Bear River Homestead

Metal Detecting Monday-Hunting with DW

Mama Bear — Mon, 20 May 2013 12:05:22 +0000

“I met up with DW at the pre-arranged place and set off. DW had hunted some camps related to this camp as long as 20 years ago so he was excited to put a check mark alongside another one.

On the way we had a good discussion about some of the metal detectorist’s in Utah that he knew. Apparently, some of them have read my posts and are chomping at the bit to find out what locations I am going to so they can “claim-jump” for lack of a better word.
I wish them luck in their endeavors and I hope they are ready for flying buck shot and handcuffs if they do. It just amazes me how those who wish to find an end-around would accomplish their goal, and more, if they only did it legitimately……Okay, I got side tracked, so back to the hunt.

We got to our location and as the property owners were nowhere to be found off we went. We hunted an area to the south of this camp, basically determining its boundary and then moved into the camp area. About nine hours later, after meeting the property owners on the way out, we were done.

A quick mention on the cartridges on the left of the tail gate. They appear to be 30-40 Krag and some other shorter cartridge. They were all found about 8 inches down in a fire pit.

Okay, onto my finds:

The small eagle button at the bottom left is an Eagle A. Where I found it made no sense…..Actually where I found the carved and dropped Sharps made no sense either. I also found a powder can cap, the top of a shoulder scale, and a ’0′ insignia.

I was pretty excited about the huge folding knife that was 4 inches down until the property owner advised that they had lost plenty of them over the years on the property. They said it looked like an “Old Timer” knife. I also found a lead poker chip which is at the bottom of the photo.

The glass had me excited until I saw that it was in a million pieces. However I retrieved what I could find. If possible I will glue as much back together as possible. .

I have recovered oyster shell design spoon bowls but this was my first with this design. Pretty cool I think.

This padlock plate lock cover had a cool design on it with a letter ‘F’. This cover is almost 2 inches in length so I cannot imagine the size of the padlock that this went on!!!

And now my best find of the day and the story behind it….

We were taking a quick water break after a few hours hunting. DW had sat down on a log and I remained standing as we chatted about the camp and our finds so far.

After a few minutes I commented on not seeing any eagles today. Usually I would see at least one Golden Eagle, or one or two Bald Eagles, flying over head at some point. I decided to press on while DW continued his pit-stop. I swung my coil right where I was standing……..and I got a good clear signal right at my feet.

I dug the plug and staring at me was this green disc. I removed it from the plug and I saw a wheat wreath and one cent written. DW remarked that must be a wheat penny but it looked too fat to me plus looking at the front I could not make out Lincoln’s head on the other side. I rubbed at the surface, broke out my magnifying glass and peered in….

Behold a 1857 Flying Eagle Cent. DW had to take a look himself to believe what I had found. After a hi-five we continued the hunt. As DW walked off swinging his coil he turned to me, chuckled, and said, “You know you finally saw your eagle”…..

Yes I did…..”~ PB

Leading the Way

Mama Bear — Sat, 18 May 2013 03:25:06 +0000

The Black-chinned Hummingbird is always our first hummingbird of the season. He’s about a week earlier than the past two years but that’s OK with me.

Hopefully that means the others won’t be far behind!

New Bird in the Hood

Mama Bear — Thu, 16 May 2013 04:05:43 +0000

We love it when we see a bird that’s new to our backyard, so yesterday when this handsome fellow landed on the birdbath, we got pretty excited.
Because our camera lives on our kitchen counter for such occasions, I grabbed the camera and Papa Bear started to look it up on the computer.

Due to it’s size and colors, we guessed it might be some type of oriole and as it turns out, it’s an adult male Bullock’s Oriole.

When he came back this morning to take a bath, I figured I’d start looking up the things they eat.
We’d love to see this fella come back and become a regular visitor and what better way to help make that happen than with food!

Since I couldn’t find any official oriole feeders at our local Stuff Mart, I threw together my own type of feeder by using some old pieces of fence wood we had and fastened them to the top of the fence with screws. I also have two screws that come up from the bottom to hold the half of orange and a suet log.

If we’re lucky, Mr. Bullock will be back AND bring some friends!

Metal Detecting Monday-Looking for the Artillery Camp

Mama Bear — Mon, 13 May 2013 12:05:49 +0000

“This past week I had been researching the exact location of the two artillery units that were at a camp I had been hunting. Last year in one area, I had found a small Ordnance Department button, 69 Cal Minie Balls, the scabbard tip to an Artillery Sword, and a fair amount of what I will call “big iron” as in it was pieces that looked like they had come off rolling stock of some kind.

