Coinnut's and i's where abouts

A few of you have asked why i haven't posted something in a while or what have you and George been up to lately ? you guys still detecting??


well George and i are still active and volunteering with the joint collaboration of the Pequot Indian Museum and the Federal Parks and Recreation Department . this makes our 3rd year now and i think we have enough time into it to recieve our archaeological secret decoder badges lol lol . for the last few weeks we have been training new college students from the university of Connecticut (UCONN) that are working toward their school credits . we have given class presentations in the basic workings and physics of metal detecting and also given them some field work or hands on type training on the various machines that the museum has purchased these last couple of years. they're a great energenic and enthusiastic bunch to work with , it has been a lot of fun , laughs and they catch on very fast. the machines we've been showing them are the Whites dfx (3) , tdi sl and the Minelab e-trac . field work has been out at an old 17th century Indian villiage , there they have been finding iron and brass items and even glass beads and pottery shards from their use of metal detectors and practicing their traditional test pit digging and sifting methods.

this is a small group i was showing on the TDI SL
http://i486.photobucket.com/albums/r...onthetdisl.jpg

George showing how the etrac works and finding targets with the inline probe.
(I know ... George as a teacher strikes me as rather funny too rofl lol but he did a great job |:cheering: |:cheering:)
http://i486.photobucket.com/albums/r...actraining.jpg

heres a student sifting the dirt dug from a test pit
http://i486.photobucket.com/albums/r...ngtraining.jpg

yesterday however we were called to go to a new area , the place is known as the Denison Homestead Museum which was the house of one Captain George Denison .

heres a link to alittle more info on the museum and George Denison
http://denisonhomestead.org/

and some more on the palisade archaeological hunt later on next month
http://denisonhomestead.org/venture-...the-palisades/

it is on the National Historic Registry and is strictly off limits and illegal to metal detecting (thats right ... its nice to have connections :grin: lol lol) Captain Denison was the commander of the first Connecticut horse mounted Dragoons back in the late 1660's and lead them into battle against the Indian uprising during the King Phillip's War in 1670's.
http://i486.photobucket.com/albums/r...isonestate.jpg

the original home was built in the mid 1600's with a wooden palisade around it , it was later burnt to the ground and the newer 1717 house built roughly on that same site .
http://i486.photobucket.com/albums/r...ousemuseum.jpg

http://i486.photobucket.com/albums/r...usecloseup.jpg

http://i486.photobucket.com/albums/r...Denisontag.jpg

George and i were asked to assist the students in the back of the property as they were searching with detectors for evidence of the original house's barn , particularly looking for horse related items and to do some detecting around that same area to. the students recovered and recorded lots of older type nails as well as George and I , George also picked up a very old button it looked like it might be a tombac type but we'll know for sure in about a week. I had the finds of the day though as i found a couple of 17th century horse shoe pieces (they might even go together to form one whole shoe) , these types of early shoes are different than the type you see today.

We will be back here and also to the area George found the brass conical point last year and my ax head .
http://i486.photobucket.com/albums/r...arrowpoint.jpg

http://i486.photobucket.com/albums/r...nsideview1.jpg


and hopefully detecting on the King Philip's War battle site soon , i'll keep you that might be interested updated about our where abouts and if we get any opportunityies to do our usual celler hunting. happy hunting all.

Dan

Great post and pictures . You guys are awesome , keep up the good work !!! |:cheering:

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Originally Posted by Sheik Yerbooty link=topic=10291.msg114015#msg114015 date=1339364867

Great post and pictures . You guys are awesome , keep up the good work !!! |:cheering:

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thanks Sheik , detecting for the museum is one of the few places where your appreciated for finding nails and iron . lol lol

Great stuff guys, keep up the great work!! |:cheering:

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Originally Posted by del link=topic=10291.msg114018#msg114018 date=1339366175

thanks Sheik , detecting for the museum is one of the few places where your appreciated for finding nails and iron . lol lol

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I dug a nail today....does the museum want it? :grin:
Looks like you guys are enjoying yourselves |:cheering:

Great story Dan, especially the pictures. Big pats on the back for you and George. :yes:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by del link=topic=10291.msg114018#msg114018 date=1339366175

the museum is one of the few places where your appreciated for finding nails and iron . lol lol

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rofl I need to find me a museum. :peace:

awesome pics Dan! hey! who's that long haired freak knealing down in the pic? :grin:
well done and very informative! |:cheering:

U guys are doin a great thing....I can't wait to see what kind of war related relics you may find in the future.

