborough, Canada" at the bottom of the dial.

I always loved that site Jim, it was such a shame about the modern shotgun casings discarded there.
Dave

Thanks Dave
For the end of the season and the site choice it went off pretty good.
Thanks for the information on hte company, I can't cut and paste off the phone very well.
Funny thing I scrapped out tons of watch parts years later after it shut down.
45 gallon barrels of every imaginal pocket watch part.
The brass is a 70/30 (70% copper 30% zinc) Same metal as in a common gun shell and brass zipper.

 

[pepperj]

Nice work pepper...wow that looks cold...ill stick to the tropical sand this time of year !!

Thanks Bart
It was a balmy 36F when I left the site-but I must admit the sand in these soils were getting a tad hard to dig.
Best of luck in the tropical sands in 2022

 

[ANTIQUARIAN]

Thanks Dave
For the end of the season and the site choice it went off pretty good.
Thanks for the information on hte company, I can't cut and paste off the phone very well.
Funny thing I scrapped out tons of watch parts years later after it shut down.
45 gallon barrels of every imaginal pocket watch part.
The brass is a 70/30 (70% copper 30% zinc) Same metal as in a common gun shell and brass zipper.

That much make for a very frustrating hunt Jim, shotgun shells usually hit in the low-60s and they always sound so good too.

 

[pepperj]

That much make for a very frustrating hunt Jim, shotgun shells usually hit in the low-60s and they always sound so good too.

Tell me about that problem, nothing like a few kicking around on a site. 🤣

 

[releventchair]

Patience pays off! Congrats!
In December even..

Read an old account of folks headed to the Canadian bush in the 20's (?) for a while.
Economy issue or something.
A "dollar" watch and a match case ( or lighter ) and a knife were commonly what every guy carried.

Here's some U.S. trivia from a watch site with lots of Canadian R.R. watches.

A fun little bit of pocket watch history...

If you were in the market for a watch in 1880, would you know where to get one? You would go to a store, right?
Well, of course you could do that, but if you wanted one that was cheaper and a bit better quality than most of the store watches, you went to the train station!
Sound a bit funny? Well, for about 500 towns across the northern United States, that's where the best watches were found.
Why were the best watches found at the train station?
The railroad company wasn't selling the watches, not at all, but the telegraph operator was.

Most of the time the telegraph operator was located in the railroad station because the telegraph lines followed the railroad tracks from town to town. It was usually the shortest distance and the right-of-ways had already been secured for the rail line. Most of the station agents were also skilled telegraph operators since that was the primary way that they communicated within the railway system. They would know when trains left the previous station, and when they were due at their next station.
It was the telegraph operator who had the watches. As a matter of fact, they sold more of them than almost all the stores combined for a period of about 9 years.
This was all initiated by a telegraph operator known as "Richard". He was on duty in the North Redwood, Minnesota train station one day when a huge crate of pocket watches arrived from the East.
No one ever came to claim them. So Richard sent a telegram to the manufacturer and asked them what they wanted to do with the watches. The manufacturer didn't want to pay the freight back, so they wired Richard to see if he could sell them. So Richard did. He sent a wire to every railway agent in the system asking them if they wanted a cheap, but good, pocket watch. He sold the entire case in less than two days and at a handsome profit.
That started it all.
He ordered more watches from the watch company and encouraged the telegraph operators to set up a display case in the station offering high quality watches for a cheap price to all the travelers.
It worked! It didn't take long for the word to spread and, before long, people, other than travelers, came to the train station to buy watches. Richard became so busy that he had to hire a professional watch maker named "Alva" to help him with the orders.
And the rest is history as they say. The business took off and soon expanded to many other lines of dry goods. Richard and Alva left the train station and moved their company to Chicago -- and it's still there.
YES, IT'S A LITTLE KNOWN FACT that for a while in the 1880's, the biggest watch retailer in the country was at the train station.
It all started with a telegraph operator: Richard Sears and his partner Alva Roebuck!
Bet You Didn't Know That!!!
Now that's History!!!!!

http://www.darlor-watch.com/pocket_watches_1.html

 

[oldmxrat]

Good hunt, congrats!

 

[ArfieBoy]

Very interesting finds! Congratulations!

And thanks, Relevantchair, for the history lesson! It too, was very interesting!

 

[WannaDig3687]

Excellent way to end the year, Pepperj. Thankfully we have an extended season. Congratulations on the finds and the fix.