So at 9am, armed with knowledge in my mind and with my Colt .45 because I was hunting on my own this time, and after saying hello to the property owners I set off to see what I could find. This was a day where I was going to dig everything and I was really wondering what I would find. I had to pass through some other unit camps to get there and I almost got side tracked when I pulled a 1857 Seated Liberty Dime out of the ground.

The strange thing about this coin was that it sounded like a pewter button on my metal detector. Anyway, I was very pleased with this find. I found a few small eagle buttons in the same area and then decided to move on.

I also found what appears to be a small (and I mean small) pewter ring. I see no other reason that it would have a design on it.

Now I must add that it would be three hours into this hunt before I actually reached the area I wanted to actually look at.

I found some big pieces of melted lead on the way to the area I wanted to hunt but when I got into the area I wanted to hunt I found this. I think it is a ramrod guide but I am not sure. It does not belong on any of the firearms that the soldiers at this time should have had.

The area I was searching was a tenth of a mile in length interspersed with cottonwoods and willows. There are also a lot of log falls in area. The finds in the photo above are arraigned, from left to right, north to south.
There are a couple of 69 cal Minie Balls that were fired plus I found my first 69 cal round ball from that area. This one was also fired and it had the three indentations from the three buckshot that wouls have comprised of a buck and ball load. This load was used in the Model 1847 Musketoon that was supposedly used by the artillery units prior to the Civil War.

Satisfied that I had at least confirmed one of the two artillery units, I started heading back…….It took me another 4 hours to get back to my truck.

I found buttons.

I found bullets

I found a brass butt plate at the south end of the Dragoon camp.

And my final finds were a cufflink and a saddle shield in the Dragoon area. How this was missed in the past beats me because this area has been hit hard. I guess with the majority of the lead removed all the cool small items are now revealing themselves. It was a great way to end a hunt. If fact, although I had filled up four complete spice containers with stuff, I had no idea how much I had found until I got home.

I took this photo that night after coming home, cleaning up, eating, and cleaning the finds. The beer can is for size reference only. It was already empty by the time the photo was taken.”~ PB

Slowly but Surely

Mama Bear — Fri, 10 May 2013 16:55:32 +0000

This red dresser has been on my “to do” list for a while now. Papa Bear did his part and fixed the insides of the drawers and I’ve just been waiting for the weather to get nice enough to take it outside to work on it.

Eons ago, in my younger years, I would have used a chemical stripper to refinish and old dresser like this, but as I’ve gotten older, I prefer to just use my trusty ole pad sander.

Of course eating through a few layers of paint is going to take more time this way, but that’s OK. There’s no rush.
Plus, I prefer the lack of goopy mess and chemical smells.

This definitely won’t be the prettiest piece of furniture I’ve ever redone, but I think she’ll hold her own.

And maybe to give her a little bit of help, I’ll see if I can’t find a key or set of keys that work, since all 5 of her drawers have locks.
I think that’s going to be more of a challenge than getting through the layers of paint!

Birds of Spring

Mama Bear — Wed, 08 May 2013 18:25:01 +0000

Wilson’s Warbler. For a very brief time, about mid-spring, we tend to see this handsome yellow fellow around the backyard. Because many of the trees around us are just getting their leaves, and most of those leave are light green, he isn’t always easy to see right away. It’s usually his beautiful singing voice we hear first.
He typically hangs out for about a week and then he’s gone.

Yellow-rumped Warbler. These male warblers are new to our backyard. I had a brief glimpse of one over a week ago, but because it was only a glimpse, I couldn’t really identify it. Over the weekend I was finally able to get a picture of one up in the tree and PB was able to figure out what it was. Two days after that, I counted 11 of them in our flowerbed and around our little pond.

Lazuli Bunting. Along with the Wilson’s Warbler, this blue beauty always seems to arrive around May. And almost always on a day that it’s raining. Fortunately, the Lazuli tends to hang out longer than the yellow warbler so we get to enjoy him for a bit longer. Unfortunately, once the cooler temperatures of spring leave, so do the Lazuli Buntings. They don’t seem to like our hot summers.

Metal Detecting Monday-Hunting with JD

Mama Bear — Mon, 06 May 2013 12:05:47 +0000

“This past weekend I invited a fellow metal detector enthusiast JD to come hunt at a camp in Wyoming. He is another coin shooter that had to be brought to see the light in regards of relic hunting. I met up with JD early in the morning. We piled into my truck and we were off, heading east into Wyoming.

The property owners were not home that morning so when we arrived I gave JD a brief on the layout of the camp from a good vantage point. I decided that we would work the Dragoon and 5th Infantry areas again because they had produced on the past two occasions.

Here are my finds.

