Field Trip to one awesome collection!

On a beautiful fall day in eastern North Carolina, members of the East Coast Fossil club were treated to a special event prior to a scheduled hunt of Greens Mills Run park. The Club members were able to view noted amateur paleontologist George Powell’s fantastic fossil collection collected from various spots along the coast from Virginia to South Carolina.

The one of a kind relics were truly an awesome collection of one man’s passion for the fossil collecting hobby. His collection as evident in the pictures truly rivals if not surpasses many large museum quality displays.

George was such a great host welcoming us to his private collection room and then spending a few hours explaining different nuances of the hobby and answering many questions from club members.

Everyone learned much about our hobby from the visit, and the one on one time with George was great as we did not have the hills of Aurora tempting us into short conversation.

George’s famous 114 Parotodus-benedeni associated dentition was only one of the highlights of the collection, all of the members were impressed with the display of Meg’s in all their glory with the red felt and highlighting! (Glenn’s got to do something about his Megs kept in the tool box!)

My question to George was “What’s going to happen to your collection in the future…? Are you going to donate it to a museaum?” “Nope, I told the wife and daughter to sell the whole thing and enjoy the money from it!” was the reply. And that my friends is probably what will happen to ours too!

In Search of: 18 grand!

What you diving fer? Asked the grizzled old man. “Oh, just old bottles and whatever other junk may be laying on the bottom.” I answered. The old man points off into the water, “Well you mights want to keep your eyes open for a safe down thar.”

Hooch waiting for the safe, and me in the water.

The old fella, is local seaside historian “Hooch” Henry. A Marine Veteran of WW2, Korea, and Vietnam, he’ll even show you the bullet hole he got on Okinawa. “That Jap popped up outta nowhar and shot me right in the gut”.

Anyway ole Hooch and the neighbor next to the pier both state that a few years back the Sheriff and two inmates in orange jump suits were at the seawall and the story goes that they threw a safe containing 18 grand in the river off the end of the pier.

According to the neighbor he has never seen the safe come up or anyone dive for it, that’s why he’s asking what I’m diving for. We all agree to share in the spoils (if any) and they show me the area the Sheriff indicated a few years ago. The water is swift with the current not yet at slack tide however, the visibility is good with the cooling of the river water. I spend about 30 minutes on the bottom working my way haphazardly around . I spot a few unidentifiable heavy objects in the muck but I’m pretty sure they are not a safe even though nobody knows the size and shape I’m supposed to be looking for.

I’m soon out of air, and the only startling find was a decomposing large piece of mammal of some sort, with ghostly white pieces of flesh swaying in the current. As the Governor of CA. would say at a time like this "I'll be back!"

A few days later, Me, Hooch, the Neighbor and my buddy Culley a deep sea Navy diver with access to the Navy Dive locker goodies are back to run grid lines over the area and lift bags to the heavy objects.

The search starts out slow due to heavy slit in the water due to the recent rains, but on the second tank the visibility clears and we can scan and cover more ground easily. As we work the area, occasionally Culley’s and my goodie bag fill up with bottles and fishing gear. When we surface and have Hooch haul it up and dump it out on the dock and get ready to head back down.

Kevin Culley- Navy Diver finding bottles but no safe.

I’d love to tell you that I’m drying 100 dollar bills in the clothes dryer but, it wasn’t so. We both got a couple of nice old bottles and I got a sweet rod and reel but no safe. Maybe we were off a few yards or the memories of those men slipped a little in the intervening years, but for me the water is probably going to get too cold by the time I’ll get some off-time to try again. Any underwater safe is going to have to wait till next year!

Fossil Hunt

Whaaaaaaap! Clunk! Swoosh….. Swooosh. Soon a man is seen scuffling thru the muddy flats towards us. He’s holding his hand gingerly as he maneuvers thru the debris scattered along his path. Perhaps your thinking this must be a description of WWI Verdun France and a doughboy is making his way to an aid station. Naw, it’s just Gerald “Reel Tooth” making his way along the creek bed of GMR to show off another one of his great finds during his amazing dig.

Yessir, quite a crowd showed up for a early morning dig along the chilly banks of Greens Mill Run. It seems that after posting a few of my finds recently on the web, a all-star lineup of diggers showed up primed to find fossils due to the Aurora fossil hunt cancellation.

