BMc 1,050 Posted October 9, 2019 Share Posted October 9, 2019 I happened to run across a news article from the '50s that mentioned a remote picnic site that was popular for weekend and holiday gatherings. A faded black and white photograph showed several concrete tables, benches, and stone bar-b-que pits on a secluded hilltop outside of town. I couldn't find anything else to go on and everyone I talked to had never heard of it, so I explored the back-roads until I located it by a process of elimination. There was nothing left of the concrete and stone that was functionally intact, and the (4x4 only), inaccessibility of the rocky washed out road made the location an ideal lover's lane, beer drinking - high school hideaway. After several trips to the site and a modest clean-up effort, I managed to unearth a few nice surprises: Wheaties, rosies, jeffersons, one buffalo/Indian head, a girls10k gold ring with a tiny "diamond" setting, and a singed 1961 Ben Franklin half dollar. The biggest surprise though, was the improvised "black-jack" made from a gym sock filled with (217) clad pennies, hidden under a pile of rocks. That's what makes detecting so head shaking interesting. You just never know what you might find next! 9 4 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Edge 579 Posted October 10, 2019 Share Posted October 10, 2019 Great find! 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Terry Soloman 975 Posted October 10, 2019 Share Posted October 10, 2019 Very cool! 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
jrdemaris 23 Posted October 10, 2019 Share Posted October 10, 2019 Back in the late 40's early 50's , a sock with sand in it would put an end to a big bully in no time. Not an admission on my part ! 3 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
jrdemaris 23 Posted October 10, 2019 Share Posted October 10, 2019 Ahhh..... the memories. 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
BMc 1,050 Posted October 11, 2019 Author Share Posted October 11, 2019 20 hours ago, jrdemaris said: Back in the late 40's early 50's , a sock with sand in it would put an end to a big bully in no time. Not an admission on my part ! Don't worry jr, the statute of limitations has long since run out (unless the guy died), and that warrant for your arrest is probably no longer in the computer system Quote Link to post Share on other sites
jrdemaris 23 Posted October 11, 2019 Share Posted October 11, 2019 I plead self defense.....Actually, when we would meet later he called me the socker! 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
BMc 1,050 Posted October 11, 2019 Author Share Posted October 11, 2019 On 10/10/2019 at 7:06 AM, Edge said: Great find! Beats being the sockee every time! 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
BMc 1,050 Posted March 21, 2020 Author Share Posted March 21, 2020 On 10/9/2019 at 5:09 PM, BMc said: I happened to run across a news article from the '50s that mentioned a remote picnic site that was popular for weekend and holiday gatherings. A faded black and white photograph showed several concrete tables, benches, and stone bar-b-que pits on a secluded hilltop outside of town. I couldn't find anything else to go on and everyone I talked to had never heard of it, so I explored the back-roads until I located it by a process of elimination. There was nothing left of the concrete and stone that was functionally intact, and the (4x4 only), inaccessibility of the rocky washed out road made the location an ideal lover's lane, beer drinking - high school hideaway. After several trips to the site and a modest clean-up effort, I managed to unearth a few nice surprises: Wheaties, rosies, jeffersons, one buffalo/Indian head, a girls10k gold ring with a tiny "diamond" setting, and a singed 1961 Ben Franklin half dollar. The biggest surprise though, was the improvised "black-jack" made from a gym sock filled with (217) clad pennies, hidden under a pile of rocks. That's what makes detecting so head shaking interesting. You just never know what you might find next! COIN SHOOTING!! (Literally) After another magnetic surface cleanup and raking/scraping, dozens of bottle caps, rusty nails, and brass 22. casings; (and digging lead bullets), The old Picnic Site gave up another interesting find. A 1961 Washington Quarter with a .22 cal. bullet hole. Both the quarter and the half dollar found previously showed signs of having been burned/blackened in one of the several fire pits at the site. Strange . . . 5 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Gilaoro 319 Posted June 3, 2020 Share Posted June 3, 2020 Now that is what I call doing due diligence research ! If everyone was this through it wouldn't leave anything for the slackers! Well Done ! 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
