M E T A L M A N 9

M E T A L M A N 9

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September 2, 2023 - Hot on the Trail

Sept. 2. 2023 - Hot on the Trail

September 2, 2023 Hot on the Trail. River Lot # 155 was hot. I mean really really hot… 35C hot. So hot in fact that I had to pack it in by about one in the afternoon. But what a gorgeous morning sun. Hello and welcome back to my website ! I know that I haven’t posted anything since June 24th. Yes, I’ve been out metal detecting a lot this summer but like the saying goes, “Make hay while the sun shines”. The metal detecting season can be short in this country, six or seven months at best and then at times in spring or summer it’s too wet or too hot to go out. So… This year the weather was great and I took advantage of it rather than sit at a computer but I will now have a great stock of stories and pictures to post during those cold winter months. I finally got my Minelab Headphones paired with my Minelab Equinox 800 metal detector. They work great. Technology and I generally don’t get along so well but this is indeed a wireless improvement. Now back to River Lot 155 and of course the remnants of the Pembina Trail. I’m particularly keen on this river lot as the old Pembina Trail forks into three as per the 1870 survey map. I can’t say that I found anything that could be specifically tied to the trail and to its many travellers but as always, I did come home with a pail full of metal artifacts. Much of which belongs to various farming eras. This is fall, the crop is off but there is quite a bit of wheat chaff left on the ground so finding non-metallic items like glass, pottery and arrowheads is difficult. See the arrow head find: June 5, 2023 More of “Following the Pembina Trail. Once home, I wash and scrub off all of the finds with water, let them dry and then photograph them. Those smaller items that I find to be most interesting or intriguing, I put them through two stages of gentle “Tumbling” in a rock tumbler. This process can take up to a week. It cleans off all of the rust and leaves the metal with its antique look. I then oil each and every piece with olive oil. The iron absorbs some of the oil, gives it its sheen and prevents further rusting. The pieces make for an interesting collection of artifacts that tell its own unique story. Yes, it is definitely a labor of love and dedication to history. The highlights of today’s hunt are perhaps the long hook and chain or the clamp type piece with the three ridge s and bolt hole. Very odd shape but it cleaned-up really nice. The fencing staples are plain but they certainly tell a story of hard work and of a fenced landscape everywhere that held cattle and horses. The hand twisted barbed wire pieces are unique. Each and every one, now a small piece of art. They clean up nice too. Roger

Sept. 7, 2023 - River Lots 155 and 154

Sept. 10, 2023 - Site of the old Tache School. 1914.

September 7, 2023 - River Lots 155 and 154

September 7, 2023 River Lots 155 and 154. River Lots # 155 and 154… Today I expanded my search a bit further southwards, looking for the old Pembina Trail. The branching off of the Trail goes from three branches down to two. At some point in time I will try detecting strictly on the north south ridges running along these river lots. During wet or during flooded periods, that’s where the travelling would have occurred. At the moment, I am trying to gauge where exactly the trail might be. I have a copy of the 1870 survey and I have tried as best as I could to superimpose it over a Google map. I have a good idea as to where it lays but detecting actual period finds would confirm my ideas and be the cat’s meow as well. At this point in time, I am metal detecting in an organized fashion moving from East to west and returning. This is how I found the boat oar anchor back in May. See: May 28, 2023 Following the Pembina Trail. The hunt today has yielded what I believe to be period artifacts. However small they may be, I found 6 thick cast iron pieces that quite possibly were part of a cooking pot or vessel of sorts. They are old iron, slightly curved and were all found within close proximity of each other. Here is a metal detecting tip that I picked up watching YouTube videos. When something good is found, while working a grid or moving in a given direction, break from the grid for a moment and detect in an ever growing spiral around the location of the find. It’s a quick way of finding more pieces that might belong to or with the initial find. This is what I did here and it proved to be a valuable tip. I have also taken to marking my finds with flags, especially at this location. It is a great indicator, when one looks back, as to where most of the finds are and at times reveals patterns that might be otherwise missed. I don’t use flags on beaches or public parks and school yards but here, in an open field, it’s a great tool to use. So there are the 6 thick cast iron bits that are old. Then there is the C clamp looking piece that possibly was part of a working horse bridle or hitch system. The 6 inch long, dinosaur horn looking thing is actually a part of the business end of a swather. The triangular cutter teeth would have slid back and forth along the open separation. I had some help detecting today when my brother Geatan came over for a visit. Just in time to help me dig. We used my big shovel to get this out. This find, a long bent steel bar was buried, lying flat, at over a foot deep in the ground. Geatan was the one to recognize its use… it’s a socket wrench. Notice the square nub at the lower end. It must have taken an incredible amount of torque to bend this piece. I don’t imagine the socket itself would have survived but that we did not find. Not all targets and subsequent digs turn out to be historic…. Beer cans anyone? The two top rocks are both fossils of shells. Very nice but difficult to spot. The last picture is some of the finds once cleaned up, processed and oiled. Roger