What you two are doing is great for the hobby, your also showing the next generation of archaeologists that they can work with
detectorists in finding artifacts and gain knowledge. Maybe someday the US can have a program like England. Now if all the people
detecting can do their part we can make real progress. thanks :clapping:

thanks everyone ,
theres a huge battle site in the works for either later this year or next to search , Dr. McBride and his colleagues have so much trust for George and i that they have shown us the exact spot where this large battle took place in the late 1600's . on topo maps they showed us exactly how the colonial forces manuvered and defeated the Indians at a precise area. George and i couldn't believe how much info they gave us , i told G they must have so much respect for us to reveal all that vital information .

Dan

Why wouldn't they give you both the information. Being the experienced md'ers that you are all information should be shared. Great job that you and George are doing. Please keep us updated. Any chance of you doing a story for one of the detecting magazines??

I think what you two are doing for the hobby is fantastic. Hopefully those students will bring what they learned to there new jobs when they graduate and change some of their colleagues perception of detectorist. Thank You and WTG |:cheering:

Great job Dan and George!! :perfect10: History is awesome isn't it? |:cheering: :peace:

The collaboration is fantastic and such a plus for the hobby, congrats to you! I am sure there is no one on that site yelling &quot:beerbuddy:oom Baby or whatever that show's tag line is that just gets me going every time I hear it.....can't believe I just brought it up myself, ugh!

Neat stuff and like Joe said I will hunt iron for museums, no problem!

Thanks so much for sharing your project Dan |:cheering: It is very interesting. That's neat you have special permission to hunt the newest site.

Looking forward to more posts and finds :perfect10:

Excellent post Dan :clapping: You two are doing some great things. This is terrific information.

Looking forward to hearing more thumbsup01

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Originally Posted by Epi-hunter link=topic=10291.msg114135#msg114135 date=1339475195

Excellent post Dan :clapping: You two are doing some great things. This is terrific information.

Looking forward to hearing more thumbsup01

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thanks you Angie ,
its funny as they had a visiting archaeologist who was well known and had alot of renown credibility . she was very much set against using metal detectors to search but after she saw the results and artifacts she gave a oral presentation to a group of archaeologist and from what i hear actually gave the idea a pretty good endorsement .

Quote:

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Originally Posted by tanacat link=topic=10291.msg114133#msg114133 date=1339474928

Thanks so much for sharing your project Dan |:cheering: It is very interesting. That's neat you have special permission to hunt the newest site.

Looking forward to more posts and finds :perfect10:

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thanks Tana,
glad you liked it and yes i'll try to keep you informed and i have to force myself to stop and take more pictures lol lol

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Originally Posted by milco link=topic=10291.msg114116#msg114116 date=1339467087

The collaboration is fantastic and such a plus for the hobby, congrats to you! I am sure there is no one on that site yelling &quot:beerbuddy:oom Baby or whatever that show's tag line is that just gets me going every time I hear it.....can't believe I just brought it up myself, ugh!

Neat stuff and like Joe said I will hunt iron for museums, no problem!

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thank you Milco,
these guys laugh at that show as much as we do lol lol they can't believe people are dumb enough to view it for any length of time .

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Originally Posted by Fire Fighter 43 link=topic=10291.msg114081#msg114081 date=1339438761

I think what you two are doing for the hobby is fantastic. Hopefully those students will bring what they learned to there new jobs when they graduate and change some of their colleagues perception of detectorist. Thank You and WTG |:cheering:

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thanks Jeff ,
part of the reason i did this was because of the history and i think it was a rare opportunity to try to help out relations and promote good will between archaeologists and detectorists. so far its been a great success all the way around .

