A Few Lessons Learned

Admittedly, I have hunted very little with my metal detector this past summer - curteousy of a broken left left and then broken toes on my right foot.  For once, it was not even my fault!  However, even in a brace you can still hunt for short periods of time.  Of course, kneeling down is all but impossible.

So, summer ground is as hard as a rock!  Yeah, no moisture in the soil and you need dynamite to crack that earth!  After a good soaker though, as we often get in fall, digging is very easy.  So guess what I am getting ready to go do!  Yeah, put on some woolies, heavy boots and I am ready to go!

Contrary to what I have read, most people completely ignore you when you are on the hunt.  You get plenty of stares but then again I think I got those before hand.

Silver comes out of the ground pretty shiny!  Yeah, I picked up a pair of Canadian silver quarters, pretty good detail and very bright.  Why?  Modern clad coinage is as black as night.  Makes little sense to me.

Zinc pennies are junk!  I have only found a few and they are all but "melted" into the soil.  To the point of the just a microscopically thin copper jacket with a hollow core where the zinc used to be!  Luckily, there was just enough for the Coinstar to recognize it and give a penny in credit!

 I swapped some emails with Dick Stout and he is a heck of nice guy.  Hope I can meet up with him one of these day.  Could be fun.

That Weird Item

So, I finally was able to identify that weird item I found at Sunnydale; it is a very old Brownie Pin!

Yeah, sometime between 1916 and I am guessing World War II, a Brownie lost her pin in what was central Sunnydale at the time while walking beside the brick roadway.

I was really tired, it was the end of the hunt for me and my MXT sang out that it had something. So much iron in the ground, I had no hope of finding in anything of interest. I switched to relic mode and it read as 10% chance of being iron, so I dug it.

Made of copper it was heavily corroded and I still have not cleaned it. However, it was bent so I gently pressed it flat. The detail you are seeing is from the corrosion popping off while I pressed it.

Probably my most interesting find to date.....

The Red Brick Road

I mentioned Sunnydale's red brick road and thought you might like to see a picture of what was mostly left of it - shards of broken brick from a century of frost heaves! I did also dig up a 2 by 2 foot area of undamaged brick but the photo did not come out and I carefully reburied it for some future archaeologist.

Roadside History Of …

One of the interesting book series I have run across lately as been about the Roadside History Of (insert your state name here). They are easy reading, great for an airline flight, long soak in the tub, etc. They are published by:

Mountain Press
Missoula, MT
59806

On the web so you can sniff their site at:
www.mountain-press.com

So, what recommends them?

Well, even in giving a light reading to numerous subjects across a states’ history, there are little nuggets that would be interesting to research and perhaps follow up on with the old metal detector!

History can be fun, but even more so when it is pointing to tales of others‘ misdeeds and when little has been published on something which caught your eye! Yeah! I have been reading the Colorado book and my own Colorado knowledge, paired with one of the items mentioned – not only settled a question in my mind on something I had observed but might actually have a reward in it for me!

Oh Yeah.

So, you can find some interesting things without digging through thousands of pages of newspaper or court documents and have some fun at the same time! Check out your local book shop and see if they carry any of the series or try the web address above.

Ghost Towns of the Northwest

By Norman Weis
1993
$14.95
Caxton Printers
Caldwell, Idaho
ISBN 0-87004-358-7

A very interesting book concerning ghost towns and camps the author has visited. Heavily illustrated with comments concerning localities, peoples and access.

I found the book to be very readable. Although this was originally written back in 1971, so I doubt the towns look quite the same these days!

It was interesting to be reading about a town in central Oregon, just before church on Sunday, when my pastor’s wife walked up and asked what I was reading. So, I showed her the book and the town I was reading about, Shaniko in Oregon. She started laughing and told me how her grandfather had been born there. Talk about a small world! Unfortunately, he is far too old to be of value in attempting to coax little known information about his childhood home from him.

The book covers ghost towns in:
Oregon
Washington
Idaho
Wyoming
Montana

If you are interested in the stories of ghost towns, history of ordinary people or looking for places to visit – I think this book is an owner.

Sunnydale

I have long read of Sunnydale, there even used to be a community here by that name, prior to the Seatac third runway.... But, even the residents of the now buried Sunnydale always told me about the original Sunnydale already buried under the second runway.

It just did not sound right though. The second runway ended to far to the south and east for the description of this area's original settlement. The Sunnydale I knew was also to the south, but could almost work.

There is one original farm left dating to the 1890's but they claimed Sunnydale was to the north of them. So, where was Sunnydale?

I finally got a clue from the US Postal Service on their old listings of closed post offices. Yeah, Sunnydale was in there with a description on where the post office was located. The post office in the original building for this area and the heart of Sunnydale. Now could I find it?

I had some clues: it was below a ridge, above a lake and swamp with a red brick paved road.

Believing I had found the general area, I hit the woods with metal detector in hand. I was not prepared for what I was to find.

Oh yeah, Sunnydale is indeed exactly where I had decided it must have been, however the site of the town has become a spot for illegal dumping with junk covering the past 60 years scattered about. It was very disheartening to know it was there but nothing could be found due to the incredible amount of garbage.

My partner found two modern pennies and a 1955 penny, a gas light fixture and tons of foil. I managed a small piece off of one of the old paver brinks, broken auto parts, the magneto of an old telephone box, pounds of aluminum and a weird little item that I still have to identify.

A worthless but fun hunt.

Blaker Farm

Nice old homestead photo taken about 10 blocks from my house but in 1890 or so. Nice to see an early home for this area, they are all long gone now though.

Let us pretend that you live here. Ok, you live about six miles from Seattle, a long hilly muddy hike. You have some coin. Where are you going to hide it? Take your time. Think of the possibilities this photo shows.....