Beer and Coke Please!

It’s that time of year for bottle prospect’in! Around these parts of the tidal rivers of the N.C. Coast you have about a month were the water clears up enough to actually see a few feet around on the bottom. Then around mid November the water at least for me gets too cold to jump in. If you have a old town in the area well…. it’s time to look for bottles, fishing rods, and the big ticket items are the old 1900’s turn of the century Cokes and Pepsi’s. There are also tons of old medicines’ , elixirs and if you’re really lucky maybe a 1700-1800’s whisky flask but,…. they are usually broken. After leaving work, I shot to my favorite spot were bottles litter the bottom. Conditions looked good as I drove the Buick Grand National down the Hwy staying off the turbo so the Sheriff doesn’t gun me down. The only thing that would ruin the dive would be fishermen or the tide ripping through the tidal river.

Running from the Sheriff!

As I got to the dock, the tide was slack. All conditions were go! Water was cool and the fishing pier was empty so, after deploying my diver down buoy I shoot down the 20 ft or so and found conditions on the bottom superb with 3 ft of vis. I starting running around piling up known crappy bottles in piles and putting in possibles in the bag. After three runs back to the breakwater to empty the bag I started to sort what I had and fortunately I had what I came for.

Pile of bottles

Sure enough after a little cleaning a mint 1900 PBR beer bottle and a bubble blown early 1900 Coca Cola were in the pile among a few other keepers. Coke and a Beer Please! What a way to end a day! Yowzaa!
Semper FI - Bob

No Detector Needed!

The other day N.Y. Rob emailed me at work looking to see if I wanted to do some Indian relic hunting over at the sod farm west of New Bern that I have never been to because of work. “Dude, didn’t you say that there’s some old pottery and glass laying around?” “Let me bring up the detectors if the farmer doesn’t mind maybe there’s some old coins and buttons in the ground.” I emailed back. So the stage was set for a afterwork Friday afternoon pleasant hunt in rural North Carolina. Ole N.Y. Rob and his father in law Dan have been hunting these fields for the last few years pulling Indian points and tools. They call the pounding tools made by the X-man cuz they have a x chiseled in them by the maker, I guess kinda like Craftsman marks their tools.
N.Y. Rob and Danny feeling up some sod.

We checked in with the sod shop and fingered some of the nice Indian relics that they have picked up that were laying around the shop, then headed to the fields. You could make out where in the past the house must have stood as the few trees stuck out in the middle of one field and the surrounding field was littered with old glass and whatnot. I was digging alone with my Excalibur, Danny and N.Y.Rob were a team with a extra detector and a shovelman. Digging around the probable house area turned up everything such as old solid irons, and other house debris. N.Y. Rob found a lump of silver which must have been a coin that melted when the house burned down, while I pulled a 1920’s era Marine Corps eagle globe and anchor emblem.
Moving over the road, we passed a small cluster of headstones shaded by a few trees a few feet off the highway. The man who once owned the place was a Confederate in the N.C. Calvary during that war as his cracked gravestone was there with the C.S.A. marker.

Me, and a 1903 penny.

“Hey Bob check out what Danny found!” N.Y. Robs calls from across the street. I look and see Danny pulling something from his mouth , so I wander over.

(Add N.C. drawl for effect) “Lookit this man! I jus found it laayin right ther on top of the dirt man.” And there it was, the best coin I have ever seen found metal detecting, except I guess since it was picked up off the top of the sand without a metal detector it probably doesn’t count. Anyway it was a 1823 Half Dime that the old Confederate must have dropped a few years after the minting date as it was in FINE shape indeed. (Later Danny said it’s about a $500 buck coin from a internet search) Me? Well I finally found a coin, a 1903 Indian head so we all came out alright, just gotta find some time to hit it again!

Me and Ron

Ok, I've been making the rounds three fridays straight. It's pissing off Goosebumps to no end because he's stuck at work longer than me most of the time and I get to drive past multiple mines on my 50 mile commute home every day. This Friday I decieded to bypass Belgrade and head to Richland where I met professional fossil hunter Ron Edwards who was looking for a associated Ricky or Mako set I think :^).

