Steve77
Elite Member
First, a bit of history for the area this was found(Quoted from Wikipedia):
"Lakeview was first settled in 1858 and platted in 1867 by Albert S. French, a settler from New York. It had been a Native American camp site. French named it for its location on the west side of Tamarack Lake. A post office was established on October 7, 1867, with Hiram S. Barton as its first postmaster. It was a station on the Chicago, Saginaw and Canada Railroad in 1879."
" As of the census of 2010, there were 1,007 people, 438 households, and 259 families residing in the village."
Due to being a fairly young location, I have set my metal detecting goals accordingly. Finding pre 1900 coins is rare, wheat cents aren't even all that common here. My "Fairly attainable" bucket list coins are things like a Trime, silver dollar, pre 1900 pocket spill, etc.
So this week while detecting a location that I have been to several times before with a Tesoro silver Umax and numerous times with an AT pro with 5x8 coil, I finally had enough time to visit this spot again, however this time could be different since I was returning for the first time since buying the Nox 600.
This place is exceptionally trashy, having had thousands of old cans, foil and nails buried everywhere. It has been a party spot/ camping spot for decades, possibly predating trash cans, judging by the amount of plain old rubbish buried there!
I spent the trip to this spot a bit on the gloomy side because before I left I had planned on trying a 3 tone program to mimic the more familiar audio of an ATP. Well, I discovered that in my haste and thrift to get my new detector last season, I opted for the 600 instead of the 800, and now wouldn't be able to adjust my tone bins the way I had hoped. I had myself convinced during my drive that I probably made the wrong selection when I pulled the trigger on the 600. But, muttering under my breath while detecting still seemed like a better option than going back home.
So I spent several hours digging an enormous array of the obligatory trash, and a few modern pennies. Eventually I found an area that produced a wheat cent and a silver rosie among all the iron. I was pretty impressed, but even after scouring that area, nothing else turned up. I started wandering and eventually found a couple more wheats, and then the Barber dime! OK, I know this isn't eye popping, but around here, that is a story that gets mileage for a month! So I start gridding the area the best I can among all the saplings that bounce my coil every direction except the intended one. I decided to be lazy and move into an area of bare dirt above a fairly steep bank and got an ear shattering 39 with crisp clear tone and only 3 inches deep. Sounded good from multiple directions, but also suspiciously similar to a steel can with the rim on the end still intact. I obviously dig it even though I already have enough cans for the day. Maybe some day, digging trash pays off, right? Isn't that why we spend our time and treasure doing this? So i dig in the fairly soft root laden soil excruciatingly carefully, because you never want to scratch a coin/can lid! I finally find a big solid chunk that is stuck pretty well between the roots, but the pinpointer isn't locating anything else. After A few seemingly wasted moments later, This thing sees the light of day for the first time in at least a couple Millenia!
I never take dirt pics. I knew what is was as soon as the dirt fell away! My daughter and I binge watch arrowhead/projectile point/artifact videos often and it has paid off. Here I was, detecting alone, nobody to see what just happened! One of the only times I've ever recognized the need to document what I had just found.
I knew I needed to tell someone, I was dumbfounded, how naive(sort of) to assume that the only metal history in this tiny town would be from it's modern inhabitants, since the logging days! Maybe it's just me, but I see the occasional Copper Culture artifact shared here on friendly, and forget that nobody "Expects" to find these things. Maybe we tell ourselves, "Anything is Possible", but anytime that thought crossed my mind, I secretly knew I was lying to myself.
Yeah, this spot had a bit of local lore as being of significance to the indigenous people, but they really only had stone tools. Copper was impossibly rare and valuable, how could anyone be irresponsible enough to leave anything like that behind?
I don't know, but it happened! Never have I wondered so much about the story behind a find as I will now. What did this cost? How many people owned it? When exactly? What tasks was it used for, exactly? What did the person feel when they realized it was gone?
I pondered what "I" would do with it. Be secretive and keep it? Sell it? No, it will be donated to our local museum. I offered years ago to give them anything with exceptional historic significance.
To me this is definitely significant! It will be donated to the museum in my daughters' names, I think it will be a great learning opportunity for them!
In the photo above, you can see the "fluted" profile, meaning this was likely made to be hafted onto a shaft!
Enough talk from me about this beautiful Native American Copper Culture "Celt". Please enjoy, I know I have!
