CaliGal
Jr. Member
- Jun 10, 2016
- 24
- 26
- Detector(s) used
- Red Baron RB-7 (inherited from my Gramps, never used) Parents used to take us out detecting in mid-1970's--fun times! Caught the bug early, reignited here in OK.
- Primary Interest:
- All Treasure Hunting
Hi All,
CaliGal here. Third gen Los Angelina, tho lately of Central Oklahoma. Was infected early and well with The Hunting Bug by my parents. Early metal detector hobbyists -- mid-1970s. After dinner, we'd pile into the station wagon & hit up local parks, school grounds, beaches, etc. in the South Bay area of So Cal. It was great for my parents, cuz they had three built-in diggers in my sisters & I! Boy, did we learn to HATE pull tabs!!! But my mom, never one to give up easily, unearthed two diamond rings that my dad had dismissed as pull tabs. I still have one of them. Of course we amassed jars and jars of pennies and tons of modern silver coins too. My favorite find, I can still recall today--40 years later--was a tiny 'cache' probably wrapped in a hankie by some little girl & buried & forgotten in a grass field of an elementary school in Torrance, CA. We dug up two early style Girl Scout pins, 2 Buffalo nickels (our first non 'modern' coins!), several pennies and two buttons. I just remember being so touched by the assemblage, buried & never retrieved!
Anyhow, include trips thu the So Cal mountains & deserts following old mining trails in my grandpa's old dune buggy (he himself an avid rock hound, not surprisingly as hus dad was a stone mason himself!), a trip to Sharks Tooth Mountain (??) somewhere in the Owen's Valley up past Bakersfield (??) (I still have a box of the petrified teeth I dug up, oh & I've tested positive for Valley Fever ever since --- thanks, mom & dad! lol) & many hours scouring junky old swap meets & antique shops: in short I was infected with The Hunting Bug early and well.
Really, the biggest surprise is that I resisted it's recurrance for so long. Tho being a busy field biologist & being able to collect feathers, shiny rocks, random bones, etc., probably helped keep it at bay. But now I find myself in Central Oklahoma & semi-retired with some time on my hands. I was ok til a couple weeks ago when hubby and I found ourselves out along some RR tracks behind an old Main Street to take pix of the large grain silos (COOP) that, inevitably, lie along the tracks just beyond. As he shot pix, I noticed a TON of broken glass scattered along the ground. Nothing great, but some awesome (authentically) sun-purpled glass bits. Lots of old, rusty RR spikes, and even scattered lumps of shiny black coal from olden trains! I collected it all (see pic) with a mind for using some of it in my jewellery making hobby, possibly running some of it thru my little rock tumbler first. Well, that was my utter undoing. I'm full-blown gone now. And being in Oklahoma, with it's low levels of development, wow! So many great nooks & crannies to explore -- historical stuff from the last century (my fav, oddly), Indian stuff of course, Civil War, Calvalry, Chisholm Trail & other cowboy stuff....You name it, Oklahoma could have it!
Well, enough typing, I got stuff to hunt. Until I get my new battery packs for my old RB-7 from Tesoro (thanks, Alan!!!) I'm hunting glass and stone. Lusting for a proper Indian arrowhead -- no detector short-cut for finding that! I'll post some pix of my finds. Till then happy hunting, y'all!
CaliGal here. Third gen Los Angelina, tho lately of Central Oklahoma. Was infected early and well with The Hunting Bug by my parents. Early metal detector hobbyists -- mid-1970s. After dinner, we'd pile into the station wagon & hit up local parks, school grounds, beaches, etc. in the South Bay area of So Cal. It was great for my parents, cuz they had three built-in diggers in my sisters & I! Boy, did we learn to HATE pull tabs!!! But my mom, never one to give up easily, unearthed two diamond rings that my dad had dismissed as pull tabs. I still have one of them. Of course we amassed jars and jars of pennies and tons of modern silver coins too. My favorite find, I can still recall today--40 years later--was a tiny 'cache' probably wrapped in a hankie by some little girl & buried & forgotten in a grass field of an elementary school in Torrance, CA. We dug up two early style Girl Scout pins, 2 Buffalo nickels (our first non 'modern' coins!), several pennies and two buttons. I just remember being so touched by the assemblage, buried & never retrieved!
Anyhow, include trips thu the So Cal mountains & deserts following old mining trails in my grandpa's old dune buggy (he himself an avid rock hound, not surprisingly as hus dad was a stone mason himself!), a trip to Sharks Tooth Mountain (??) somewhere in the Owen's Valley up past Bakersfield (??) (I still have a box of the petrified teeth I dug up, oh & I've tested positive for Valley Fever ever since --- thanks, mom & dad! lol) & many hours scouring junky old swap meets & antique shops: in short I was infected with The Hunting Bug early and well.
Really, the biggest surprise is that I resisted it's recurrance for so long. Tho being a busy field biologist & being able to collect feathers, shiny rocks, random bones, etc., probably helped keep it at bay. But now I find myself in Central Oklahoma & semi-retired with some time on my hands. I was ok til a couple weeks ago when hubby and I found ourselves out along some RR tracks behind an old Main Street to take pix of the large grain silos (COOP) that, inevitably, lie along the tracks just beyond. As he shot pix, I noticed a TON of broken glass scattered along the ground. Nothing great, but some awesome (authentically) sun-purpled glass bits. Lots of old, rusty RR spikes, and even scattered lumps of shiny black coal from olden trains! I collected it all (see pic) with a mind for using some of it in my jewellery making hobby, possibly running some of it thru my little rock tumbler first. Well, that was my utter undoing. I'm full-blown gone now. And being in Oklahoma, with it's low levels of development, wow! So many great nooks & crannies to explore -- historical stuff from the last century (my fav, oddly), Indian stuff of course, Civil War, Calvalry, Chisholm Trail & other cowboy stuff....You name it, Oklahoma could have it!
Well, enough typing, I got stuff to hunt. Until I get my new battery packs for my old RB-7 from Tesoro (thanks, Alan!!!) I'm hunting glass and stone. Lusting for a proper Indian arrowhead -- no detector short-cut for finding that! I'll post some pix of my finds. Till then happy hunting, y'all!