After shooting the breeze and comparing finds, Ron tells me that this particular shell "A Nautoloid" is a great find since I found it complete. "Hey Ron on a scale of 1-10 with a common Noid a 1 and a Archetote (Archie) a 10 what does this little guy rate?" I ask the professional. "Well I think it would be a 7." Ron states. Hey! that's good enough for me, as I wrap it and bag it! Ron found 2 of the Nautoloid's himself bigger ones but with a few chips. Both of us struck out on finding any teeth of any size Friday, but..... Ron told some stories....... Anyway, I did find this larger shell after Ron took off any thoughts on it? Is it destined for the Rock Garden or do I need to rock hammer it carefully?

F@*k'in A! I finally found one!

Today was the day I finally found the piece I've been looking for long and hard, in sweltering summer heat and frigid cold winters. There were many variables in finding it today and everythingl fell into place for today to be a end to my quest.
It all started with being assigned to the Rifle Range today at Stone Bay which is located down Hwy 17 towards Rocky Point and Castle Hayne and not too far from Richlands and Belgrade. I was up at 0400 and on my motorcycle and headed down the Hwy at 0445. I threw in my helmet in case for some reason it was a quick range, since after all today is Friday and the mines are open in Eastern Carolina!

After doin some shooting with the other couple hunnerd Jarheads, we wrapped it up. I pondered what I should do since it was god-almighty swealtering hot, and I was dripping from head to toe. But I figured, “what the hell, I'm dirty smelly and feel lucky” and filled up my 48 ouncer with water and headed to the mine.

After checking in at the mine and asking if anyone else was poking around, the manger said “Are you kidding! If your lucky maybe you'll get some rain in there to cool you off.” I left after he wished me lucky in finding something good and rode the bike down the gravel rode and past all the trucks moving thru the pit. I thought to myself that I'd only be able to last a couple of hours at most in this burning rotisserie of fossil hunting misery.

I headed to a area that looked like it was some new work and wandered around when I suddenly spied a large Ricky's enamel pasted in the dirt of the crushed roadway. Sure'nuff after prying her out she would've be a beauty if she was complete but, they never are....

I was thinking these types of thoughts knowing that somewhere in here there must be a complete money making, picture taking, I'm not faking, complete Big Boy Aooowricckcuuueliiiiitetisssss. I looked down on the ground and there it was looking up from the dirt.

I had to catch myself from tinkling in my pants, then I pulled my Gerber out and started to dig away the dirt around the blade of the tooth. As the Gerber kept going down and I kept seeing perfect blade I gently pulled and in a nanosecond could see that this was finally the one that I've been looking for these past three years! After 10's of millions of years this perfect black with gray striped mottled enamel birthed in just shy of 4inches!

I almost called it a day right there but that's not me, so I pulled this odd-ball tooth out a little while later, it's fragile as can be and I've haven't noticed around on the boards anyone know what it is?
“When its boiling summertime, it's time to hit the mine!”

OMG! Noids

I pulled into the lot about 1230, and some girls from VA. Tech were just coming out of the pit, dog-tired and sweaty. "Didn't get much at all, and it's too hot"! They warned me as they hightailed it back to Ole Virginia. Me and Fred the Foreman swapped some Marine Corps stories, then he mentioned that very few fossil hunters have been coming by during the summer. And folks, he was right! I only saw one set of footprints and that was in the popular Kellum Zone.

Rocky Point has changed quite a bit from the springtime. First, the Northern hills which were old and weathered and where most of the Auriculitis's were found in the past is, well..... all gone. You can kiss your Ricky finds goodbye. Like Fred the Foreman said " There isn't many teeth coming from the southern edge of the mine". And he's right. There just ain't much of a chance in finding any big teeth on the south side. However, if your into Noids errr I mean Echnoids then you are in for a treat. At least I was cuz there hasn't been anyone through the area. Noids were plentiful, I only picked up perfect ones and the others I chucked at the birds. I follow that great fossil theologian Meg-Head's motto which is "Buddy! Just how many Noids do you really need? They're a girl fossil man!”
But hey, I did find some weird stuff, and as always weird stuff is good! Maybe I'll be enlightened on some of these ultra-rare finds and Bill Gates will contact me soon thereafter.

