I am in disbelief at some of the things that I find sometimes. 2023 has been amazing with the trade silver earlier this spring and the gold rings I have found this summer. Now I think I have something perhaps even more fun. Last week I was at my cottage and on the last day (of course the LAST day!) my mom and I may have stumbled onto an indian camp site.
I did find a few pcs of trade silver and a trade ring in my yard and on the edge of my Uncle's. One of the pcs was folded over and when I unfolded it it snapped. But there is a cool design on it. Can you see the flower?
I also visited the outpost site that has yielded numerous War of 1812 era buttons. I managed 1 more button and a tinkling cone which made me happy. I also found a toasted Artillery button at another site.
I had done some wondering around the woods a few miles from my cottage earlier in the week but found nothing old. Then on the last day my mom got a permission at a spot about a mile away from the out post sight. When we got there I immediately wondered away from the shore line into the woods and my fist signal was the silver buckle thing. It actually is not a buckle but was traded to the indians and used as hair adornment. It is too flimsy to hold anything but hair. I was pretty excited to find this item in my first hole.
My next few holes were just modern bullets but soon I got an mid 80's signal on the Manticore and out popped a gorgeous copper awl! It is just under 5 inches long and it is still quite sharp.
Over the next 2 hours I popped copper frags and copper slag and flattened copper and more copper tools! And I even found some pottery in the holes....
Below is my favorite find. It is a 1.5" copper blade. I found a larger one a few years ago at the outpost site.
Below was my last target of the day. It sounded just like a medium to small pc of copper but out came an indian trade ring!
Has anyone ever heard of the "tale" about bent trees? How that the Indians would bend over a sampling tree to mark trails. There is a large cedar tree 100 yards from my cottage that is a perfect example. It is a perfect seat and as kids my cousins and I would play on it. IF it was bent by native Indians then it would have to be 200 plus years old and I am not sure it is that old. BUT the trees in the area are in very poor soil and grow very slowly. I tell you all that because I found another such bent tree at this new spot. Again I am not sure if these are really that old but I would like to think so.
Below is a side by side of one of my copper arrowheads I found about 5-6 years ago at my cottage. I was looking through the various pcs of copper and I noticed this...
So do you think that the pc on the right was a bad casted arrowhead or incomplete? or just coincidence? I need to start looking at some of the larger rocks I dig up because maybe (just maybe) the Indians were casting copper. Maybe not? I am not sure how they made their copper tools. Maybe just beat them?
Well I plan to go back up there later maybe in September. And if I do I will be going back to that spot in the middle of the woods for sure! My mom is probably there now and if she finds anything crazy I will post it here.
I did take some vidoes so I do plan to put them on YouTube.
Thanks for looking! Jared