TomH 2,888 Posted June 3, 2020 Share Posted June 3, 2020 Great story and cool finds. Well done. If your going to be doing this a lot more in the future, have you thought about buying one of these to go over the area? Tom H. https://www.harborfreight.com/30-inch-magnetic-sweeper-with-wheels-93245.html?ccdenc=eyJjb2RlIjoiNjcxMjEzMzYiLCJza3UiOiI5MzI0NSIsImlzIjoiMzIuOTkiLCJwcm9kdWN0X2lk IjoiMjU4MiJ9 &cid=paid_google|||93245&utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=&utm_content=&msclkid=5eba4ba99e5714c2f75c157197dab21a Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Gilaoro 319 Posted June 3, 2020 Share Posted June 3, 2020 Tom H. I am afraid that my Baja and other digging days are over unless I could figure out how to get one one of those 4X4 wheel chairs at about 15 grand, Grubstake and I where talking about a drone and a "Alexa" vacuum cleaner ., but a drone that will lift 100 LBS is about 15 grand ! I was actually on a MD club outing down south of Arivaca ,AZ when one of the members had a drone with a camera and flew it straight down an old vertical mine shaft that had been rumored to have bodies at the bottom of it , this was right on the border with Mexico. He had no problem flying it down and we had a clear view on his laptop , nothing on the bottom but a broken shovel. But his drone could only lift 1 LB. I did not have a drone but my claim had a horizontal tunnel on it so I talked Stan into going into it and checking it out, it was supposed to have the gold vein exposed on the back wall , I was recovering from a hip replacement and was still on crutches. Well he took a good flash light and headed in , it had flowing water so he was taking his time. A few minutes later he came back out some what faster than when he went in. Well I asked what did you find ? A Mama Javalina with 4 babies he said, she can have any gold back in there! 3 2 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
BMc 1,050 Posted June 8, 2020 Author Share Posted June 8, 2020 On 6/3/2020 at 2:38 PM, TomH said: Great story and cool finds. Well done. If your going to be doing this a lot more in the future, have you thought about buying one of these to go over the area? Tom H. https://www.harborfreight.com/30-inch-magnetic-sweeper-with-wheels-93245.html?ccdenc=eyJjb2RlIjoiNjcxMjEzMzYiLCJza3UiOiI5MzI0NSIsImlzIjoiMzIuOTkiLCJwcm9kdWN0X2lk IjoiMjU4MiJ9 &cid=paid_google|||93245&utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=&utm_content=&msclkid=5eba4ba99e5714c2f75c157197dab21a Hi Tom, Thanks for the tip! Actually, I did look at that magnetic sweeper and a couple of others before I found the picnic site and since I already had the basic component parts on hand, decided to cobble one together myself. I used an industrial strength bar magnet that does a good job of sucking up bottle caps, nails, rusty metal debris etc. It doesn't have a release mechanism other than manually scraping stuff off, but that's not hard to do and it's narrow enough to get into tight spots between rocks. 3 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
LukeJ 2,160 Posted June 9, 2020 Share Posted June 9, 2020 If you cut that lid so it fits under your magnets, it might be 'as easy' as pulling it off when you want to lose the iron bits. Or not. Nice job on the contraption. 2 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Bedrock Bob 4,192 Posted June 9, 2020 Share Posted June 9, 2020 4 minutes ago, LukeJ said: If you cut that lid so it fits under your magnets, it might be 'as easy' as pulling it off when you want to lose the iron bits. Or not. Nice job on the contraption. Exactly what I was thinking. Just like a coil cover. I have a little plastic plumbing plug that slips over my pole magnet. Just pull it off and the magnet is clean. It keeps all the fine black sand from loading up. 3 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
TomH 2,888 Posted June 9, 2020 Share Posted June 9, 2020 NIce job! Go find some stuff now. Tom H. 2 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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