Mining historical gold

Bill and I have decided we need knee pads, his and her trowels and maybe even another big vest with pockets. We took the dogs and went on a quick jaunt to an old Humbird Lumber Co. logging area on state land yesterday and added to the loot he had found there last weekend.

We came back with wet pant legs, especially the knees, and soiled fingers along with most of the items in the photo below.

These findings occurred along an old Humbird railway grade, now grown over with adult trees. The grade ran alongside an area creek (I'll leave that up to the locals to pinpoint).

I don't know where that fruit pit came from. Bill didn't mention it among his earlier findings. The rest, however, are pretty self-explanatory. We don't know the use for the rusty old bolt or what the thin metal happened to be.

Probably the most fascinating finding, though, was the large piece of coal, used for fuel by those logging rail lines. We estimate these items to be at least 60-70 years old. Humbird Lumber Co. operated in this area from the early 1900s to the 1930s.

When the batteries work, our metal detector is usually right on with its different range of beeps, although sometimes we do find lots of rocks and roots.

When the dig yields an item like those above, however, there's no describing the satisfaction and feeling of connecting with the past.

Only problem I see with this activity is that one never wants to find too much of this stuff in one haul, cuz it can weight you down, and you still have to backtrack along that old train line to get back to the rig.