September 10, 2023 - Site of the old Tache School. 1914.

September 10, 2023 Site of the old Tache School.1914. My good friend and high school buddy Marc, who by coincidence, is a retired school teacher, was quite keen on metal detecting with me at this; the site of an old rural school. The school, called Tache School, was built in 1914. It would be replaced by a newer school, also called Tache School built in 1952. The 1914 school was built on the South East corner of Section # 4 -3 -1E, three miles north of the village of St. Joseph. The replacement school was built on the North East corner of the same section. We detected the site of the 1914 school. After a good number of phone calls and ownership inquiries, I was able to obtain “Permission to Metal Detect” from the owner. To him, Marc and I say thank you!!! We arrived early on site on what was a beautiful Sunday morning. There’s not much there to be seen. Nothing that would belie a former school site other than a few pieces of concrete and what seemed to be an unusually flat area. It was a now harvested wheat field. Every metal detecting site has its unique characteristics and as I like to say “Flavor”. It took quite a while for the both of us to get our groove and understand the site. Remember, there’s nothing on the surface that indicates where the school was, plus there is a layer of wheat stubble hiding things. The first find of the day was a round axle cover. Yes, it’s a farm machine part. We are in farm country. I think we found more machine parts than school related items. In fact, by the end of the day, I was quite dismayed at the lack of school items. No coins, no buttons, no religious medallions, no metal pencil ends, etc. But…. What an interesting haul nonetheless !!! Of note were the many pieces of what I call Big Iron. The part plate with the circular writing might have been the front door of a coal furnace. We had to dig deep for many of these: 6 inches to at times 1 foot deep. I think that soil might have been brought in to cover the remnants of the school’s foundations and foot print, hence the deep big iron. It’s just odd. 1 school bench leg was recovered along with a few "Klinkers" and coal for heating too. Also found was a homemade cutter or knife using the triangular tooth from a swather cutter bar. My dad had one too. It was used to cut the twine on hay bales when feeding cattle. In all, 3 spoons were found, Ok… 2 spoon bowls and one well bent silver plated spoon marked WMA Rogers. Also inserting is a small piece of what I believe might be Uranium Glass. It’s the yellow piece. The vintage shotgun shell has a cardboard core. Its marked: ELEY No. 12 LONDON Notice the rolled sardine or ham can top? The fun part of today was our visitors. My brother Michel dropped by as did the neighbor’s cat, twice, and I had not seen this type of caterpillar since I was a kid on our family farm. All in a day when out metal detecting! Roger Reference: https://antiquesilver.org/how-to-identify-a-wm-rogers- silver-plate-history-of-william-rogers/ h t t p s : / / w w w . d e c o r a t i v e c o l l e c t i v e . c o m / b l o g / a - b e g i n n e r s - g u i d e - t o - uranium-glass h t t p s : / / a u s s i e m e t a l d e t e c t i n g . c o m / s h o t s h e l l - r e s o u r c e s / s h o t s h e l l - headstamp-database/eley-headstamps/

Sept. 19, 2023 - Expect the Unexpected. River Lot 152.

September 19, 2023 - Expect the Unexpected. River Lot 152.

