We had a wonderful time at the fall seeded hunt! Honestly, it couldn't have been more perfect! The weather for the whole weekend was beautiful! We had several new hunters who had never hunted at one of these events before. When it was all over, I heard a lot of praise for the entire event. I didn't get up to the Fly Wheeler's until late Saturday evening, and the group already had a big campfire going.

        When Mike Walker arrived at the Fly Wheeler's on Saturday, Charlie Turner showed him a lady's wallet that he found on the road just a couple miles away. Charlie stopped at the house, nearest to the location where the wallet was found, but the people there were unable to help him.

        Mike told me at the hunt that the wallet was loaded with cash, credit cards and the lady's ID! She is very lucky it fell into the right hands. Mike used his cell phone to call directory assistance where he was able to get her phone number. There was no answer so Mike left a message on her voice mail.

        Then the guys headed over to the North Beach to do some detecting and they no more than stopped the car when Mike's cell phone started ringing. Yes, it was the right lady and Mike asked where she was at. It turned out that the couple has one of those nice boats moored on the Black River, and just then they were at a restaurant in South Haven. It took the lady and her young daughter a few minutes to meet Charlie and Mike at the beach. Needless to say, she was very happy, and offered a reward, but they turned it down. It was reward enough just to see her joy.

        A couple years back somebody donated a century old barn to the Fly Wheeler's Club. It was in pretty bad shape and it was being propped up with braces and cables. I remember going over to peek inside the dusty old structure half afraid it might fall in on me.

        What a difference one year can make! The old barn has been really fixed up nice! They have furnished the barn with several picnic tables and both sides of the building opens up wide.

        We had snacks and juice for breakfast. Shortly thereafter we turned the old barn into a place of worship. I was very encouraged by the big turnout for our worship service . . . thanks to each of you!

        Next, we had a wild and woolly kids hunt! The young hunters had a great time and they won some very nice prizes!

       Next, was the pot luck diner, and as always we had tables loaded with delicious food!

        It didn't take long to get right into the first hunt and it went very well! The coins were well distributed and just under the surface. I only used my trowel on the first two coins that I found. I recovered all the rest of the coins with my brass probe and that really speeded me up big time!

        I can only report on my finds but I think everybody did pretty good. I was skunked on prize tokens, but I found 5 silver halves, 3 silver quarters, and 15 silver dimes. That is 117.3 grams of silver worth on October 13th $38.40 for scrap! I only had one time- waster and that was recovering a 2006 penny.

        During the day John Dudley took a group of us on a tour of the Fly Wheeler's museum which is really very nice! Their club is doing some nice things with their show grounds and every year it gets better and better! We held a fund raiser for the Fly Wheeler's new campground restroom project, and we managed to raise $72.00 so far.

       Thanks to John Dudley and the Fly Wheelers entire club for allowing us to use their beautiful facility once again! Also, thanks to all of the hunt crew and coin planters.

       If you are going along with the same mind set that I had for many years you are making a big mistake. I only wanted to find real lost items and I had no interest in looking for coins planted for me to find. Once you do your first seeded hunt you will be hooked!

        Our metal detecting club is called upon from time to time to help locate evidence at crime scenes. I am proud to say we have made a big difference in putting some very bad guys away.

        The club members who came out for this hunt were: John Newman, Brian Matecun, Ron Jenner, Carlisle Flegal, Tim Petersen, Charlie Turner, Jerry Lipscomb and yours truly, Al Holden.

        I hadn't planned on putting a scary story in the Halloween month newsletter, but here is one anyway. The truly scary part is, that this is a horror story that is all true. And the killers have been living with what they did, in complete freedom, for the last 15 years. This is the story as it was shared with us by the State Police. Also, I must add that I checked to make sure it was OK to write this account.

        Back in 1993 a male homosexual love triangle where out driving around the back roads, in north east Allegan County, drinking and having a gay old time (no pun intended.) On a dark and narrow country road they stopped to relieve themselves.

        One can only imagine, when three drunks are relieving together, several things could happen to trigger a fight. Well, a fight it was, and an unfair one at that! It was two against one and the fight crossed way over the line. When the victim was on the ground, the other two took turns stomping on him and kicking him.

        There was a steep drop-off, next to the road, where the fight took place, that led down into a deep ravine. The killers dragged what they thought was now a dead body into the ravine, and there they sodomized him with a broom- handle. After an autopsy was done, it showed that the young man was not dead at this point.

        Next, one of the two killers went back to the car and grabbed a can of Zippo lighter fluid, and his Zippo lighter-- one with his name engraved on it. They put lighter fluid on the body and set it on fire. It wasn't burning in a way they had hoped, so they dragged the body back out of the ravine and loaded it into their car. From there they drove to a nearby river and dumped the body in.

        I think it was quite sometime before the body was found, but it was found soon enough to learn many facts about the death. For example the victim was kicked so hard that the killers lacerated his liver! There was a large pocket of blood inside where he had been sodomized so this tells the investigators his heart was still beating.

        When the State Police asked for our help, they suggested that one of the things we should be looking for was a tire iron, and of course I thought right away, "Murder weapon." When we got to the scene, we were told that since the newspapers started covering this cold case, someone called Silent Observer and said it was a wooden handle that was used in the sodomy crime and not a tire iron.

        One of the killers could no longer live with himself, so he turned himself in and confessed to the crime. The other killer has not been cooperating and one of the things we learned is that the cigarette lighter, with his name on it, was lost on the night of the murder.

