Saturday was the day John and I had set for a relic hunt, problem was the snow was still pretty deep in several areas. With another big storm on the way we figured it may be the last hunt for quite awhile. At first the predictions were for a lot more snow that afternoon and evening.
We got our gear out and set out across the snow covered field, setting up and clearing snow off a patch of ground. We began our dig and had selected a spot on higher ground. The low area's of the field had standing water under the snow. We removed the snow and sod, mapped our site and got a gps reading and began our relic hunt.
We found the usual broken glass, square nails, scrap iron pieces, some of which we could determine were for this or for that. Old beef bones, chicken bones, even some clam shells are common finds in the pits. Luckily the dirt was dry enough for sifting and we made a few finds. John dug a toe plate, a nice suspender buckle and a few marbles.
I dug a nice Shield Nickle, marbles, and buttons. Most were shirt and under ware buttons with a few tent buttons mixed in for good measure. We finished that pit and started another one, this one even higher up. We realized that at the deeper points of the pits water started coming up.
At a depth of around 1.5 feet we had clean dirt except for a occasional square nail of piece of broken glass. We had decided we were close to filling it back in when I noticed some dark ash, I kept digging deeper and there was more broken bottles, nails and bones.
Now we were around 2 feet or more down and the dirt was getting more and more moist. I uncovered several bricks lined up for a fire box. John was busy sifting and come up with our second coin, another Shield Nickle!
More relics were showing up and I found a few more marbles and utensils. I was set to remove the bricks and investigate the fire box when water began rising up in the pit. I decided we needed to wait for another day, when conditions would allow us a proper excavation of the fire pit.
I marked the site and photographed it and we filled it back in. I am not sure but that could have been the muddiest I have been relic hunting! Still we really enjoyed getting out, the sun actually came out that afternoon and the wind was calm.
Tempts were in the mid 30's so it was a nice day. We just need the field to dry up and we will be back. I hope some of you were able to get out and hunt last weekend. Looks like we are getting more snow on the way, That was what I call extreme relic hunting but a whole lot of fun!
Tim
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417 RELIC HUNTERS CLUB
Subject: 2-7-10 relic finds. 
2/8/2010, 10:47 pm
