What do I know?

    At the fall hunt, I just showed up to give the Sunday church service. However, based on that, things looked very good. There was a real chill in the air Sunday morning and I was somewhat surprised to see some campers. I wanted to camp but I am a long way from getting my strength back. It is a big job to load up our trailer, hook up and tow it anywhere. I live only a five minutes drive from Tom Latterner's house. However, if I were stronger I would have been there without a doubt.

    The chairs were already arranged inside Tom's nice workshop/ polebarn and we had a real nice turnout! I enjoy sharing the Word of God with my friends --- that is when it seems most precious. There was a good selection of goodies to eat for breakfest, and Brian Matecun had me laughing hard the way he stomped both feet on the ground to describe the strength of Mike Walker's coffee!

    By the time I got to the Sunday hunt, there were a few seeded hunt prizes already on the tables. I was told that by the time the hunt got started, there was a good supply of prizes for all three hunts-- this was counting the kid's hunt.

    At the club board meeting John Assenmacher commented on how much he enjoyed the hunt at the Latterner's, and I agree. It is ideal for our group. The detector club isn't the only group to use Tom's fields. I know the Boy Scouts hold one of their Jamborees there as well each year. What John especially liked is the size of the hunt fields. It is nice to be ten minutes into the hunt and still being able to find goodies.

    When I explain our seeded hunts to my customers, who are curious about the club, I tell them that you need to move right along because after 10 minutes it is pretty much over! Well, the bigger hunt fields do solve that problem. It has already been decided that our spring hunt will be at the Flywheelers in South Haven and we will try to expand the field sizes.

I understood that all the planted silver was accounted for. In fact, a few extra silver coins (total 7) were recovered from past hunts! We keep pretty good records from our hunts each year. After over a dozen seeded hunts at the Latterner's, there is still one silver dollar still not accounted for. Most everyone agrees that it was most likely found, but for some reason not reported.

Just under 50 people took part in this year's fall hunt. Weather- wise, it was a perfect day! By the time the church service started, the sun was really burning off the cold fast! It warmed up nicely, but it never was too hot. Each year the club sells tickets for silver dollar raffles off and on during the day and Jerry Lipscomb reported a near $150.00 profit from these sales which paid for the additional silver dollars planted in the hunts.

There was talk about having one of our spring hunts right at the beach in South Haven. We would still have our main hunt and potluck at the Fly Wheelers, but then we would need to caravan to the North Beach. It sounds like extra work and a big disruption to me, plus we cannot take the Porta John with us -- but what do you think? We have plenty of time to talk about it.

The club is always looking for special winter program ideas. The December meeting is our busy Christmas program and January is tied-up with Find-of-the-Year but, after those months, we would welcome special speakers-- anyone who would be of interest to our type of group. Topics of interest would be treasure hunting, coin collecting, local history, bottle digging, collectables. If you have any ideas, see one of our board members.

    We just finished another one of my favorite fund raisers, the old coin raffles. The last coin that we just raffled was a beautiful 1805 U.S. Half Cent and the lucky winner was Rick Burch! This month we start with a new raffle and the prize coin is a beautiful 1901-S U.S. $5.00 gold coin! For our fund raiser we sell tickets until we make a modest profit. That shouldn't take too long for this coin, so be sure to get some tickets at this next meeting!

    One of my friends is a member of this club and also a member of the Antique Bottle Club. His name is Scott Hendrickson. I think the only time Scott has come to a detector club meeting was when he spoke to us. Some of you might remember Scott from the great antique bottle digging presentation we had a short while back. The bottle club president, Chuck Parker, and Scott do a lot of digging together. As I am writing this, Chuck and Scott are on their annual pilgrimage to Bridgeport, Alabama, to do some Civil War relic hunting and bottle digging.

    Scott just traded up to a new Whites MXT and this story is about one of his first hunts with it. Two other fellow bottle club members, Kevin and Eddie, were at a garage sale in the Kalamazoo area. They realized that the home was very old, dating it by the architecture style, which was early 1800's. They asked permission to dig for bottles. After permission was granted, they called up Scott for his help. I got Scott started in antique bottle digging, and he has learned to be very good with a bottle probe-rod.

    Unfortunately, this all happened at the end of a long dry spell and the clay soil was as hard as rock! The guys made arrangements to come back at another date and each went their way.

    On the way home Scott stopped to detect at an old home foundation site. That was a place that he had hunted for bottles before. His idea was to give his new detector a workout before he headed south to Alabama.

    His very first find gave a strong signal that after digging turned out to be an old fruit jar lid. Whenever I find one, I always hope the whole jar is under it and full of gold coins. I actually did see one filled with $20.00 gold pieces once. I was just a kid and that was just a couple years before it was stolen!

    As usual, it was just another zinc fruit jar lid with nothing but broken glass attached. The average treasure hunter would be bummed out by such a find, but not a seasoned bottle digger!

    About two feet from the jar lid, Scott got another strong signal but it didn't dig up so easy. After digging with his small digger and getting nowhere, he went to the truck to get his big privy- digging shovel.

    What Scott had found was an old 1800's to 1900's trash pit, and it was a big old porcelain coffee pot that triggered his detector. Along with the coffee pot was lots of broken glass. Soon the detector was set aside and the hole became bigger and bigger!

