xlxcrossxlx
New Member
Well ladies and gentlemen, one of the things I have longed feared in metal detecting has came true.
It all starts with a beautiful house, built in 1902 by a prominent businessman/real estate mogul, and his wife, who lived in my hometown. The house is a 3-story old Victorian beauty that I received permission to hunt. I went out for a quick scout of the property one day as I only had an hour or so to hunt. After digging a few garbage items, I changed my detector to sound only for certain VDIs and began to walk the property in a more deliberate fashion. On the west side of the house I got a hit, a mixed/double signal, one of them loud and clear and the other somewhat faint. I could tell they were both pretty deep. I dug a standard size plug and quickly retrieved a zinc penny. At the bottom of the hole my pinpointer was still picking something up. So I rescanned the hole and got the same faint signal I had heard previously. So I dug a little deeper. Then a little deeper. Then some more. Finally I feel it. A solid piece of metal about two feet deep, but with a little bit of give when I pushed the pinpointer into it. It was much larger than the opening I originally dug and I knew I would not be able to get it out without a much larger hole. Out of time, I refilled the hole, marked it, and then left for the night.
The rain came and so the thoughts came flowing in. What could be down this hole? A utility line, a cable box of some sort? I called a service to mark the lines, they came out, no lines of any type going through that area. Great! Could it be a cache of money? Research begins. The husband died in 1925. The Stock Market Crashes in 1929. People begin withdrawing all of their money and burying it in their yards to prevent the banks and looters from acquiring their hard-earned wealth. The wife dies in 1933, unexpectedly at her daughters house in another state. I discussed the possibilities at length with my girlfriend and did a lot of research online about what could be buried there. After my research and various discussions, I was beginning to think it might be a cache of money.
The house was on a beautiful tree-lined street, (photo from 1910), and in that photo it had a small tree directly outside the bedroom window of the old house. The tree was no longer there, but it once stood right where I was digging. I had read that people hid their money outside their bedroom window near some kind of marker so that they could keep an eye on it, and also mark the location in order to tell someone or unbury it later. It was all coming together. I told my girlfriend, "if there is a picture on this box" .. (I was thinking of the box that Andy leaves for Red at the end of The Shawshank Redemption), .. "with like a ship or something I am going to flip out!"
The night finally came where I could dig it out. Late at night, around 10pm. I started with about a 1 foot diameter hole and dug until I felt the object. After a few minutes of unearthing the soil surrounding it, I began to see what I was hoping for. An image. But instead of a ship, it was church with a tall steeple...birds...and people. It was a painting, on a metal object, buried 2 feet underground, on the property of a house built it 1902. My heart was racing. I was finally able to get my hand around the side of it, and felt what I had hoped for. It had a lid. It's a box, not just a metal plate of some kind. Moment of truth. I open the box. My girlfriend and I are really excited at this point. The box opens, but not enough to see anything, just enough to get a hand inside. I feel something through my glove. It's not metal. It's soft. What the hell is it? Then I feel something hard, like a rod of some type. It has a knob on one end. I slowly feel towards the other end, another knob. I say, "Oh, ****...It's a bone." She says, "oh my god, what the hell is that smell?!" It was the cat. The dead, decaying cat that was buried in a metal, gold-lined box, buried in the yard of house built in 1902.
The box had several identifying features to help determine how long "Nugget" (the name I have since given it), had been buried there, which brought along another slap in the face. The box was made circa 1982. It wasn't even a really old dead cat. Just a newer dead cat, like the clad coin of buried cats.
I was really trying to convince my girlfriend how great metal detecting is and unburying a dead cat on her second time out, when she doesn't even like live cats, was a major setback. But, she agreed that it can't get any worse, and is starting to hunt with me a lot more.
Look at the photos and tell me what you would be thinking while digging this up. And does anyone else have a similar story of unearthing a dead pet? . . . . Please..? Anyone?! ..
It all starts with a beautiful house, built in 1902 by a prominent businessman/real estate mogul, and his wife, who lived in my hometown. The house is a 3-story old Victorian beauty that I received permission to hunt. I went out for a quick scout of the property one day as I only had an hour or so to hunt. After digging a few garbage items, I changed my detector to sound only for certain VDIs and began to walk the property in a more deliberate fashion. On the west side of the house I got a hit, a mixed/double signal, one of them loud and clear and the other somewhat faint. I could tell they were both pretty deep. I dug a standard size plug and quickly retrieved a zinc penny. At the bottom of the hole my pinpointer was still picking something up. So I rescanned the hole and got the same faint signal I had heard previously. So I dug a little deeper. Then a little deeper. Then some more. Finally I feel it. A solid piece of metal about two feet deep, but with a little bit of give when I pushed the pinpointer into it. It was much larger than the opening I originally dug and I knew I would not be able to get it out without a much larger hole. Out of time, I refilled the hole, marked it, and then left for the night.
The rain came and so the thoughts came flowing in. What could be down this hole? A utility line, a cable box of some sort? I called a service to mark the lines, they came out, no lines of any type going through that area. Great! Could it be a cache of money? Research begins. The husband died in 1925. The Stock Market Crashes in 1929. People begin withdrawing all of their money and burying it in their yards to prevent the banks and looters from acquiring their hard-earned wealth. The wife dies in 1933, unexpectedly at her daughters house in another state. I discussed the possibilities at length with my girlfriend and did a lot of research online about what could be buried there. After my research and various discussions, I was beginning to think it might be a cache of money.
The house was on a beautiful tree-lined street, (photo from 1910), and in that photo it had a small tree directly outside the bedroom window of the old house. The tree was no longer there, but it once stood right where I was digging. I had read that people hid their money outside their bedroom window near some kind of marker so that they could keep an eye on it, and also mark the location in order to tell someone or unbury it later. It was all coming together. I told my girlfriend, "if there is a picture on this box" .. (I was thinking of the box that Andy leaves for Red at the end of The Shawshank Redemption), .. "with like a ship or something I am going to flip out!"
The night finally came where I could dig it out. Late at night, around 10pm. I started with about a 1 foot diameter hole and dug until I felt the object. After a few minutes of unearthing the soil surrounding it, I began to see what I was hoping for. An image. But instead of a ship, it was church with a tall steeple...birds...and people. It was a painting, on a metal object, buried 2 feet underground, on the property of a house built it 1902. My heart was racing. I was finally able to get my hand around the side of it, and felt what I had hoped for. It had a lid. It's a box, not just a metal plate of some kind. Moment of truth. I open the box. My girlfriend and I are really excited at this point. The box opens, but not enough to see anything, just enough to get a hand inside. I feel something through my glove. It's not metal. It's soft. What the hell is it? Then I feel something hard, like a rod of some type. It has a knob on one end. I slowly feel towards the other end, another knob. I say, "Oh, ****...It's a bone." She says, "oh my god, what the hell is that smell?!" It was the cat. The dead, decaying cat that was buried in a metal, gold-lined box, buried in the yard of house built in 1902.
The box had several identifying features to help determine how long "Nugget" (the name I have since given it), had been buried there, which brought along another slap in the face. The box was made circa 1982. It wasn't even a really old dead cat. Just a newer dead cat, like the clad coin of buried cats.
I was really trying to convince my girlfriend how great metal detecting is and unburying a dead cat on her second time out, when she doesn't even like live cats, was a major setback. But, she agreed that it can't get any worse, and is starting to hunt with me a lot more.
Look at the photos and tell me what you would be thinking while digging this up. And does anyone else have a similar story of unearthing a dead pet? . . . . Please..? Anyone?! ..
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