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Index
October 4, 2024. The Brick: And a New Permission from Roger
October 4, 2024 The Brick: And a New Permission from Roger The permission came first; of course. To that Randy and I wish to graciously thank Roger, the land owner for his easy and non-challan way. “Sure’ he said, “Go ahead." “Can we drive in and on the land or would you prefer we walk in from the road” I asked? “Drive in is fine, the crop is off anyway”. Then Roger went on to tell me the names of the previous land owners going back a few generations. What a great way to deal with people. Thank you so much Roger. We had a great day of finds and discovery, along with a gorgeous sunshine weather day. Fall can be such a great time of year for metal detecting. Nice and warm, not too hot and absolutely no bugs. This site is south of Letellier, on the south side of the Marais River, East of the 75 Highway and over the railway tracks. There is a thicket of burr oak where we saw deer looking back at us. The wooded area was part of a farmyard and home decades ago. No buildings remain today. East and south of this are all open fields. My very first find was a partial brick with lots of inscriptions and an Iron Cross symbol. No need for a metal detector to find this relic as it contains no metal but there it was, sitting on the surface, right next to where we stopped the van. A large part of the fun with metal detecting is the non-metallic ground finds. One just has to keep his or her eyes open for the slightest things. The brick was not slight. It was big and just wanted to be found. It originally came to Canada from St. Louis, Missouri were it was made and marked at the turn of the century. This is the first time that I found any brick with markings. See the reference link at the end of the story. Randy came in next with an 1887 US “V” five cent piece and right after that, an 1885 Canadian five cent silver piece. My turn for finding a coin or rather a Medal came in later in the day. First found was a tiny lead seal with no markings, then the ribbed edge of what I thought was a large coin surfaced. It was a medal made of aluminum or tin as it is very light and it suffered heavy corrosion being in the ground for so many years. Randy found a nice copy of it on E-Bay but there was no information provided. I checked with a coin dealer friend of mine and another local dealer: neither had any idea as to its story and reason for being. Clearly it represents Manitoba and it can be worn with a ribbon but that’s all I know about this find at present. Please email me if you know what this medal was for and when. I set up the finds on two separate photo takes. The first set are the bigger pieces, the second are the smaller items recovered. As is often the case with old farms and homesteads, we dug up a lot of big and small iron. No farm field is complete without swather sickle bar teeth. And yes, we actually found the business end of what looks like a scythe. Other notable finds were one and a half horse shoes, ornately decorative old iron, a thick round, looks like a weigh scale weight (1 - 1/3 Lbs.), a musket ball (23.6 gr.) plus a few different shotgun and shell casings: Canuck 12 gauge, Dominion Export 12 gauge, and a big 40 82 W.R.A. casing. WRA stands for Winchester Repeating Arms Co. Production on the 40 82 bullets started in 1885. It was used for big game hunting in the early 1900s. The small casing was a .22 long. A ladies powder compact case, both top and bottom, were found along with the back plate to a watch or small clock. Notice the nickel plated buckle and the lock plate to what would have been a small box. A small amount of fancy glass and ceramic shards were also collected off of the ground. The story behind the golf ball… Well, that’s anyone’s guess. Roger Reference: http://brickmojo.net/otherbricks/
Index October 4, 2024 - The Brick: And a New Permission from Roger October 4, 2024 - The Brick: And a New Permission from Roger October 4, 2024 - The Brick: And a New Permission from Roger October 4, 2024 - The Brick: And a New Permission from Roger October 4, 2024 - The Brick: And a New Permission from Roger October 4, 2024 - The Brick: And a New Permission from Roger October 4, 2024 - The Brick: And a New Permission from Roger October 4, 2024 - The Brick: And a New Permission from Roger October 4, 2024 - The Brick: And a New Permission from Roger October 4, 2024 - The Brick: And a New Permission from Roger October 4, 2024 - The Brick: And a New Permission from Roger October 4, 2024 - The Brick: And a New Permission from Roger October 4, 2024 - The Brick: And a New Permission from Roger October 4, 2024 - The Brick: And a New Permission from Roger October 4, 2024 - The Brick: And a New Permission from Roger October 4, 2024 - The Brick: And a New Permission from Roger October 4, 2024 - The Brick: And a New Permission from Roger October 4, 2024 - The Brick: And a New