When I dug this musket trigger guard I thought I had hit it with my shovel. Upon cleaning I saw that it was gold gilt!!

These are my best finds from.the hunt. The Letter ‘I’ is the second company letter from the 5th Infantry area.

The extra large Eagle I button is my third from the whole camp. It was an inch under the surface and all I used was my Pro-Pointer to dislodge it. Even though it is crushed flat I still think it is a dandy of a button. The back mark reads W. H. Smith, New York, and it was made sometime in the 1840′s and 1850′s.

The small flower button was found in the Dragoon area. It has no back mark. Any ideas?

Here is an example of one of each of the type of Pre-Civil War bullet I found.

Here are my iron finds. The picket pin is the fourth and best I have dug. The loop still swivels. It is going to look good after electrolysis. The axe head still has wood and nails jammed into the opening. I also dug my first iron spoon.

Now obviously I am not showing all the small scrap trash that I dug. I can honestly say that I dug every signal on this hunt. I was actually surprised when JID commented that I had dug much more than him….

We got back to my truck just as the property owners son and family rode up on a large ATV type vehicle. We chatted for a bit and showed them our finds. I also gave them a couple of the bullets I had found.

Now I have to say this. JD had a grin from ear to ear all day and he deserved it. He almost made me look like a rookie with the items he pulled out of the ground. He did a great job on his first relic hunt. His finds included small Eagle ‘D’ and Eagle ‘I’ buttons, multiple bullets, a bayonet scabbard tip and a number ’5′ insignia. But his best find in his opinion was…

…a 1854 ‘O’ Seated Liberty Dime.

I guess he truly is a coin hunter at heart!!! Well done JD!!” ~PB

Whatta Crock!

Mama Bear — Fri, 03 May 2013 17:05:15 +0000

There’s a small addition in the basement that I wanted to share with you.
Actually, it isn’t small and it’s quite heavy.

It’s a 20 gallon crock Papa Bear spied at our favorite antique store down in Brigham City.
The crock is stamped, “The Western Pottery Mfg. Co.”, and after doing a bit of online sleuthing, found that this company was based out of Denver, Colorado around the early 20th century, but beyond that, I really haven’t found much else.

I did read a brief blurb on one site where someone had a 15 gallon crock from the same company and they stated that it had been used to store dill pickles.
I have no idea what ours use to store but thankfully, it was very clean inside and didn’t require much cleaning at all. Which is good because in the future, it’s going to store blankets.

But someone’s going to have to break that news to Evie.

Because for some odd reason, she thinks it’s hers and has been playing in it ever since I put it in the basement.

Hopeful

Mama Bear — Wed, 01 May 2013 12:05:20 +0000

I took a little seed one day
About a month ago.
I put it in a pot of dirt,
In hopes that it would grow.

I poured a little water
To make the soil right.
I set the pot upon the sill,
Where the sun would give it light.

I checked the pot most every day,
And turned it once or twice.
With a little care and water
I helped it grow so nice.

~Dick Wilmes

Metal Detecting Monday-Old Camp Floyd

Mama Bear — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 12:05:54 +0000

At very short notice I was able to hunt what is known as Old Camp Floyd (OCF) here in Utah with BH and the camps finder, DB.

In my opinion this camp was, in area covered, the largest temporary US Army camp west of the Mississippi and it dwarfs the camps I have hunted this past year.

Now you may wonder why I would openly name and talk about this camp. The reason is that it has been gone over solidly for 20 plus years and a book has been written about the relics found at OCF. Due to the amount of hunting done on this camp, and in some cases area’s being placed off limits by property owners, square nails are about all one can expect to dig up nowadays.

Here is DB’s webpage about it:

http://www.duanesradios.info/html/johnstons_army.html

To read a sample from his book on Google Books, go here.

I have found the book very informative in assisting me on my hunts in Wyoming and I recommend it for anyone who wants to see how the relics found can tell a story..

Anyway, on to today’s hunt…..

After a two hour drive, I arrived at DB’s home at 7am and BH was not far behind me. Despite a clear blue sky it was bitter cold with a 10-15 mph wind coming down off the mountains, but we were soon up at the site of OCF, parking near Area 1 (the map can be found on the Google Book link above).

We hunted Area’s 2, 7, 13 and 14 for about 4 1/2 hours before calling it a day.

Here are my finds to include one solitary 58 cal fired round ball.

Here are BH’s finds. BH posted about the hunt on his blog, Ben Here Dug This.

While not a hunt like out in Wyoming, it was good to finally hunt OCF and see DB again. We probably spent an hour out in his driveway afterwards talking about Johnston’s Army and OCF.

My thanks to DB and BH for setting up the chance to hunt OCF.