Recently I asked permission to hunt some private land near an old Fort and the owner's very kindly granted me permission. I thanked them, parked in some shade, grabbed my gear and off I went.
I immediately recognized my first mistake as I swept my coil through the foot-high grass and billions of mosquitoes rose to attack and feed. I had no repellent. That sucked. :white:
About 20 minutes into my search, my V3I gave me a solid +50 at two inches. I started digging with my trusty tool and out popped a small, perfectly round metal ball. I thought no way. I was very excited because I have never found anything of any significance. I put it in the keeper pouch and waved my pin-pointer at the hole. It went crazy... Then I went crazy. <:
My little pouch was soon full and too heavy so I had to walk back to the truck to find something else to put them in. All I could find was an empty Gatorade bottle and a 1 gallon zip-lock bag. After 45 minutes of dodging ants (did I mention I was digging in an ant bed?) and mosquitoes I finally dug out all 427 Musket Balls. They were all together in the hole. There were no signs of any container so either the container completely disintegrated or someone dug a shallow hole and poured them in it.
My theory is that the Musket Balls were placed there as an emergency cache in case the Indians overran their position at the Fort.
I also found an Army/Navy button about 20 feet from the cache. It has an Eagle on the front. Anyone know what it is specifically?
After about four hours of hunting and nothing else to show for it, I took my finds to the house to show the owner what I had found. I grabbed one of the Musket Balls and showed it first to the man's wife. She looked at it and said, oh you found a marble. I told her I think it's a Musket Ball. She didn't know what that was so I explained it to her. She told me her husband might want to talk to me about it so she went and got him. He came back alone and I told him I found a bunch of Musket Balls and offered him more of them. He declined and said the one is enough for him.
He took me inside to show me his collection of things he has found on his land over the years. Arrow heads, spear heads, bullets. They were very nice and said I could come back any time as long as I stop and let them know I'm there.
The balls measure 5/8 as I don't have any calipers. They are all the same size. I took one to the Deli and it weighed .06 lbs. When I got home with them I put them on the bathroom scale together and they collectively weighed 25 lbs.
As far as how many have been recovered in Wyoming, I don't know. I haven't seen any in any museums or heard of any finds. I haven't had a chance to talk to the guy that sold me my detector who has been detecting for like 45 years so I will get back to you on that. As far as I can tell I found a needle in a haystack the size of the western half of the United States. We were still just a Territory during the Civil War. The Forts were to protect settlers and Oregon/California/Mormon Trail travelers from Indians.
My dad has been encouraging me lately to keep digging, you'll find something good. In my opinion it's the find of a lifetime.
Thanks for looking. HH
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It is nice to have you here with us.
... That is such an incredible and interesting find. <: Sounds like the land is very rich in historical usage.
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