A professional Gold mining crew led by RobJon from up country North Carolina showed up for the first time. I was sure they were going to start suction dredging the mighty GMR but they were unsure of the city ordinances. I soon found the Professor in the stream working Will and Lois’s claim. He had a professional GMR local hunter and ole Goosebumps busting gravel from 10 feet below the river bed. “Hey Professor, don’tcha know that’s Will’s claim? He’s got that on file at East Coast HQ! You’ll get fined if you get reported.” I stated to him. “I’m claiming this area in the name of ECU educational research!” He exclaimed, as he showed me a possible 3 inch Great White that had the top broken off.

I knew where I was not wanted so I kept moving upstream. Soon, I spotted the “King of Fossils” himself waiting on his folding chair for his hireling to produce a fossil worthy of his highness’s collection. It was good to see Brian in good health and back in the game; I just wonder how he gets these guys to do all the digging?

King of Fossils

The V.P. of E.C.F.C came up to me about then and demanded to be taken to the area that I worked a few weeks prior where I found that G.W. Anyway, this is the part of the story were chance took a turn for the benefit of Gerald.

Me and the V.P. met Gerald as he was returning back downstream, (maybe he was lonely) Anyways, he had a simply beautiful Great White in perfect shape I’m guessing over 2.5 inches. He decided to turn around and go back to the area he was working before instead of downstream and that my friends turned out to be the play of the day.

Within 30 minutes, Gerald scuffled over to where we were, and I could tell by the sh*t eating grin (see picture) he had something good. A rare perfect Megalodon! No dings, all serrations, beautiful color, 4 + inches. It was a great find! Over the next hour I still did not have even a piece of bone from where I was digging! However Gerald kept pulling fossil after fossil from the same dang hole. Fossils such as, a turtle shell, another perfect front GW, the second 4inch Meg, and possibly the largest Mako from GMR in recent history.

It was nuts, but a fine day it was for Gerald! For the rest of us, the report was that everyone got something very nice, except for the V.P.of E.C.F.C who has bad luck at GMR. I’m not sure about the Gold mining team, but they were working hard to claim their first GMR mantelpieces. But as we all know the lady of the river doesn’t give her treasures to newcomers easily.

LSM-45 (Landing Ship Medium) Oct 2008

Landing Ship Medium – 45

On a beautiful Friday afternoon, I headed towards a little visited training area aboard Camp Lejeune to check out the local Jacksonville semi-historical ship LSM-45. The ship has been in the local paper off and on over the last few years as its final fate ebbs and flows as the seasons change around it.

WW2 era muscle and 1980's Detriot MUSCLE!

The ship was transferred here to be a part of the new Marine Museaum of the Carolinas when that agency was planned to have a building built off the New River. However that plan fell apart due to local political issues regarding the proposed site. The proposed Museaum now will be land locked near the Beirut Memorial in front of Camp Johnson.


I headed out to see her myself after getting finished retaking my Range Safety officer class aboard mainside. Riding along in my Grand National during this late summer day was a nice treat, except I couldn't open her up on the backroads as you never know where a Military Police may be lurking. Soon I motored near the wharf were the LSM lay by herself. Other than a few people who were casting for shrimp down the way there were no other people to keep the old ship company.

The ship was shocking in bad shape, more than I imagined. It would take a act of extreme sacifice in money and effort to make the LSM shipshape. That was unforunate as one reason I was there was to take a looksee at the ship to ascertain the possiblity of requesting it for one of the bombing targets at Bombing Target area 11.


Up at the island as we call it, we have problems with getting hulks of ships out in the shallows for fixed wing aircraft and helos to shoot at with rockets and bombs. Something as large as the LSM and especially the fact that she's made of steel which takes the explosions better than newer decommision ships makes her a real jewel as a target ship.

It would be a great shame to blow up a old WW2 Pacific warhorse, but I guess she would have some life left training the new breed of warrior and save the goverment some target money while she's at it.

Military Show

On Saturday I jumped into the ole Grand National, and after checking the oil turbo’ed my way thru the rural back roads of eastern North Carolina as I meandered towards The Old North State Antique Gun and Military Collectors Show in Raleigh. The show is held at the state fairgrounds and a flea market is held every weekend with a specialized show in the exhibition hall. This week the event was the militaria show, and I really wanted to get a handle on retail prices on some of the militaria dealing with the Battle of Okinawa.