        I drove out to the crime scene a few weeks before we searched it, and found it to be a thick jungle! I knew it was a deep ravine, but the vegetation was so thick that I could not see the how deep. The county road crew went out with some monster brush and tree shredders and punched a nice hole into the woods. We looked hard for that lighter, and let me tell you, if you weren't a mountain goat it was a real tuff job!

        We did find the one piece of non-metal evidence needed in the case, it was the wooden handle! It wasn't a broom handle, it was a rake handle, and the handle was separated from the metal rake. There is no reason in the world that there would be a light-duty leaf rake at this location, it almost had to come out of the killer's station wagon.

        This place was crawling with death. I looked down into the big hole, after being briefed on the crime, and it gave me a very haunting feeling. You just knew that one night, 15 years ago, something terrible, some unthinkable evil happened there.

        It would take a lot of work to hunt this area, as it really should be hunted. It would take someone with a lot of patience and a wire cutter. It is a corner lot, and maybe more than 70 years ago it was fenced-in, most likely for cattle. Since then, much of the old rusty fence is laying on the ground with trees growing through it. And were it is standing, it is only because some 100 year old trees have grown around it.

        This fence should be removed regardless. When we got to the area you could see where both small and large deer have been entangled in this fence and their skeletons were scattered everywhere. One small deer skull was still stuck in the fence. Without good light this rusty fence is invisible because of its location and surroundings.

        Everyone worked very hard to find whatever we could to help the police. If you were hunting the high ground, you were under a power pole. I did not get any interference from the power lines but it was worse! Trash! I have run into this many times before. When these linemen, from the power companies, or the phone companies, remove something, they just let it drop to the ground and it never gets picked up.

        John Newman and Tim Petersen both found large tangles of copper wire. Speaking of my buddy Tim, I thank God for Tim! He is one of those guys who thinks ahead, not only for his own good, but for the good of others. Tim showed up with a big ice chest filled with cold pop and bottled water. Believe me, we really needed that!

        Another thing about Tim is that when their is a job at hand he will get it done no matter what! Tim was wandering into uncharted territory in his quest to find that lighter. At the end of the day I had to really feel sorry for him. Tim likes to wear his hear long and tie it back in the back. Well, he had more sand burrs tangled in his hair than I have ever seen in one place before-- ouch!

Find of the Month                                         

JEWELRY

1. Avon Necklace                                                                                                    By: Anna Matecun

2.Sterling Silver Dragon Ring                                                                                By: Brian Matecun

3. Sterling Heart Ring                                                                                                  By: Tom Beilby

4. 10-K Ring                                                                                                                By: John Dudley

5. 14-K Gold Diamond Ring                                                                                   By: Alan Randolph

6. 19" Chain w/ Silver Cross                                                                                      By: David Kupla

7. Antique 18 k Gold Ring                                                                                       By: Mike Walker

8. Homemade Silver Ring                                                                                            By: Rick Burch

9.1937 Class Ring                                                                                                        By: Ron Jenner

10. Pirate Necklace                                                                                            By: Unknown No Slip

11. 10 k. Gold Ring                                                                                                   By: Ron Osborne

12. Silver Plated Crucifix                                                                                        By: Ed Kaminskas

13. Silver Religious Pendent                                                                                By: Deb Wittkowski

Alan Randolph was our winner with a beautiful lady's diamond ring! It sure was great to see Linda Randolph back with us!

COINS                           

1. 1951 Quarter                                                                                                       By: Brian Matecun

2. 1900 Barber Dime                                                                                                     By: Tom Beilby

3. 1831 British Large Cent                                                                                    By: Greg Stonerock

4. 1993 Brazil 10 Cent Coin                                                                                      By: Mike Walker

5. 1863 Indian Head Cent                                                                                         By: Brian Norgan

6. 1957-D Quarter                                                                                                      By: Tom Herman

7. 1960 Silver Quarter                                                                                           By: Deb Wittkowski

Greg Stonerock was our winner with a beautiful 1831 British large cent!

FOB, BADGE, TOKEN                  

1. 1919 Centennial Souvenir                                                                                   By: Charles Turner

2.Cracker Jack Club Token                                                                                    By: Alan Randolph

3.1848-1854 Trade Token                                                                                          By: Mike Walker

4.1943 Equipment Tag                                                                                                   By: Tom Beilby

5. American Hotel Fob                                                                                                By: Tom Herman

6.Tower Hill Pressed Coin                                                                                            By: Ron Jenner

Charles Turner was our winner with a 1919 Independent Order Odd Fellows token. A very nice find, Charles!

MOST UNUSUAL                    

1. Brass Antique Thimble                                                                                           By: John Dudley

2. Budweiser Belt Buckle                                                                                        By: Alan Randolph

3. 1890's Brass U.S. Padlock                                                                                    By: Mike Walker

4.Old Toy Car                                                                                                          By: Becca Hoadley

5. Toy Gun                                                                                                                  By: Tom Herman

6. Cap Exploder                                                                                                            By: Ron Wilson

7. Needle Threader                                                                                                   By: Brian Norgan

Our winner was Mike Walker with his brass U.S. padlock. Very nice, Mike!

           I am told that new hats are coming soon, I guess they didn't know I have a box full at my store.

        Also, the board is planning a 'test- and-tune' night at the November meeting, so bring your detector, not this month, but next.'

        The time change is coming up next month, so the Miscellaneous category will be up and rolling in November.

        There is a new contest starting this month where you could win silver! But, you need to be wearing your name tag to win.