Army of the Potomac

Last week I was able to visit a old stomping ground near Fredricksburg Va. since I was attending a Marine Corps conference up in Quantico. About ten years ago I was able to get a few three ringers and some lead slag in this tiny valley between two hillocks in the woods off of Interstate 95. I always wondered over the years if there was anything left as I did not do the area justice with my old Tesoro detector.

Army of the Potomac Company "B" cap badge

Nowadays with armed with a Minelab Excalibur I jumped into the woods from a newly laid parking lot and searched for the area I knew "they" were at from my hunt ten years prior. I walked along the ridgeline of a meandering hilltop which may have been a footpath long ago, and stumbled upon some old hand formed bricks haphazardly strewn about under the leaves in places on a flat plateau.

With mosquitoes buzzing and ticks crawling I did manage to find a very old piece of silver spoon and a flat button also some old iron kettle pieces but nothing definitive. I was getting a bit tired as the Minelab is no lightweight machine and it was getting late in the afternoon so the woods were darking up a bit. I decided to head back straight over some ridgelines and toward the sounds of traffic.

I soon descended into a small valley and pondered that this may be the spot from before, so I slowed down and started to scan the center wherein the past runoff from rains carved a small depression. It was nice to hear the detector sound off after a long silence and lead slag was soon in hand, then a foot away the first bullet sounded off. I knew this was the spot, and started to work every inch slowly, as the time before I just ran thru and never had the opportunity to go back like I planned.

Supply tin and lead bullet

As I flipped over the divot with my boot and saw the companybadge lying in the dirt, I knew the relic hunting gods were treating me with a favor! The week before I lost a WW2 lapel pin I just purchased at a military show for 50 clams and I guess this was a payback from the Gods for being such a swell guy! What I really need to I.D. are these pieces of some sort of tin. Some ofthe pieces have a copper threaded stud soldered onto the top. It was found within a few feet of the cap badge and some minne balls. Anyone have aclue on what was inside 147 years ago?

In the Union Lines

“At last the orders came to turn the right flank of the enemy. We passed down into the hollow, filed off still farther to the left, and passed over another elevation, when we came to the railroad, just below the brickyard. Then, with General Parke at our head, we pushed on, passed in rear of the breastworks of the enemy, and as we came upon the high open ground behind it we came under a raking fire from the rifle pits across the railroad and the brick-yard, where the enemy lay in large force.”
JOHN WRIGHT,Major, Comdg. First Bat. Fifth Regt. Rhode Island Vols.

“Where do you want to go man? The Fairgrounds?” N.Y. Rob asks as we look for some 9v batteries in his garage. “Naw, I mean that place has been hit so hard and the only thing we’re going to find is trash and pennies. Lets try behind the woods behind the Toyota dealer. The Union marched right down the railroad tracks there.” I say, and off we go.

"The first one of the day!"

Me and N.Y. Rob are getting spooled up quick on the CW battle of New Bern, and due to gaps in our relic hunting schedule which is usually filled with fossil, bottle, and Indian relic hunting days I’m rekindling my Civil War passion and he’s just starting his.

“We pushed on at the double-quick until we came under cover of the trees, where we formed in line of battle and prepared to charge on the enemy in the battery. As they had retired, I was ordered first to send one company and afterward the whole battalion, and to proceed cautiously and find out what the firing was on our left. I sent the adjutant ahead to find out the direction we should take. As it was pointed out by the general's aide, Lieutenant Lydig, we passed down into a hollow and ascended the left-hand side cautiously until we reached the brow of the elevation, when we came in view of the enemy and immediately opened upon them a brisk fire, which immediately had an effect, for their fire slackened and stopped when we ceased firing.

We opened upon them two or three times afterward until we were afraid of firing upon the Fourth Rhode Island, who were advancing upon them on our right. When the Fourth charged upon them we ceased firing and awaited orders.”
JOHN WRIGHT,Major, Comdg. First Bat. Fifth Regt. Rhode Island Vols.

"Relics right off the front line of battle!"

N.Y. Rob is just about jogging thru the woods swinging his detector way too fast and high, he’ll learn I think to myself. This little patch of woods between Hwy 70 and the tracks has been hit by hundreds of enthusiasts over the decades, and the woods are clean as a whistle. No relics and like a good detectorist no trash either. I have the right tool for this deal the mighty Excalibur, and I’m moving slow and steady.