September 19, 2023 Expect the Unexpected. River Lot 152. River Lot # 152 proved to be quite the surprise and I have a feeling that it will continue to surprise us for some time to come. I dug up 16 lbs. of iron, all found in a 150 X 150 foot area. Big iron; old iron; big and old iron too. All mixed in with the most delicate copper buttons and a partial medallion dated 1830. Wow… Need I go on? Oh but I will… Glass, ceramic, and even a partial tooth? Deer tooth that is. In fact, there was so much big iron that I took two separate “Overall” photos of the finds. Areas for detecting need not look like much at surface level. Beauty is only skin deep, remember? Plain and boring looking can yield all sorts of treasures. It really all boils down to location, location, location, and by that I mean in a historical context. Archeologists will tell you that people would settle where they had ready access to water and be near a travel route and also they looked for elevation points to see game from afar. Well you can discount the elevation idea in this portion of the Red River Valley unless you want to count in the view from the top of the river bank. The Red River was the highway and the Pembina Trail was right there for one to use as well. Both run parallel to each other in a North - South direction. Hence, I have found quite a few spots where early settler or human habitation became evident. See: October 22, 2022 Monty, Myself, and the triangle field of River lot # 159. The little triangle that could. AND: October 19, 2022 How About those Bells… and a Wheat Pattern. The east end of River Lot 152, sits right up against the Old 14 and fits the bill for early settlement. I’m inclined to believe that some of the pieces found predate the 1870 Survey as nothing on the survey is shown on that river lot but open prairie. Some of the finds clearly came later and are from various agricultural eras. Other items, like the molten lead… who knows how and when that happened. The highlights of this outing are as follows: 16 lbs of iron. 1 – Pipe Wrench. 1 – Partial Religious Medallion dated 1830. 3 - Pieces of coloured ceramic pottery. 3 – Pieces of pottery with discernible patterns. 1 - Partial Table Knife (iron). 4 – Partial Buttons or Fasteners. 1 – Door Hinge. 3 – Conveyor Chain Links. 4 – Railway Spikes Multiple Pieces of shaped cast iron, some with patterns. 1- Partial Deer Tooth and a small piece of bone. 2- Small pieces of Coal. 4 – Pieces of Molten Lead. An array of colored glass and ceramics. Round and Square Nails. Small Copper and Aluminium pieces of unknown usage. Overall, quite the day. Enjoy… Roger

September 27, 2023 - Gimli Beach gives up its gold!

September 27, 2023 Gimli Beach gives up its gold! A great day indeed. This is the only beach metal detecting outing that I’ve done this year. In reality, I Metal Detected on two beaches. The first portion of this post shows a shore line and beach that is mostly submerged due to high easterly winds and the finds from this location. The location is directly south of the Gimli Viking Statue. Under normal weather conditions, the sand is accessible at least 3 blocks south from here. The finds here were very trashy but quite telling of the power of nature over time on things like pop cans. Notice the amount of tops or bottoms found where the sides have been ground down to its micro-elements. Some of the cans look like they exploded. Even glass gets worn right down. The scenery over Lake Winnipeg is breathtaking. Today was no exception. The 5th picture shows the first beach that I detected on. The second half of my day on Gimli Beach proper, proved to be quite as exciting and as thrilling as metal detecting gets. I walked away with the prize of the year: A ladies 10K gold ring adorned by a gorgeous onyx stone. Gimli’s beaches are almost deserted at this time of year. Gone are the crowds of sunbathers and families and kids, and swimmers. I had a go of it, all by myself. This little treasure was found right at the water’s edge at about 4 inches deep. An easy find really. Also quite perplexing was this Samsung Cell Phone. It had to have been buried purposefully as I had to use my big shovel to get it out. It was at least 10 inches deep, below the water table, and standing upright. Somebody must have been really mad at someone or the phone contained incriminating evidence of some sort. Hey… What happens in Gimli sometimes stays in Gimli. Also of interest is what’s left of a fork or spoon, flatware and the ever present .22 shell casings. I seem to find these on every beach I’ve been to. I’m curious to know how these molten lead blobs found their way onto the beach. Where do they originate from or what were they a part of, I have no idea. Pull tabs are always a pain… But they ring up on most metal detectors, the same as rings, jewelry rings. You just can’t not dig them up or you risk missing a great find like a ladies 10K gold ring. To be fair, the old style beaver tail pull tabs are exactly that: a ring. The fossils are easy to spot and one always ends up with a pocket full of colorful rocks. Roger References: http://www.mhs.mb.ca/docs/sites/vikingstatue.shtml https://interlaketourism.com/beaches_lakes_parks/gimli-beach-park/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onyx https://www.gemsociety.org/article/black-onyx-jewelry-and-gemstone- information/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Winnipeg

