Some of the more memorable ones are:
pocket knives, $20 bill, arrowheads, craftsman 1/2" ratchet with 3 6" extensions, probably 200' of good 3/8" chain in various lengths, boomers, gun barrel (not used for a property corner), two rattles from rattle snakes with 13 rattles and a button each (they didn't give them up easily), tons of wrenches and sockets (all that were craftsman went back to Sears for new ones), hornets nests (we try to get every one of these but like the snakes, they don't give them up easily), two nice (had them scored) 140 and 155 class deer heads right next to one another in a creek with some serious mauling going on. I don't think that hunters had anything to do with the kills as the horns were still there along with a couple of does.
That's just a few that come to mind. I'm sure there are more.
I Hate It When Guys Toot Their Own Horn
LOL
Paul in PA
I'd take that photo off the host site if I were you. Many people have had their homes broken into and things stolen by the government under the Antiquities Act.
JRL
I Hate It When Guys Toot Their Own Horn
Probably the most interesting thing I've ever found in the field was a message carved in a cliff or canyon wall while staking out clearing limits for a subdivision in Santa Clarita-Stevenson Ranch CA in 1997. It reads "Lost 1810 No Food." This place was probably way out in the boonies back then and even probably so 30 years ago. It was weathered and had been there for quite a while.
I Hate It When Guys Toot Their Own Horn
1810? Did you check on that any further? Is it real? Very interesting. Is it in someone's front yard in the subdivision now:-)
I guess if you where staking clearing limits, it's probably in the R/W. =gone
Don
Edit: the road design probably avoided cutting into canyon walls, I guess.
I Hate It When Guys Toot Their Own Horn
California was firmly Spanish in 1810. I would suspect it is of more recent origin.
I Hate It When Guys Toot Their Own Horn
We told the super in charge of the project about it and shortly a couple of days later, they cleared that area and it was gone. I suspect they didn't want to do an archeological dig. I think that area is under about 20-30' of fill. It was in the vicinity of Shakespeare Ln.
> California was firmly Spanish in 1810. I would suspect it is of more recent origin.
Yes, that's what we thought at first. At first we thought maybe a couple of kids partying and drinking beer climbed up there and carved it out. But the area was very hard to get to. You had to climb up and down some steep valleys on all four in rattlesnake country through a ton of sagebrush just to get to that area. And that was just in 1997. It would take us about 45 minutes or so just to hike to it from a fairly new road close by that was only a couple of years old. The carving was pretty weathered. It definitely looked older than 50 years old to say the least. There was no doubt that it had been there for quite a while. I doubt there was any development in that area even forty years ago. I think the Santa Clarita area is fairly new, especially in that area. It is not far from the I-5, but back in 1810, that area was probably pretty desolated except for maybe a few prospectors and hunters roaming around?
This is carved in a very large rock in the woods along route 2 in MA. Hard to read but it says, Jonathan Whitcomb 1717-1790 killed a black bear in this valley 1740. The story is that it was the last black bear in Littleton MA. The 1920's highway layout actually excludes this from the layout in a 20'x30' box.
I Hate It When Guys Toot Their Own Horn
> California was firmly Spanish in 1810. I would suspect it is of more recent origin.
That's 16 years before Jedediah Smith became the first "American" to reach California overland.
How did he live until 1790 after being killed by a black bear in 1740?
YOH! Karoly, Wake Up!
"He killed the black bear in 1740" not versa vica.
Paul in PA
Some of the ones I've found in Central Mississippi. The small one in the middle has a lot of sentimental value.
YOH! Karoly, Wake Up!
sometimes you get the bear and sometimes the bear gets you !!
That's a great little stencil cornet made by C.G.Conn, although Blessing did some of them as well. Either way, have fun with it. I always suggest a trip to the local repair tech for a good cleaning and getting all the felts and pads replaced.
Great finds over the years include a set of Dexter commercial kitchen knives in the roll up pouch found on the side of the road while running a level loop, a Saturday Night Special found while topoing dredge spoils, a Pelican case with LOTS of various caliber ammo (which now holds several dozen trumpet and cornet mouthpieces) and an old range pole still stacked on a site, where the roots of a dogwood had grown around the tip.
So you've started playing again, good for you. I am also more a cornet than trumpet guy, and if your wife complains about more than one instrument, tell her it could be MUCH worse, over a hundred last time I counted a few years ago. Point out every time she hears you practice or play, it is time you are not on Craigslist or Ebay buying more horns.
Things we find in the woods>PL
Yeah, I've been having fun playing for about a year now. It took a while to develop my embouchure but it's gotten better.
You have over a hundred horns? Wow, where do you store them all??
YOH! Karoly, Wake Up!
I guess my tired eyes inserted a "by" in there last night LOL.
Seems obvious now.
Things we find in the woods>PL
The four I play are in the bedroom, the rest are either at the shop (all the ones requiring repair) or in storage in a spare bedroom. The collectables are vacuum sealed in plastic and stored in a walk in closet.
A friend and I decided several years ago to buy out the inventory of a music store's repair department, got compressors, buffers, 1.5 tons of dent removal tools and all their stockroom parts. It is second job for him, hobby for me.
Anything worth doing is worth going completely overboard.
Things we find in the woods>PL
Let's see, single shot 12ga H&R shotgun, assorted knives, stihl chain saw, lots of deer antlers, a porno movie in the process of being filmed, a womans purse with $300 (called her from the id in it), a dead hunter who'd been out there for 4 years (wallet, some scraps of clothing, his Remmington 30-06, and a few bones with a skull), a marijuana farm (5 acres), old moonshine still, and a mideval style sword. Corners wise- car axle, gun barrel, set stones, cedar staubs, pinch pipes, and a happy Buddha statue marking a corner.
Marijuana growing in Palm Beach County-as soon as I saw it I was worried about booby traps. That was when we sere setting targets. Next time through, leveling, they were gone (harvested?)
Also I have seen three different crashed planes-central PA, VA/WV state line (Mt Weather), and in Puerto Rico, near Ponce. I guess they just figured it was too hard to remove them.
our Law Enforcement officer in Mendocino County (Redwood timberland) told us to watch out for piles of bean cans. He said if we see a pile of bean cans then get the heck out of there and let him know. Piles of bean cans are a sign of Mexican drug cartels.
He said usually you won't find the plants in the State Forest because we don't clear cut but they will often camp in the forest near the boundary and grow on the adjacent clear cut area. We are usually on the boundary because of the nature of our task.