After a while I’m kind of resigned to not finding anything but enjoying my after work fun with Rob and eyeballing some of the remaining CW entrenchments still in the woods when “BANG” the Excalibur sounds off with a deep target. As I dig I don’t expect to see what is in my hand when the dirt is moved around. A nice expended .58 3ringer. Man! What a thrill to find a actual front line bullet shot by some Reb at one of N.Y. Rob’s relatives.

Rob comes over and I stay a few yards off the railroad grade and soon am rewarded with more fired rounds. The Excalibur penetrates thru rotting wood and any deep and missed rounds are mine to keep. It really was quite a nice way to close out a day, and reinforces the metal detecting mantra “No place is ever hunted out.

Searching the Neuse

Searching the NEUSE

The other day me and N.Y Rob finally got our schedules insync! We both had high hopes to find a few Yankee or Rebel war relics around Rob's neighborhood as he lives right behind the front lines for the Battle of NewBern N.C.

N.Y. Rob way out in the river looking for something good.

Since we just started daylight savings time here in the east, so me and Rob had a few hours of daylight to poke around the area after work. We first hit the back acre of his house for a few minutes with nothing to show, then decided to hit the beach along the Neuse River. The beach starts at the end of his lane and once long ago during the war had fortifications with a 4 Gun shore battery.

Just downriver from this spot are the front lines of the battle anchored by Fort Thompson which today sports a subdivision on its high ground. Hopes were high as N.Y Rob's father in law talks of his childhood days when the locals would roll cannonballs home from the river during low tide, and as luck would have it today was a unusually low evening tide.

Also, N.Y.Rob has found a few CW pipebowls, and lead poker chips among other period pieces right on the shore.

BBS technology really works in the water!

My Excalibur worked excellent on the Neuse and penetrated deep into the muck, finding stuff a foot and a half down. The matrix was a few inches of muck, 6 inches of sand, then clay. I'd love to tell you I found some relics, but only a fired bullet was found and that was on the shore in the river bank.

However, I think with a little luck and perseverance a arty shot will be pulled someday. I'll keep you posted!

New Year Plans!

Hey Friends & Family oh…and visitors!

Boy Howdy, I’ve been busy lately and haven’t had any time to do much of anything ‘cept work at home and with the Corps. However, I figure I’ll post my plan for 2009. Lets see, hmmm for sure I hope to be lucky enough to hunt the barren moonscape at the PCS Aurora Phosphate mine this year! With a little luck maybe I can pull down a nice complete Megalodon tooth and stare in wonder at its pristine beauty; Only at Aurora!
http://www.elasmo.com/

On the fossil front I hope me and Glenn keep our dive buddy system in tack and hit the Atlantic in search of that big 7inch tooth that will make one of us a legend in the fossil community! Glenn keep those 120’s filled with Nitrox!
http://www.aquaticsafaris.com/

Stink'in trans blew up in South Carolina n when your a bucks down type of guy well, hey you rebuild it yourself. But now nobody wants to drive the beast outta town.

What else, well today I’m starting off on my Civil War kick, seems my pal Goosebumps has spied some of Burnsides Union entrenchments in the swampy area off the Moorehead to New Bern railroad. So the metal detectors are in the trunk and ready to go for later.
http://www.civilwarshop.com/

Me and N.Y. Rob always have big plans and this year we are gonna do it up right. See N.Y. Rob bought a nice big boat and plans are in action to dive off of New Bern’s old dock area for some of those 1800’s bottles. Also nearby across the river is the abandon Civil War Union fort which was shelled heavily during D.H. Hill attack in 1863. “Shells and shrapnel fell into the Neuse like raindrops on a pond” Of course we are just looking n touching but not taking.

Indian relics are getting in the mix this year for sure, plenty of sites to hit and I’m making sure to put my miles in on the field looking for points. Of course, I’m gonna hit the gold mines of North Carolina http://www.bearfootgold.com/ at least once if not more. I got sluice parts over at the weld shop jus gotta get over there!

Okinawa? Hey, If everything is right I may do a space A holiday deal in the fall when the weathers good for caving for relics and nighttime raids on the resort beaches for the platinum and gold! So stand by and check in once in awhile! I look forward to hearing from you!
- Robert Wilke