I took this last Friday off and headed up to my cottage Thursday evening and planned to detect all of Friday and most of Saturday and I am SO glad I did! Thursday evening I just detected my family's cottages and found a few pcs of trade silver and a couple of indian tinkling cones.
Then on Friday I went to the Indian camp site by myself. I wondered all around the general area of the site and found more copper and more pottery.
My mom got this permission earlier this summer and near this site is what appears to be a saw pit. It is located very close to the cottage of the people who gave us permission and earlier this summer I decided to stay away from this area and wonder deeper into the woods and I am glad I did because I stumbled on the camp site but on Friday afternoon I spent the last part of the day around the saw pit. It was amazing!
First I found two knife blades within a foot of each other. After some electrolysis you can see some interesting makers marks. One has 2 skeleton keys crossing each other and then a + sign (or cross?) and then another skeleton key. The other knife has what appears to me as a bug. That probably is not what it really is but to my eye it looks like that. I have not looked up these marks but I am guessing early 1800's or older. Both are about 9.5" long.
Around the saw pit I started finding lots of amazing things and the first was a War of 1812 era Eagle on Cannon Corps coat button. I ended up finding 7 buttons around this spot and a few musket balls.
I also found Native artifacts including the copper knife, a couple copper awls, a silver hair adornment thingy (sorry I can't remember the name of it but it is small and was traded to the Indians) and miscellaneous pieces of copper fragments.
Then I found a bucketlister that might be the best treasure of the trip. Near a tree I got a very solid 32 signal on the Nox 900 and dug down and noticed a "pipe". One end was pointed toward me and the other was going directly under the cedar tree. The thought that went through my head was "Is this a pipe or is it a barrel to a gun?" and I pulled it out and was in shock!
It is a musket type pistol gun of oldness! I have no idea what type it was but it has a bit of character. It is 17 inches long and does have a makers mark but it is a bit hard to decipher. My mom put it through electrolysis and looks pretty good. Inside the barrel it is clear and there is a small hole to the side where the percussion cap or flint would go. I checked the area thoroughly but did not find anything else that would go with it.
The next day my mom insisted we revisit the place. We spent probably 5 hours there and I had more success. I found a few more buttons and some more copper fragments and an iron arrowhead that was with some piece of trash. I also found my first "Strike-O-Light" and an iron ball that I am 99% sure is grape shot for a cannon. It is about 1.5" in diameter.
Then I found what might be even better than the gun barrel... Maybe. I do not remember the TID but what popped out of the hole was a lead disc that had a mold seam on the back and when I turned it around I noticed what I first thought was a coat of arms on a watch fob or something like that. It was not until this afternoon when I took all the pics and I showed my son and he realized that it was the British Royal Coat of Arms! People in my area do not find British items very often and that is exciting enough but I am still very interested in what it was. Was it a type of seal? Was it similar to a US Box Plate from the civil war where it was put onto a box of military items? I have not done the research yet but I am optimistic it is related to the British military.
Below is one of many versions of the British Coat of Arms and the lead item I found has all of the details on it.
And here is a pic of everything...
I have had some amazing hunts over the years and this past weekend's finds might be some of my best. I hope some of you can give me some insight on these finds.
Thanks for looking!
Jared
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