M E T A L M A N 9

M E T A L M A N 9

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August 6, 2026 - The Old Church Yard in Letellier

August 6 - The Old Church Yard in Letellier

August 6, 2026 The Old Church Yard in Letellier. It’s starting to look like the easy pickings on this site have been already found. This is my third visit to the old church yard with various detectorist friends and I have a feeling that we are now down to material that was either leftovers from previous construction and maintenance or items brought in when the grounds were leveled with fill from who knows where. See: August 31, 2024 - The Letellier Church Site and November 6, 2024 - One More Go At The Letellier Church Site. Thanks as always go out to Shawn and Cindy for the landowner permission and thanks also to Ray who came along for the adventure. Honestly, he found most of the artifacts. We were graced with four different visitors while there and I was doing most of the talking while Ray did the detecting and consequential digging. My nephew Gabriel even had a chance to try his hand at detecting. Yes, I know, a site is never truly completely detected out but from here on, finding exciting new items is going to get a lot harder. There is some talk of a basement space being dug here in the next year (maybe) and I hope to be here with my metal detector when that happens. It might expose some of the older and deeper artifacts that I can’t get too right now. Any artifacts that may exist from activity around the original church are beyond reach of most detectors due to a thick overlay of fill. The original church was moved here, from St. Pie, in 1891. A new church was built on this same site in 1967. There seems to be an awful lot of big iron and farm machinery parts. These are swather cutting blade teeth, iron pins, metal straps, and tools and which litter the place. One of those pins sure took a beating. Although in fairness, a lot of copper and brass pieces were also uncovered. The long pointy thing is the top part of a lightning rod that would have sat atop of a roof. Canning jar lids contain a lot of zinc and man, do they ever ring up hard on metal detectors. It’s almost impossible to walk away from a solid signal like that. The pictures in this post are sequenced showing the “big stuff” first, then the more interesting smaller finds next. Included with the small finds is one horseshoe nail… can you spot it? Do you remember the old Nesbitt pop bottles? The bottle cap dates between the 1940’s and 50’s. How about Jolly Time “Volumized” Pop Corn, now that’s a serious container top. Also found is one copper tube with a nice pattern around the base. I’m thinking it might be the bottom of a lipstick tube. The US quarter dates 1968. The penny (clad) is from 2022 and is almost impossible to read. Roger References: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nesbitt%27s https://www.mhs.mb.ca/docs/sites/stpieromancatholiccemetery.s html

August 29 - A Shot in the Dark, River Lot 173

August 29, 2026 A Shot in the Dark. River Lot 173. Every once in a while you have to take a leap of faith. I’ve often mentioned that you can’t judge a book by its cover, in this case, a field by its appearance. There used to be a house here once. When field conditions are right, like in a dry spring, you can actually see the outline of the house’s foundation on the field. I verified on my copy of the 1870 River Lot Survey and no homestead buildings are indicated although the land was spoken for by a name written on the map. An aerial photo dated 12 April 1945 shows the house and yard. I do not have the date of construction, but the house itself was moved to St. Jean Baptiste in the early 1960’s. Today the site is an open field. That makes it an open slate as to what us four detectorists might discover with our metal detectors. I did a random archeological shovel test pit (STP) in that area; see references below, and it revealed about 8 clinkers from a coal fire, probably from a furnace in the home. Over the years, furnace residue, like clinkers and ash gets dumped out in “the back of the yard” and it eventually gets spread out and about through normal tiling and field work. The clinkers are proof of human habitation. In total, the four of us managed to collect 32.4 lbs. of material, mostly big iron. One big draw-pin weighed in at 1.5 lbs. We had a real winning streak happening with horse collar and harness bells plus one beautiful cow bell. The fun of metal detecting is that you never know what you’ll find. I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves. Featured are 3 different panels of finds. Remember that you never really know what is buried under ground you walk on. Don’t overlook plain looking open fields. Shotgun Shell Casings : Rem – UMC No 20 Remington (x 2) 1915 – 1942 issue Eley’s Grand Prix 12 1906 – 1920’s issue Eley’s London No 12 1896 – 1920’s issue Eley’s Express 10 1906 – 1920’s issue Rifle Shell Casings : Barnes Win 243 Button : Best * Ring * Edge See reference Roger Reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shovel_test_pit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clinker_(waste) https://oldsmithfield.com/omeka/items/show/34

August 29 2026 - A Shot in the Dark, River Lot 173