Sept. 27, 2023 - Gimli Beach gives up its gold!

September 30, 2023 - The line between Sec 36 NE and River Lots 149 – 152.

September 30, 2023 The line between Sec 36 NE and River Lots 149 – 152. It was my nephew’s idea. A power line had just been removed from in-between two farm fields. This power line had stood there forever and a day; long before I ever played, walked around, and explored this area as a child. Some time ago, Gabriel, my nephew said “They just removed the power line and posts. I wonder what’s all been left behind between those fields. You should go and Metal Detect it” Not a bad idea but not something I would have prioritized as such. So I thought about it and kept it in the back of my mind. It’s the end of September now and there’s about one month left of good metal detecting to be had. The fields that I still want to access this year still have crops on them and I was looking for something new or different to do. I also wanted to bring the dogs out with me for a good run around but it had to be somewhere where sticky weeds like Beggar’s Lice (Hackelia virginiana) or Common Cocklebur (Xanthium strumarium) would not be a problem. Hey…. The old power line idea just happened to fit the bill. I got there early. It’s right across the road from the family farm. The moon hanging over the farmyard made for an interesting photo. This is where the Red River Lots 152 down to 149 butts up against Sec 36 NE. It’s a half mile walk south to where NE becomes SE. The dogs were safe from nasty sticky weeds but the heavy morning dew made a mess of them. Harmless yes, but it was shower time for all of us when we got home. The finds were interesting enough but sorry, no buried cache of coins were found. I knew that I’d find a few fencing staples (14 in total), as almost all the fields were fenced in at some point in their history. What particularly struck me was the height of soil mounds around where the hydro poles had stood. It’s difficult and risky to work the land surrounding hydro poles so the drifting soil gets caught by the prairie grasses and the ground builds up and up and over time you end up with a small mound. The land was also separated by a drainage canal. My finds were almost all near or at the field’s edge. None at the very bottom of the ditch. The big round “Thing” with a star in the middle, weighed in at 5 lbs. Yes, “Thing”… Sprocket… Whatever… I have no idea what that is other than it was undoubtedly part of a farm machine. How that got separated and lost from the remainder of the machine would be pure speculation and would make for a funny story although not at that time for that farmer I’m sure. The partial wrench is geometrically interesting. I do enjoy the hand wrung barb wire piece. And well, the golf ball is anyone’s guess. Gabriel ??? The flatware, in two pieces, were found together. It’s either a spoon or a fork. Judging by the amount of rust and by the overall look, I would speculate that this artifact may well date back to early pioneer days or may even have belonged to one of the surveyors for the 1870 survey. This is exactly where they worked. The block of concrete once held a survey marker. Years of farm equipment rolling over it has removed the brass marker disc a long time ago. It would be exciting to find that piece out in the field somewhere. So to my nephew I say: “There! This is what’s all been left behind between those fields”. The dogs and I enjoyed our day. Roger References: https://www.picturethisai.com/wiki/Hackelia_virginiana.html https://ipm.ucanr.edu/PMG/WEEDS/common_cocklebur.html https://www.smallfarmcanada.ca/features/surveying-boundary-lines- this-be-yours-and-this-be-mine-but-/ https://static1.squarespace.com/static/6148b130f68d7f1bb745938c/t/ 6185ab073b28f4218e2ed168/1636150031489/Understanding+_DL_ Survey_System.pdf

Sept. 30, 2023 - The line between Sec 36 NE and River Lots 149 - 152.