I met a detectorist day before yesterday at McEuen Park in Coeur d’Alene, ID. He got a reading and was in the process of digging it up. I was hiking by and asked him what he thought he had found. He wasn’t sure, but said he had a good reading.
Really nice guy — a history buff like me. He told me about some of the great finds he and his friends have made at cavalry fort sites in the west. He’s found items at the old Fort Sherman site (1878–1900) in Coeur d’Alene.
So we have a wonderful 20 minute chat. I mentioned to him about all the finds I read about in your posts. He knew about “mudlarking” on the Thames River (you now need a permit!). A buddy of his went on arranged treasure-hunting trips to the UK, made friends, and was headed over to England today to join his friends on a hunt. The guy I met doesn’t like flying, so he hasn’t got to Europe or the UK, but he knew about many of the finds I read about in your posts.
Nice! I slightly knew a slightly shady guy who had actually grown up in Wales (hadn’t thought about this in years) and had been in a variety of different professions (ahem), usually things that could be done on the side and off the books while he and/or his wife-partner worked in regular jobs. And they moved around a lot.
He once spent a summer in Gibraltar, and paid for it by free diving near the swimmers’ raft anchored a bit offshore, during the middle of the day (good Sun angle), recovering lost Rolex watches, phones, and whatnot.
He had long been a detectorist in Britain. He told me about the “birdfoot” — when the Romans’ bridges were gone, carted off for stone, ruined, etc, the approach to the fording place was naturally downhill, and angled off the old (usually Roman-origin) roadway to get down to the crossing at a very slight incline, to avoid runaway carts and whatnot. He figured out via experience (and accident) that this near-ancient practice tended to point right to a fruitful spot to detect.
And that part of the story is the most interesting, but I can’t remember it. [blush]
Don’t leave us in suspense, what did the guy find?
Time Team is a UK archaeological series that ran for 20 years. The first ten episodes are available on Amazon Prime. Time Team now has a YouTube Channel where they cover more recent digs they conduct. They also have a channel on Patreon, but I’m not willing to pay to be a member. I subscribe to several WWII metal dectorist channels on YouTube. They detect in Germany mostly and a couple other guys in Russia.