"Lakeview was first settled in 1858 and platted in 1867 by Albert S. French, a settler from New York. It had been a Native American camp site. French named it for its location on the west side of Tamarack Lake. A post office was established on October 7, 1867, with Hiram S. Barton as its first postmaster. It was a station on the Chicago, Saginaw and Canada Railroad in 1879."
" As of the census of 2010, there were 1,007 people, 438 households, and 259 families residing in the village."
Due to being a fairly young location, I have set my metal detecting goals accordingly. Finding pre 1900 coins is rare, wheat cents aren't even all that common here. My "Fairly attainable" bucket list coins are things like a Trime, silver dollar, pre 1900 pocket spill, etc.
So this week while detecting a location that I have been to several times before with a Tesoro silver Umax and numerous times with an AT pro with 5x8 coil, I finally had enough time to visit this spot again, however this time could be different since I was returning for the first time since buying the Nox 600.
This place is exceptionally trashy, having had thousands of old cans, foil and nails buried everywhere. It has been a party spot/ camping spot for decades, possibly predating trash cans, judging by the amount of plain old rubbish buried there!
I spent the trip to this spot a bit on the gloomy side because before I left I had planned on trying a 3 tone program to mimic the more familiar audio of an ATP. Well, I discovered that in my haste and thrift to get my new detector last season, I opted for the 600 instead of the 800, and now wouldn't be able to adjust my tone bins the way I had hoped. I had myself convinced during my drive that I probably made the wrong selection when I pulled the trigger on the 600. But, muttering under my breath while detecting still seemed like a better option than going back home.
So I spent several hours digging an enormous array of the obligatory trash, and a few modern pennies. Eventually I found an area that produced a wheat cent and a silver rosie among all the iron. I was pretty impressed, but even after scouring that area, nothing else turned up. I started wandering and eventually found a couple more wheats, and then the Barber dime! OK, I know this isn't eye popping, but around here, that is a story that gets mileage for a month! So I start gridding the area the best I can among all the saplings that bounce my coil every direction except the intended one. I decided to be lazy and move into an area of bare dirt above a fairly steep bank and got an ear shattering 39 with crisp clear tone and only 3 inches deep. Sounded good from multiple directions, but also suspiciously similar to a steel can with the rim on the end still intact. I obviously dig it even though I already have enough cans for the day. Maybe some day, digging trash pays off, right? Isn't that why we spend our time and treasure doing this? So i dig in the fairly soft root laden soil excruciatingly carefully, because you never want to scratch a coin/can lid! I finally find a big solid chunk that is stuck pretty well between the roots, but the pinpointer isn't locating anything else. After A few seemingly wasted moments later, This thing sees the light of day for the first time in at least a couple Millenia!
I never take dirt pics. I knew what is was as soon as the dirt fell away! My daughter and I binge watch arrowhead/projectile point/artifact videos often and it has paid off. Here I was, detecting alone, nobody to see what just happened! One of the only times I've ever recognized the need to document what I had just found.
I knew I needed to tell someone, I was dumbfounded, how naive(sort of) to assume that the only metal history in this tiny town would be from it's modern inhabitants, since the logging days! Maybe it's just me, but I see the occasional Copper Culture artifact shared here on friendly, and forget that nobody "Expects" to find these things. Maybe we tell ourselves, "Anything is Possible", but anytime that thought crossed my mind, I secretly knew I was lying to myself.
Yeah, this spot had a bit of local lore as being of significance to the indigenous people, but they really only had stone tools. Copper was impossibly rare and valuable, how could anyone be irresponsible enough to leave anything like that behind?
I don't know, but it happened! Never have I wondered so much about the story behind a find as I will now. What did this cost? How many people owned it? When exactly? What tasks was it used for, exactly? What did the person feel when they realized it was gone?
I pondered what "I" would do with it. Be secretive and keep it? Sell it? No, it will be donated to our local museum. I offered years ago to give them anything with exceptional historic significance.
To me this is definitely significant! It will be donated to the museum in my daughters' names, I think it will be a great learning opportunity for them!
In the photo above, you can see the "fluted" profile, meaning this was likely made to be hafted onto a shaft!
Enough talk from me about this beautiful Native American Copper Culture "Celt". Please enjoy, I know I have!