 

[WannaDig3687]

And @ANTIQUARIAN and @releventchair very good of you guys to post up the history lessons. Thank you both.

 

[pepperj]

Patience pays off! Congrats!
In December even..

Read an old account of folks headed to the Canadian bush in the 20's (?) for a while.
Economy issue or something.
A "dollar" watch and a match case ( or lighter ) and a knife were commonly what every guy carried.

Here's some U.S. trivia from a watch site with lots of Canadian R.R. watches.

A fun little bit of pocket watch history...

If you were in the market for a watch in 1880, would you know where to get one? You would go to a store, right?
Well, of course you could do that, but if you wanted one that was cheaper and a bit better quality than most of the store watches, you went to the train station!
Sound a bit funny? Well, for about 500 towns across the northern United States, that's where the best watches were found.
Why were the best watches found at the train station?
The railroad company wasn't selling the watches, not at all, but the telegraph operator was.

Most of the time the telegraph operator was located in the railroad station because the telegraph lines followed the railroad tracks from town to town. It was usually the shortest distance and the right-of-ways had already been secured for the rail line. Most of the station agents were also skilled telegraph operators since that was the primary way that they communicated within the railway system. They would know when trains left the previous station, and when they were due at their next station.
It was the telegraph operator who had the watches. As a matter of fact, they sold more of them than almost all the stores combined for a period of about 9 years.
This was all initiated by a telegraph operator known as "Richard". He was on duty in the North Redwood, Minnesota train station one day when a huge crate of pocket watches arrived from the East.
No one ever came to claim them. So Richard sent a telegram to the manufacturer and asked them what they wanted to do with the watches. The manufacturer didn't want to pay the freight back, so they wired Richard to see if he could sell them. So Richard did. He sent a wire to every railway agent in the system asking them if they wanted a cheap, but good, pocket watch. He sold the entire case in less than two days and at a handsome profit.
That started it all.
He ordered more watches from the watch company and encouraged the telegraph operators to set up a display case in the station offering high quality watches for a cheap price to all the travelers.
It worked! It didn't take long for the word to spread and, before long, people, other than travelers, came to the train station to buy watches. Richard became so busy that he had to hire a professional watch maker named "Alva" to help him with the orders.
And the rest is history as they say. The business took off and soon expanded to many other lines of dry goods. Richard and Alva left the train station and moved their company to Chicago -- and it's still there.
YES, IT'S A LITTLE KNOWN FACT that for a while in the 1880's, the biggest watch retailer in the country was at the train station.
It all started with a telegraph operator: Richard Sears and his partner Alva Roebuck!
Bet You Didn't Know That!!!
Now that's History!!!!!

http://www.darlor-watch.com/pocket_watches_1.html

Thanks RC
What an interesting article that you shared.
It's great when we get to read a history relating behind a find. 👍

 

[pepperj]

Good hunt, congrats!

Thank you oldmxrat
Hope you have a great 2022 season

 

[Clovis4343]

Considering the date, and conditions I'll take it.
Did the chores, time left in the day so I figured why not go for a year end hunt.
Really I wouldn't be inclined on doing a post, but trying to make an effort.
So I went to the GW site (GW button) always thinking there might be more, right.
This site is heavy iron, easy digging but there's so much of it here.
I went more than 2 hrs with not a single non-ferrous target.
Found another iron patch, went to parts of the site I hadn't detected, nothing.
Then in the meadow field they had mowed the brush down. View attachment 1999893
So my first good dig-able target was the pocket watch.
Wesclox Peterborough Canada
Cheap brass farmers watch from 20's/30's er


View attachment 1999879 View attachment 1999880
It was getting late so I figured to call it, then another little keeper was a rein guide. Kind of a different type with the hole in the base. I'll take it for sure View attachment 1999881 View attachment 1999882
So I had 2 items in the pouch, and I was calling it, so I just started up the slope to the actual site View attachment 1999900 yup, I got a sweet mid 90s signal. Dig wide, dig deep flipped the clod and saw the edge.
View attachment 1999902
Ok photo time.
View attachment 1999903
Half penny, green being left behind, not the best sign.
But what the heck, it's 167 yrs old and it's going home with me.
View attachment 1999907 View attachment 1999908

So there you good folks go, a making leather out of an old sow's ear post.
Happy New year to all.
Thanks for looking.

Awesome find!! Congrats!!