Excellent Common Helmet with Kanji Name on Rim $750

As expected the prices of Militaria climb ever upwards, upwards to eye popping levels. The Okinawa and mainland Japan antique shops and flea markets offer a great discount on prices unlike buying military collectables in Europe. Also, in some of the other Asian rim countries, leftover Imperial Japanese relics are overpriced way beyond their value. A few years back I thought I scored a real find when in a small shop in Bangkok I spied a barrel full of beat-up Japanese swords. These relics were used on the farm after the war but they were priced as true museum treasures!


White Cotton Enlisted Naval Jacket w/Gold naval buttons $200

Keep in mind if your lucky enough to be stationed in Japan keep your eyes open for good value! On the tables at the Raleigh show, Japanese helmets in great condition with excellent liners and soldiers name were at least $750. An excellent helmet with tropical cover was an astonishing $1500. These were supposed vet bring backs with no history known by the sellers. A 7.7 Arisaka rifle with Aerial sights was going for close to 600 dollars, I priced some common canteens and the prices ranged from $150 - $175, a good price in Japan is around 40 bucks. USMC gear is always in demand and WW2 era battle gear is pricy. A nice cammo helmet was going for $200.


Helmet with Tropical Cover - $1500

As can be expected due to the high prices of the gear and today’s financial mess, the crowds were sparse and I did not see much money changing hands. Also as I left, I came to value more the possible discounts Ebay offers to collectors who are savvy bidders and resourceful searchers.


Semper Fi,
Bob

Various Photos from show.

Marine Corps Post and Relief Ceremony

The other day I was one of the main parts of the Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point North Carolina Sergeants Major Post and Relief.

That's me in the center saluting.

I figured I’d post this here to capture a few action shots on a duty Marines participate in on a regular basis. Me, I enjoy it because truth be told I simply love the POWER! Oh yes my friends, shouting out commands and making the Marines snap and pop on order is a rush many don’t experience.

Just imagine having the undivided attention of spectators and Platoons of Marines in parade formation who will respond to every command you utter. It’s a natural high that I’ll miss someday.

Labor Day Fossil Fun at Greenville North Carolina

Goosebumps looking for the Great White teeth!


I ran up the stairs to answer the phone. “Yo, whadup! Youse reddy for tomorrow?” The man from N.Y says. “Yeh Man. I was just loading up the truck with shovels and the screen. Should be a good time with the weather looking fine and all.” Me, N.Y. Rob, Goosebumps, and Gerald “Real Tooth” Real were scheduled to have all the East Coast Club fun at GMR on a beautiful Labor day morning!

Upon reaching the park, the conditions were perfect for a great hunt with the water level low, temps perfect, and snakes at a minimum. I had the pleasure of meeting Brad from Black River Fossils who carpooled down from High Point N.C. with Gerald. Soon, Brad had a rare find for the area with a handsome piece of petrified wood screened from the bottom of the river. N.Y. Rob scored a huge Mako and Goblin tooth early but then his luck went stone cold. “I got absooluuutely nut’in outta my gravel bank! Whadda %@!*.” he was heard to say.

BlackRiverFossils go-to guy Brad digs out the rare wood!

When I talked to Gerald, he and I both had nothing really noteworthy to display at the time however, downriver Goosebumps (who jumped my old claim) had a riker box full of treasure with not one but two Great White teeth, one in perfect condition. A horse tooth and 2 sazzy hemi’s among a ton o’stuff he pulled from my spot. Now that I think about it, I was cursed yet again by this fellow being in my proximity.
( Note to self: Push Goosebumps overboard next time were on ship together.)

Everyone has fun at GMR!

It was definitely a lot of fun and we need to schedule a big hunt up there soon, now especially that we have a Hurricane scheduled to clean it out!

Bob


Is it a Meg or a piece of tile?

Dancing with Sharks, and Digging Teeth!

Clicking thru emails at work last Thursday I spy the following email:

I signed up for the Cape Fear dive for Sunday. Jeff is not going. So his tanks are available. Plus, my new tanks came today.

Glenn


Early morning at the dock.

