Emwonk
Full Member
Here's another unusual story from my hunting days.
A few years back they widened the road near me from 2 lanes to a divided 4 lane. The work was many miles long, and cut through many private properties and the old center of a suburban st. Louis town.
After the state bought the houses and the owners were gone I would move in and hunt. One time I found a full mason jar unter a tree with lid up and intact. Of course it was empty, but it had me hopeful.
Before one of the oldest houses was bought I asked the owner if I could hunt there. I was rejected. A few weeks later they were gone and the house was empty and marked for demolition.
I hunted the yard and then moved inside to look for a cache. I started with the dirt floor in the basement and worked my way upstairs, checking door tops, fireplace mantles, under stair risers.
When I got to the attic I found the floor was wooden slats with about 1/4 inch between each slat. So I pried up the boards and stuck my head down there to look along the underfloor, to look for coins or anything else that dropped through. Nothing but nails, etc.
At the top of the stairs was a board that was shorter than all the others. When I pried that one up I found....a rat nest. About 8 or 10 inches across.
But looking closer I saw this ball of various cloth and insulation bits was peppered with old matchbooks, an old metal aspirin canister with the sliding cover, and even a couple of old theater stubs. The aspirin container had several old stamps inside.
So I started poking through The rat nest and pulling out the bits, and began to find metal stuff like old hair clips, Bobbie pins, etc.
At the bottom of the nest, laying on the attic floor was a thick gold wedding band. The inscription inside said the date, initials and 1909.
Some day I may track down the descendants of this rings owners. If I can find them it would be interesting to give back a ring that was stolen decades ago by a treasure hunting rat.
A few years back they widened the road near me from 2 lanes to a divided 4 lane. The work was many miles long, and cut through many private properties and the old center of a suburban st. Louis town.
After the state bought the houses and the owners were gone I would move in and hunt. One time I found a full mason jar unter a tree with lid up and intact. Of course it was empty, but it had me hopeful.
Before one of the oldest houses was bought I asked the owner if I could hunt there. I was rejected. A few weeks later they were gone and the house was empty and marked for demolition.
I hunted the yard and then moved inside to look for a cache. I started with the dirt floor in the basement and worked my way upstairs, checking door tops, fireplace mantles, under stair risers.
When I got to the attic I found the floor was wooden slats with about 1/4 inch between each slat. So I pried up the boards and stuck my head down there to look along the underfloor, to look for coins or anything else that dropped through. Nothing but nails, etc.
At the top of the stairs was a board that was shorter than all the others. When I pried that one up I found....a rat nest. About 8 or 10 inches across.
But looking closer I saw this ball of various cloth and insulation bits was peppered with old matchbooks, an old metal aspirin canister with the sliding cover, and even a couple of old theater stubs. The aspirin container had several old stamps inside.
So I started poking through The rat nest and pulling out the bits, and began to find metal stuff like old hair clips, Bobbie pins, etc.
At the bottom of the nest, laying on the attic floor was a thick gold wedding band. The inscription inside said the date, initials and 1909.
Some day I may track down the descendants of this rings owners. If I can find them it would be interesting to give back a ring that was stolen decades ago by a treasure hunting rat.