Permission from Roger October 4, 2024 - The Brick: And a New Permission from Roger October 4, 2024 - The Brick: And a New Permission from Roger October 4, 2024 - The Brick: And a New Permission from Roger October 4, 2024 - The Brick: And a New Permission from Roger October 4, 2024 - The Brick: And a New Permission from Roger October 4, 2024 - The Brick: And a New Permission from Roger October 4, 2024 - The Brick: And a New Permission from Roger October 4, 2024 - The Brick: And a New Permission from Roger October 4, 2024 - The Brick: And a New Permission from Roger October 4, 2024 - The Brick: And a New Permission from Roger October 4, 2024 - The Brick: And a New Permission from Roger October 4, 2024 - The Brick: And a New Permission from Roger October 4, 2024 - The Brick: And a New Permission from Roger October 4, 2024 - The Brick: And a New Permission from Roger
October 18, 2024. The Road Side Park
October 18, 2024 The Road Side Park This small park is nestled between the westbound and eastbound lanes of the TransCanada Highway and the Assiniboine River. It’s about 10 kilometers east from Portage La Prairie. Not to be confused with an actual RV Park called Creekside which is just over on the south side of the TransCanada Hwy. This is a provincially owned roadside stop. Of course it was already “Closed” for the season, this being October but a number of people stopped in only to find that the washrooms were boarded up. I even had a nice metal detecting conversation with Jim, or was it John, from England. Nice to meet you! I had seen this particular rest stop many times before while traveling west and it has long been on my metal detecting to do list. So today was the day! For another TransCanada detecting adventure, but this one going east into Ontario: See: July 20, 2024 - The Old # 1 Highway . I had assumed that this specific location, being so out in the open and obvious, would have been detected upon many times in the past but to my pleasant surprise, I don’t know that anyone has ever bothered to metal detect this site before today. If anyone has, it’s been a very long time since. I say this because I did not find any obvious signs of digging or grass plugs and some of the coins found were in what I would consider to be obvious places to look; like right along the gravel path that leads to the washrooms or around the car parking spots near the picnic tables. But…My God the site is polluted with pull tabs and ring pulls and bottle caps, as is obvious by the photos. I found a huge amount of them all. And, I only concentrated on strong repeatable signals. The 34 pennies were easy finds as they ring up quite specifically at 25 or 26 on my Minelab Equinox 800. The problem lies with nickels and bottle caps as they both ring in at 12 and it’s the same with gold rings and ring pulls that come in at 14. You don’t want to skip a strong 12 or 14 signal. I have on occasion found 2 or 3 or more coins in the same hole but never 3 or more ring pulls in one spot. Wow, that’s just plain bad. I had multiple hits all over the park but with exceptional amounts near and around the picnic spots of course. Some unique and fun finds were the can opener with a fully developed tree root growing through it. The lead pellet, I think a #2 shotgun shot was really hard to pinpoint in a handful of soil. It weighs in at 3.543 grams or .125 oz. The dog tag is from the Bell Animal hospital in Belleville, Ontario but is no longer active as per the information from the QR code. Also found was a flattened but thick aluminum tube, possibly a lighter refill. And no camping trip would be complete without a tin of sardines. What did surprise me however was the lack of nickels, dimes and any other coins. I did find one US Dime dated 1967 but that’s it and it’s not from lack of looking as evidenced by the bottle caps. Nor did I come across any jewelry, bling or otherwise. A child’s silver or even a plated ring would have been nice. But then again, I skipped over many signals as they were either too mixed or faint or not repeating well. Also quite surprising is how heavily corroded the pennies were. Here is a short recap of some of the finds: 1 x US dime. 1967 6 x US pennies: 1951(D) being the oldest along with 1959(D). 28 x Cdn pennies: 1945 oldest. 2 from the 60’s, 7 from the 70’s, 7 from the 80’s and up to 2016. 26 Bottle caps 15 Screw caps 40 Ring type pull tabs 11 Modern pull tabs 1 Sardine tin. Although I did not find any high value items in this roadside park I truly enjoyed my outing. It was a beautiful fall day, warm and with no mosquitoes. I had the entire place to myself. The area however is terribly noisy due to the relentless highway traffic. I’d recommend wearing your metal detecting headset. I completed my day by driving back to Winnipeg via an old road: Hwy # 26. It gave me the opportunity to scout out new locations to add to my metal detecting “to do” list. I saw at least 8 or more historic markers and a few exceptionally old houses on properties that would be amazing to metal detect on. I’ve included a few pictures of the cairns. Sometimes it’s taking the less travelled route home that presents the best adventures. Roger