A short and to the point note, now I have to make a last minute call on the dive. Why? Because I don’t feel lucky….. The dive makes sense however, first its on Sunday so I don’t have to burn up a day of leave, secondly the weather and sea conditions are predicted to be good, and Meg-Head got extra 120’s I can bum. But, something inside me lets me know if I go I will not score on the Meg’s.

I decide to bit the bullet and sign up and call Eric at the shop: “Yeh Man, should be good! I’m even going out, getting outta the shop, my first dive for Megs. Weather looks great. Wanna give me your credit card number to hold a slot?”

“Yeh man, sign me up!” I say. I think to myself after hanging up the diving will be worth it, even if I don’t score big on the teeth scale. I just hope the bad feeling is not something worse like a premonition of a mishap….

Sunday morning I pull into a Hotel parking lot to pick up ole Meg-head. Glenn’s in high spirits as he’s the one feeling lucky today. That’s good for him! I say something about working hard on the bottom to even out my chances and who really knows about luck anyway.



Check out Scott's fin as he counts over 30!

At the docks, it’s the usual suspects. Big time local hunters Scott and Stan are on hand to give Meg-Head and Captain Guy a run for the money. Junior league scavengers, myself included are here too. Corporal Long and his cousin Trevor return from last months dive to try to up their numbers. They’ve the Meg flu. Dive shop countermen past and present Billy and Eric are going to pass the torch on vacuuming the bottom. An added bonus is having a bevy of young women divers take part on this charter. I know Captain Guy’s happy about that fact, and keeps a lookout to assist them when needed.

Dive conditions were great on the ledge and I figured I’d be able to do some big-time fanning on the bottom and pull up some choice mantle piece teeth. After, going down the anchor line and checking my gear, I slid my gloved hand thru my swim paddle and started to push up the bottom inside out. I pushed and pushed until I had to stop and switch hands. Finally, after 10 minutes and who knows how much sand I got a nice 4 incher followed soon by another 4 incher. With 4 minutes bottom time left I fanned and scanned the sand to no avail. “Not a good haul” I thought to myself as I ascended up to about 90 feet.

Visibility on the bottom was excellent, however at mid-water vis was poor. Oddly there were no thermoclines present. As usual I was one the first one back on deck due to my terrible air consumption rate however; as the divers came out of the water from the initial dive some big scores were ready to be shown on the deck. Scott pulled up a heavily loaded bag from the sea bottom and as he spilled out the contents some fine large teeth out of the 33 or so he found made this a awesome haul! After everyone was back on deck, Billy and Meg-Head each showed off a 6+ inch tooth they scored! Eric released from his shackles on the dive shop counter, scored 13 teeth on his first dive on the Ledge.



Captain Guy doing the song and dance
"I got teeth on my belly"

Captain Guy went down during the off-gas period and sure enough, all the divers got to see the hidden teeth in the wetsuit comedy show that Cape Fear is famous for! How does he get so many teeth each time is amazing!

Anyway, I was pumped to have another go at the bottom and was the first diver in and headed down the line. I worked the sand hard to no avail, then switching tactics swam a bit trying to pick out shapes in the sand. When I was at the end of bottom time I saw Meg-head and after swapping some signals I headed toward the anchor line on my compass heading. I was bummed as I only had 2 small 3 inch teeth, what crappy luck, just like I felt before signing up.

As I swam in the general direction of the boat and ascended slowly I could not pick up the line in the gloom. What I did see were the bubble stream coming up from the bottom even though I could not see the divers or the bottom.


Meg-Head's big 6 inch!


I made a bad decision at that time. Rather, than swim in the general heading of the compass I decided to ascend around the bubble stream thinking that the divers on the bottom are near the ship. As I started my safety stop at 20 feet I still couldn’t see the boat even though I was in a sea of bubbles coming from below. I knew I woundn’t like what I saw when I broke the surface, and sure enough as I emerged slowly from below and my mask broke the water there she was…….. way…. the…. F**K…..over there. Anyway, I had a nice swim back to the boat by myself, and wondered what happened.

What is it? We didn't know either.
Maybe a fossilized tree nut?

After the long swim back, stowing the gear, grabbing a sandwich and coke other divers started to pop-up way out, off starboard. Tiffany and Scott went out and swam the line out to help out the other divers while Captain Guy coordinated the rescue efforts. He needed a smoke after that…. Well, that explained why I was out of the area too, referencing their bubbles and all.
The third dive was on the Hyde and the sharks were out in force! I counted 16 off the stern and too close for my comfort with beasts coming out of the gloom from every direction. I headed back where more divers were and kept my eyes peeled the remainder of the dive.