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Originally Posted by aloldstuff link=topic=10291.msg114075#msg114075 date=1339417017

Why wouldn't they give you both the information. Being the experienced md'ers that you are all information should be shared. Great job that you and George are doing. Please keep us updated. Any chance of you doing a story for one of the detecting magazines??

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Al i am writing a story about the whole ordeal from the begining whether a magazine picks it up or not isn't important to me , at some point i will probably post it or maybe put down what i have and continue to add and update it.

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Originally Posted by HEAVYMETALNUT link=topic=10291.msg114024#msg114024 date=1339368142

awesome pics Dan! hey! who's that long haired freak knealing down in the pic? :grin:

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thats professor [s]lose my finds[/s] i mean Coinnut lol lol

Well Coinnut and i met the archaeologists out near a previous site we did last year , its a retreat route the English made after the main Battle of the 1637 Pequot war. its a wooded hilly area that has wetlands in low lying spots

http://i486.photobucket.com/albums/r...eahillside.jpg

http://i486.photobucket.com/albums/r...mstoparea2.jpg

, we got there around 9 am hoping to be let loose to detect away :cheering: :cheering: . we were informed that we still had a couple of people to train on the newer machines (e-trac and tsi sl) :huh: , we also found out the students had been at work all week in the is area but really didn't find much to take note of. so we trained till about noon time and then the whole field team went on lunch , George decided to break with them and did some socializing :rolleyes: lol . i took advantage and grabbed my TDI and headed to a staked out area and immediately went to work ;) , i soon hear a great low conductive target :smitten: . excited i recovered a shotgun shell :hairpulling: >{
, i :usaflag: it and place the shell at the base of the stick and move on with the detector . the next target signal was somewhat similar but i recover a lead fragment , a good sign as the lead looks very chalky white under the brownish dirt ( a good indicator it has some age to it) . again i :usaflag: the target and proceed a few minutes later i get a nice loud non-ferrous target and after about 4.5 inches i see a very nice , good sized musket ball ( about .45 to .60 caliber and shows sign of it being impacted.

http://i486.photobucket.com/albums/r...nt9-25-10s.jpg

:loveit: :happydance01: its deep , very old looking from the lead patina and i casually walk over to where the archies , students and George are at to show Dr. McBride . as he's explaining something to the group George sees me walk up and knows by the look on my face and says uh oh what did you find now , i say something your not going to find sitting on your butt , mister and give the lead piece to Kevin . he give it a good look and says thats a nice ball and looks like the right size and the patina is very good , he shows the group of now very interested students and Coinnut says to everyone thats Dan's way of saying lunchtime is over lol rofl. for the next few hours i was detecting and either tweaking or fixing some of the machines ( dfx's) for the group . i did also find a great old 1 piece button that to me looked atleast mid to early 1700's but was told by Dr. Mc Bride is could very well be from the 1637 expedition ( jokingly he says to me hey did you find the other half lol lol i laughed and said oh yeah rofl rofl) , i can't tell you how great it is to unearth something almost 400 years old from a moment in history. it really makes you wonder , just think your the first person to hold and touch this item since 1637 :daydream:. George and i feel very fortunate about our unique role at the hunts , we seem to have a free range to hunt ( while everyone else has to remain in a certain areas) , we are the detector advisors , tech specialists and have an ear to the top archaeologists in charge who like to hear our ideas and thoughts about certain aspects of this project. George and i were very happy that the field team felt it was a very productive day , the best they had all week .

thanks for reading and HH.

Dan

Dan & George, They couldn't have chosen two finer people to teach/coach those young guys and gals. :yes: Both of you are a credit to this great hobby of ours. :clapping:

For those of you that don't know these two gentlemen I can only say, I'm sorry.