Index October 18, 2024: The Road Side Park October 18, 2024: The Road Side Park October 18, 2024: The Road Side Park October 18, 2024: The Road Side Park October 18, 2024: The Road Side Park October 18, 2024: The Road Side Park October 18, 2024: The Road Side Park October 18, 2024: The Road Side Park October 18, 2024: The Road Side Park October 18, 2024: The Road Side Park October 18, 2024: The Road Side Park October 18, 2024: The Road Side Park October 18, 2024: The Road Side Park October 18, 2024: The Road Side Park October 18, 2024: The Road Side Park October 18, 2024: The Road Side Park October 18, 2024: The Road Side Park October 18, 2024: The Road Side Park October 18, 2024: The Road Side Park October 18, 2024: The Road Side Park October 18, 2024: The Road Side Park October 18, 2024: The Road Side Park October 18, 2024: The Road Side Park
October 24, 2024. Returning to the Ridge. A Continuation
September 29, October 24, October 27, 2024. Returning to the Ridge. A Continuation. The “Ridge” now draws my attention and fascination. Metal detecting isn’t just about finding valuables like gold and silver, although it’s a fantastic rush when you do, but at times the bland and the mundane brings on its own rush; the sheer joy of discovery. This “Ridge” has certainly been the case. I ended up here quite by hazard as it was not on my metal detecting radar at all. It was more by the urging of my brother, who had a theory, and the lack of anywhere else to go on this farm’s property as all of my other favorite and proven spots are covered by a seven foot tall corn crop. This was an otherwise unknown site. On our first go at metal detecting on the Ridge, Monty and I found a few really nice artifacts that are now salvaged and saved from the hands of time. The peephole thimble is a real gem. See: September 25, 2024 - The Ridge . I have since returned several times and have come to draw some speculative conclusions about some of the history with this unique piece of land. This field has a sweet spot and I found it. The first set of pictures shown here are from the September 29 hunt, the second set, October 24 and the last are from the finds of October 27, 2024. We are at the western end of River Lot 152. To the west of me is the North West Quarter of Sec. 36 (Township 2 Range 1E). The location I am on should have been the North East Quarter of Sec 36 but it was never drawn out this way for the 1870 survey. There are a number of half sections here. This was to allow enough acreage to complete a series of River Lots stretching westward from the Red River. There are some unique land divisions that happened here. What does this all have to do with metal detecting? Well the land surveyors of the day would have had to set up camp somewhere as they progressed with their assigned tasks. This Ridge that we are on would have been an ideal place to set up such a camp. It’s a bit higher, therefore dryer, it’s between River Lots and Sections, and the type of find that I’m uncovering could fit this narrative. I have a lot of research to do this winter. The surveyors’ journals are available to the public at the Manitoba Archives. They can at times provide unique details and reference land to features and contain anecdotes to daily life. I hope to find references that will reinforce this theory. Here are the competing ideas as to why there is such an interesting debris field on this ridge. 1) It was a travel route. 2) It was a surveyor’s camp. 3) It was the site of a squatter’s abode without a homestead claim. 4) There once was a structure here with clapboard type siding. The artifacts found in what I call a debris field are all concentrated on one specific area of the ridge. About 100 feet by 100 feet: sort of. Many of the more modern or recent items found like bolts, wire, and the big iron piece were mostly all found outside of this area. I detected right across the river lot on three separate occasions and the finds are intermittent. But the debris field itself is loaded with interesting items. There is a high concentration of metal detector hits and then it stops as soon as you exit this space. I did not dig up all of the hits. Just the ones that repeated well and that were not signaling as iron. But… What is also interesting is not so just what was found but what was not found or present in the debris field. There are very few square nails longer than 1 ½ “in length, and many are much shorter, some are just tack size. Not the large sized square nails found and associated with a house or with a barn building. These small nails might have been for crates or to secure clapboard on posts. This is where all the chatter on my metal detector comes from, small nails. Not found were the typical