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Search for cached artifacts

73 Springfield

Junior Member
Joined
Jul 23, 2007
Messages
30
This story starts many years ago. I was working on a ranch that happened to be located on the overland trail, so I will have more than one story to tell of things found while employed there. I think probably the reason I'm not working there now is I was always looking at the ground, and not at the cows. I used every spare minute to do all the research I could about the area I was located, and places on the trail that were close by. At one place a branch of the California trail crossed a pretty hairy desert, and my information -- original source stuff, like diaries etc. said that a lot of stuff had been abandoned by the emmirgrants, telling about them digging false graves etc. More research showed that the Mormons were the desert junk collectors starting early on, and most of the abandoned stuff was picked up and hauled to Salt Lake many years ago. But I'm thinking little things could still be there, along with a possible cache of good stuff. So I was thoroughly motivated to go out there and see what I might find. My idea was to search around prominent landmarks. When I got there there hadn't been a tree for miles, but at the location where I figured there might be some stuff hidden there were large rocks, standing out by themselves. So I search around each rock, then I hum a line between rocks, anyplace that seems like I would dig and hide a cache I wanted to come back to and find. I hummed right over a rattlesnake exactly the same color and the desert background, and he scared the heck out of me. It's nice having something out in front of you like the detector head, because that's what stirred him up and started him buzzing at me. MDing in a place like that you kind of have to work between the sage brush bushes, but for the most part there is enough space that you get a pretty good cover. I found a sheepherder camp, (I'll tell about it in a different post) and some more modern artifacts where people have been there, bottle caps, beer cans, foil etc. Seems like we can't get away from that stuff no matter how far we drive out into the pucker brush. Anyhow, to finish my story. I was humming a line between two prominent rocks, and exactly in the center between the rocks the rented Garrett sounded off. I have no idea what the machine was at this late date. Oh boy did my heart come up into my throat. It had to be a cache, it was in the right spot. I dug down about a foot and tested the machine again, and it overloaded, so I set it down and the dirt fairly flew. Well, when the dust settled I hadn't found a cache, I'd found the attached photo of a wagon part, which I think came of the pole or tongue of a wagon, pioneer or sheepherder, who knows. I keep thinking I'll be going back to look some more, but it's a long way from where I live now, and it never seems to work out. We don't always win, but for me a lot of the fun is in the looking.
 

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Boy, you write a good story! Keep us posted if you ever get back there, I can hardly wait for the next installment!
 
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