    By the time he was done, the hole was about 3 feet across and 3 feet deep! Scott unearthed about 50 bottles! One was a bottle popular with area collectors, a P.L. Abbey, from Kalamazoo. Also he found an aqua Kalamazoo Brewery beer bottle, a nice pressed glass vinegarette in a rare Vaseline-glass citron color! Also there was a newer Kalamazoo Milk Products Co bottle with a phone number '8021.' Also Scott dug a S.B. Kitchels Liniment bottle, various condiment bottles and get this-- an open pontiled 1850's scroll flask! Yes, the flask was broken!

    Also, found in the hole were some wire rimmed glasses, marbles, buttons, clay pipes, porcelain drawer pulls, a 1924 plate, scissors, pipe wrench, pliers, and an ice skate blade!

    Back in the 1800's and up to the 1950's, digging trash pits in your yard was not unusual. When I tell people that many bottle diggers are looking for old outhouse pits, they are confounded! "Why would old bottles be there?" they ask.

    Trash presented a problem in the early days before 'Herby Curbies.' This was especially true for the family who didn't have 40 acres and their own private dump. They would dig a hole, then fill it with trash. When it got full, they would cover it up and dig yet another.

    The reason that bottles came out of outhouse pits in better condition than fromtrash pits is usually because they didn't burn trash in them. Sometime when we are looking for outhouse pits and we discover one of these shallow trash pits, we cannot tell them apart by ash layers. Although they didn't burn in outhouse pits they did dump stove ash into them in the summer to sweeten the odor.

    That means that they both can contain ash. In a trash pit, you are more likely to find a bottle (or two) that is melted or distorted by fire. And, in an outhouse pit you are likely to find berry seeds or what we call seed layers. People in the early days used a lot of berries in their diets and of course the seeds ended up in the outhouse.

JEWELRY

1. 1955 Class Ring (returned)                                                                       By: Charlie Turner

2. 22 inch 10k Gold Necklace                                                                       By: Brian Matecun

3. 2006 10k Gold Class Ring                                                                           By: Mike Walker

4.Guitar Pendant                                                                                         By: Greg Stonerock

5. Mens 10k Diamond Ring                                                                             By: Ron Osborne

6. Tungsten Ring                                                                                                By: Rick Burch

7. Simulated Diamond Ring                                                                               By: Ron Jenner

8. 18k Gold Plated Ring                                                                                     By: Tom Beilby

9. Mens 14k Wedding Band                                                                                    By: Shawano

10. 10k Gold Ring                                                                                         By: Jerry Lipscomb

11. Ring Returned                                                                                           By: Carlisle Flegal

12. 14k Gold Diamond Ring                                                                         By: Deb Wittkowski

Our winner entered a beautiful 22 inch 10K gold necklace with a large crucifix. It really is a very neat find. I'm certain someone was just sick about losing this beauty! Our winner is Brian Matecun! Nice find, Brian!

1. 1902 U.S. 'V' Nickel                                                                                      By: Ed Kaminskas

2. 1906 Barber Quarter                                                                                       By: Erik Mitchell

3. 1910 D Barber Dime                                                                                        By: Mike Walker

4. 1817 Large Cent                                                                                                By: Jim Larsen

5. 1853 Seated Liberty Dime                                                                                 By: Dave Arndt

6. 1936, 1941 10¢ 1939 1¢                                                                                 By: Tracy Osborne

7. 1897 Barber Dime                                                                                          By: Rick Seymour

8. 1902 Barber Dime                                                                                        By: Greg Stonerock

9. 1848 Large Cent                                                                                        By: Nancy Lipscomb

10. 1889 U.S. 'V' Nickel                                                                                   By: Jerry Lipscomb

11. 1983 British Pound                                                                                    By: Deb Wittkowski

Our winner was that great treasure hunter, Nancy Lipscomb! Nancy found a beautiful 1848 Large Cent in very fine condition! Nice find, Nancy.

FOB, BADGE, TOKEN

1.1877-1891 5¢ Saloon Token                                                                              By: Mike Walker

2. Rolled Cent Davy Crockett                                                                            By: Billy E.Knapp

3. Tag In Lake In Clam Shell                                                                               By: Steve Brown

4.James Monroe Token                                                                                    By: Charlie Turner

5. 10¢ Anniversary Token                                                                                By: Greg Stonerock

6. Fireman Memorial Token                                                                                  By: Rick burch

Our winner was Mike Walker with a rare saloon token from Hillsdale, MI. It was good for 5¢ at the bar; perhaps that would buy one beer. Neat find, Mike!

1. Old 1898 Pencil Sharpener                                                                              By: Erik Mitchell

2. 1936 Pflueger Fishing Lure                                                                              By: Mike Walker

3. Civil War Service Button                                                                                    By: Tom Beilby

4. Marine Button                                                                                              By: Greg Stonerock

5. Grill Grate                                                                                                    By: Jerry Lipscomb

6. Spittoon                                                                                                               By: Jim Larsen

Erik Mitchell was our winner with the oldest pencil sharpener that I have ever seen! Neat find, Erik!

SEE YOU AT THE MEETING, OCTOBER 20 MEETING STARTS AT 7:00 SHARP!