Sharks on the Hyde
Photo by Tom Tilmon
For more diving action check out his site at:

http://members.aol.com/fpsndiver/fpsn11.html

Above Photographs by Sally Medling: For more photos of Dive on Hyde check out her site at:
http://picasaweb.google.com/sallymedling/Hyde_08_10_08?authkey=WoE93Rhzl8o

Wow! It really was a great weekend! It’s not often enough that your average neighborhood relic hunter scores a trifecta of fun and success as I had recently. But I’m getting ahead of myself a bit. Lets see, my dive buddy aka Glenn “Meg-Head” Branch had set up a 3 Dive run out of Carolina Beach to search for big money fossilized sharks teeth among other fossils that lie in 115ft of water 40 miles off the coast of North Carolina.

Piedmont treasure hunter N.C. Bob signed on for the trip from Asheville, and also changed the dive plan to a two day trip with 2 more additional Meg-dives for Saturday and a wreck dive on the way in. In all, 5 chances to score the big money 7 inch Megalodon tooth we all know is lying off the coast.

Simply put, the ocean conditions on Friday were excellent, with flat seas and a slightly overcast sky. As the 40 something foot dive boat “Hawks Bill” captained by the world famous Captain Guy churned thru the flat seas, schools of flying fish would stream across the flat aqua green water. Sprits were high as anticipation of finding many large teeth were the sign of the times as many of the divers were local guys who have scored some nice teeth before.

Soon we were at the site, and plans were made for conducting the dives. Me, I got a mixup on my tanks and now I had 120 cu in of regular air vice NITROX .

Captain Guy shows off his invisable ships wheel!

So I was going to have to be a little careful on the dive plans. Big Stride in, and Splash… Down the line I went however, soon it was apparent that as always it is just too hard to stay with the plan of action due to the ease of losing site of your buddy in the gloom, the cloud of sand kicked up while fanning and so on. If you are really down to find some teeth, normal diving procedures are thrown out the window anyway. You are really on your own at 115 feet.

As wonderful as the surface conditions were, thermoclines were present at varying depths. The cold water brought in weird loads of plankton type sea plants of some sort and hurt visibility. However, after 3 dives we all had a few keepers. I think I had 4 or 5 good teeth one being a 5 incher , Glenn and N.C. Bob had about the same. But, truthfully we were looking for a whole lot more! I figured I needed to find about 14, 3 – 4 inch teeth over 2 days to break even covering the cost of both days of scuba.

Glenn was in a foul mood, as we travelled back to Jacksonville. “They’re not bringing us to a good spot.

Calm seas are a Diver's dream 40 miles off the coast!

That place was all picked over”. He opined. “Hey man, you never know when your going to get lucky. Look, Captain Guy had a great haul on his dive. Next time it could be you or me.” I said as I tried to motivate Meg-Head, and convince myself that tomorrow would work out for us.

Early Saturday morning Glenn and I headed out from J’ville and after a pitstop at MickyD’s we were headed down Hwy 17 toward Wilmington. The weather conditions were just fantastic and the crowd that gathered at the dock foretold of keen competition for fossils during this trip. Soon we were joined by N.C. Bob and had all of our gear stacked and packed.


It was just simply a perfect dive day and things went pretty good on the first dive, I got about 5 teeth, Meg-Head 3 or 4 and N.C. Bob got shut out for the 3rd time in 4 dives. But on our final dive on the Meg ledge things got interesting. I dropped down the line, and took a fix on the anchor line and proceeded to drop down to the bottom. On my 3rd fan in the sand, there…. she…. was! A big ole tooth! I knew it was the biggest one I have found and as I twirled it around and saw it was in great shape I thought I won the lottery! I stowed it away in a zippered pouch on my BC vest and started to fan. I tell you what, it was the fabled “Honey Hole” that Captain Guy has named for teeth below the surface of the sand/rubble matrix. I was finding keeper after keeper and after each find I would shove the tooth straight into the top of my wetsuit, damn the scratches! Anything to save time and keep this lucky streak alive.

The haul for me on this one 15 minute bottom time dive was 13 teeth.