household items like cutlery or stove parts or clothes iron pieces. There are not a lot of glass or pottery shards, unlike what you would normally see on a homestead site. And no horseshoes or horseshoe nails. The piece of iron that looks like a bread knife was found on the border line between River lot 151 and 152. Not in the debris field as one would have expected. The two .22 bullets are recent and modern. The one big round item that I thought was a musket ball is magnetic, therefore iron, therefore a more modern ball bearing. There is no cutlery, no window type glass and very little to indicate a farm residence. The one item found that might connect surveyors to this site is the copper hotel key tag for Room 8, Albion Hotel, Toronto, J. Mossop Prop. The photo of the hotel is from circa 1873. Many of the surveyors came from Ontario. The two copper curved items with 8 nail holes each might have been on the tip or heel of a boot or a shoe. I have no idea what the oval shaped copper disc with three holes is. Perhaps it’s an item to tie with string What I did find was a lot of small square nails, three harmonica reeds, two old shotgun shell bases. The shotgun shell bases read: E.b. No 12 London These date from between 1866 and1874. One of the three buttons found has Patent dates of 1872 and 1873 stamped on it. That however doesn’t fit in with the 1870 survey idea. There also remain a few unidentified items, one of which very much resembles a small shovel. So, the research and the guess work continues. Perhaps more metal detector finds next year will shed more light on the history at this location. My next stop will be the Manitoba Archives for maps and journals. Roger Reference: https://www.reddit.com/r/harmonica/comments/na7112/while_metal_d etecting_an_early_1800s_homestead_in/?rdt=47602 https://cartridge-corner.com/shotgun2.htm https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clapboard https://www.gov.mb.ca/chc/archives/
Index September 29, October 24, October 27, 2024. Returning to the Ridge. A Continuation. September 29, October 24, October 27, 2024. Returning to the Ridge. A Continuation. September 29, October 24, October 27, 2024. Returning to the Ridge. A Continuation. September 29, October 24, October 27, 2024. Returning to the Ridge. A Continuation. September 29, October 24, October 27, 2024. Returning to the Ridge. A Continuation. September 29, October 24, October 27, 2024. Returning to the Ridge. A Continuation. September 29, October 24, October 27, 2024. Returning to the Ridge. A Continuation. September 29, October 24, October 27, 2024. Returning to the Ridge. A Continuation. September 29, October 24, October 27, 2024. Returning to the Ridge. A Continuation. September 29, October 24, October 27, 2024. Returning to the Ridge. A Continuation. September 29, October 24, October 27, 2024. Returning to the Ridge. A Continuation. September 29, October 24, October 27, 2024. Returning to the Ridge. A Continuation. September 29, October 24, October 27, 2024. Returning to the Ridge. A Continuation. September 29, October 24, October 27, 2024. Returning to the Ridge. A Continuation. September 29, October 24, October 27, 2024. Returning to the Ridge. A Continuation. September 29, October 24, October 27, 2024. Returning to the Ridge. A Continuation. September 29, October 24, October 27, 2024. Returning to the Ridge. A Continuation. September 29, October 24, October 27, 2024. Returning to the Ridge. A Continuation. September 29, October 24, October 27, 2024. Returning to the Ridge. A Continuation. September 29, October 24, October 27, 2024. Returning to the Ridge. A Continuation. September 29, October 24, October 27, 2024. Returning to the Ridge. A Continuation. September 29, October 24, October 27, 2024. Returning to the Ridge. A Continuation. September 29, October 24, October 27, 2024. Returning to the Ridge. A Continuation. September 29, October 24, October 27, 2024. Returning to the Ridge. A Continuation. September 29, October 24, October 27, 2024. Returning to the Ridge. A Continuation. September 29, October 24, October 27, 2024. Returning to the Ridge. A Continuation. September 29, October 24, October 27, 2024. Returning to the Ridge. A Continuation. September 29, October 24, October 27, 2024. Returning to the Ridge. A Continuation. September 29, October 24, October 27, 2024. Returning to the Ridge. A Continuation. September 29, October 24, October 27, 2024. Returning to the Ridge. A Continuation. September 29, October 24, October 27, 2024. Returning to the Ridge. A Continuation. September 29, October 24, October 27, 2024. Returning to the Ridge. A Continuation. September 29, October 24, October 27, 2024. Returning to the Ridge. A Continuation. September 29, October 24, October 27, 2024. Returning to the Ridge. A Continuation. September 29, October 24, October 27, 2024. Returning to the Ridge. A Continuation. Index
October 30, 2024. Parc St. Pierre à St. Norbert.