It was satisfying to finally have a lucky streak, but the real treasure to be found was; being able to have a couple great days in the sun goofing off with old and new buddies, shooting the breeze and talking teeth and treasure with other divers with the sea spray wafting in the air, that’s making memories! And brother that’s what’s life’s all about!
3 Amigo's in search of 10 million year old relics!

Indian battleground

(Ready to cut up some venison ribs!)

Late on Sunday night I saw the flashing numbers on the answering machine. It was N.Y. Rob. I had semi-forgotten that we were kicking around the idea of doing something on Monday since we were both off. I wasn’t initially too enthusiastic about the idea since I was coming off a 5 day straight wood working binge building kitchen cabinets at the wood hobby shop on Camp Lejeune. But I figured I’d give him a call and see if he could talk me into something. “Yo, bout time youse called! We doin sumptin tomorrow or waaht.” The man from N.Y. mumbled on the phone.

We decided to head up thru the backwoods of Eastern N.C. and check out a fella’s antique store who I knew is/was a big Indian relic hunter. As we traveled thru the backroads I had N.Y. Rob pull over to check out a historical marker I always thought to be quite relevant for Indian enthusiasts.

“On the morning of March 20th, every man was at his post when a trumpet sounded the signal for the attack. Three days later Fort Neoheroka lay a smoldering ruin and the enemy acknowledged defeat. The Indian loss was 950, about half killed and the balance taken into slavery. Moore's loss was fifty-seven killed and eighty-two wounded. With this one crushing blow, the power of the Tuscarora nation was broken”

Right down the road we pulled over into the driveway of a old dilapidated country home I have been keeping tabs on as a possible buy as its location is choice. Soon, after we were done poking around the property the farmer who rents the land pulled up and started to chit-chat. After talking about the house for a bit the topic turned to the battlesite. “Right over there cross the road whar that pole is, is whar ECU come out and did a dig. They covered all the post holes of the fort up, and I’ve been planting over everything ever since.” The farmer related. I wish you could have seen N.Y.Rob’s eyes pop open, “Sir, can we do some arrowhead hunt’n if we promise not to trample the crops?” With a little hesitancy the farmer in the pickup truck relented and said “Go ahead” and off we went!

Well, for me a new hobby was tested, and the taste was excellent. I don't think that I'll ever have enought time to pursue it to the fullest, but it was pretty close to relic or fossil hunting and something to plan for when the crops come in.

Sunken Ship Found!

Hey Gang,
Big news on the island with the anniversary kicking up dust. It seems every few years the Kerama mystery ship makes an appearance in the news. Keep one eye on the below thread for interesting info about the topic. It’s possible that it’s the Hobbs Victory that I wrote about in the manuscript but you never know…

Mr. Cliff Stryker posted on the forum the other day, and he’s an old tunnel rat from the heyday of relic hunting. Check out the thread and chime in!

In reasearch news; I talked to Mr. William Sass the other day on the phone. He’s a veteran of the campaign and was with the Seabees during the battle. He’s helped out in regards to some of the Seabee photographs I’ve recently scanned into the site. Of particular note he mentioned how he was part of a three man cave detail assigned to coax die-hards and civilians out of the caves after the battle. He said that some things are just too difficult to describe and painful to remember. That being said; respect the ground you trend upon out in the field be it Okinawa or Gettysburg.
http://www.japanupdate.com/forum/showthread.php?t=6757

Okinawarelics

Konnichi wa Okiphiles!
I figured I’d put some effort into being able to put out some disjointed ramblings about our favorite topic; Okinawa. Or relics, or maybe the war or some sort of mix of those and others. Anyway, I believe this website has been successful in regards of bringing such a very small niche of us together in one spot. I want to thank a few people who without their material, ideas and help I wound not have been able to put this site together. Ken Spink, Torii Station museum director who jumpstarted a dead website. My relic hunting pals, Dewayne Barth and Preston Brenchley who provided help and support from day one. David Davenport, for providing his expertise and assistance in this endeavor. Chris Majewski from the Okinawa battle museum for information and updates from the island.
To Dave Davenport aka Grandpa Rat for whom this hobby was a life’s passion. His tireless work of preserving and teaching about the sacrifices made by all combatants and innocents in that dark time in history will always be missed.