October 30, 2024. Parc St. Pierre à St. Norbert. This small City Park called Parc St. Pierre Park, is located on St. Pierre street, right across from the historical St. Norbert Catholic Church. It’s an old area that has seen a lot of history. This church was built in 1937. It stands on the grounds of much older structures dating back to 1857. A newer building replaced the 1857 church in 1883 after a fire destroyed the original building and that structure that was then replaced by this present church. The play park, the roundabout, and the general area would have been well travelled by countless pedestrians. See the Reference for the Park shown below. The park hosts a good number of Burr Oak trees, a sandbox and swing set, and is flanked on one side by a sidewalk and a back lane on the other, by the street curb along St Pierre St., and a wooden fence on the west side. It’s not a big park yet I only covered maybe a third of it on this visit. Like most city sites, there have definitely been layers of soil added to it over the years. The prize find of the day was a silver “Tweety Bird” ring found along the one pathway through the park. There are no markings so either it’s just plated or it might have come from Mexico or some other Caribbean location. The copper tag is either a dog tag or a medallion. It is much too corroded to read anything but there does appear to be some letters stamped on it. Maybe more on this later if I can figure out how to properly restore the tag without damaging it. In total, I found .19c worth of coins with the oldest being a 1964 Canadian Penny. The other coins were almost all from the 1980’s. I did manage to find one square nail and you all know how I can get excited over square nails. The skeleton key door plate is a nice find but no key was found to go with it. I also found two pieces of what appears to be molten lead, one of which seems to hold two colored glass pieces. I wonder if the original old church had stained glass windows ? The golf club putter head is most certainly modern. And the aerosol can of sunscreen was buried deep in the sand box. Why bother when there’s a perfectly fine public garbage bin 20 feet away? The long narrow metal strap is copper. It will be sold to my favorite recycler for cash. In total, three pieces of copper were recovered not counting the tag or the pennies. Interesting was the pink colored egg sac on the oak leaf. This park is less than 10 minutes away from home. I will be back. Roger Reference: https://volunteeringwinnipeg.ca/place/parc-st-pierre/
Index October 30, 2024. Parc St. Pierre à St. Norbert. October 30, 2024. Parc St. Pierre à St. Norbert. October 30, 2024. Parc St. Pierre à St. Norbert. October 30, 2024. Parc St. Pierre à St. Norbert. October 30, 2024. Parc St. Pierre à St. Norbert. October 30, 2024. Parc St. Pierre à St. Norbert. October 30, 2024. Parc St. Pierre à St. Norbert. October 30, 2024. Parc St. Pierre à St. Norbert. October 30, 2024. Parc St. Pierre à St. Norbert. October 30, 2024. Parc St. Pierre à St. Norbert. October 30, 2024. Parc St. Pierre à St. Norbert. October 30, 2024. Parc St. Pierre à St. Norbert. October 30, 2024. Parc St. Pierre à St. Norbert.