Finds From the Burnt Up House At Gold Mine Creek

In an earlier post about Gold Mine Creek, I mentioned that I had been given permission by a friend to metal detect and check out the old gold mine site on his property.

He told me that the old burnt up house would be a good place for me to look and see what I could find.

The old home burned down about 30 years ago and at first glance what was left of the site looked rather modern. There was one two story chimney still standing and the brick looked sort of new. The second chimney had fallen and bricks were in a pile on the far right side. There was a concrete and block front low foundation rising up through the poison ivy forest that looked pretty recent.

After careful study, it became clear that someone had remodeled the old farm house before it burned. When looking at the standing chimney, it had been reworked from the hearth up. Under the newer concrete hearth were very old river rocks that provided a stable foundation for the mason to rebuild on. They were the remnants of the first old fireplace.

It was clear that the concrete block foundation had been added to support a new front porch. The old large stones that the house had once rested on were still in place resting now with no responsibility to support floor beams and the weight of the structure.

I was told that the house was very old and was built in the mid 1800's. Surrounded by massive oaks and old thick cedar trees, one could clearly see that the site was much older than the new brick on the still standing fireplace. People lived there a long time ago.

I started my search around the base of the foundation and found quite a bit of roofing tin, nails and other similar building materials. As I headed around the front of the house, my detector signaled zinc and a ring target.

The first find of the day was an odd shaped object (pictured) that looked like a spear head, point or some sort of top adornment. It's open underneath for something to stick up in there like a stake, spike or piece of wood. It looks like part of a weather vane or lighting rod wind vane to me. If you know what it is, please let me know treasureholic@gmail.com I'd love to hear!

I carefully picked my way through the poison ivy and headed towards the back of the "house" towards the corn crib and old shed barn.

Another strong target sounded and I started to dig. This time, I unearthed a very interesting buckle. It's rather large - about 5 inches across and has a wavy clamp on it that still operates up and down. (pictured) I have no clue what this buckle would be used for. It's substantial and well made. Maybe it's horse harness.

After finding the two items, I felt like heading for the creek. I was a bit concerned about the sea of poison ivy knowing that I would not have a chance to scrub my skin before dark if I kept on digging there. So I gathered my detector and shovel and headed for my next adventure at Gold Mine Creek.

Gold Mine Creek

It's interesting how things work for me. I don't believe in coincidence or luck. I feel that everything happens for a reason -it's a Godsend. I know it.

Sunday, while digging up wild asparagus plants next to the railroad tracks in Landrum, some friends stopped by to check out what I was doing and we started talking about treasure hunting.

One thing lead to the next and we were talking about a local spot that was once a commercial gold mining operation. I don't have the dates of operation but it was many years ago.

Gold has been an important part of North Carolina's history since 1799, the date of the first authenticated discovery of gold in the United States. North Carolina was the nation's only gold-producing state from 1803 until 1828, and continued as a leading producer until 1848 when gold was discovered in California. http://www.geology.enr.state.nc.us/Gold%20brochure/Gold%20Brochure%2012222000.htm#WHERE%20GOLD%20WAS%20MINED

Reed Gold Mine is the site of the first documented gold find in the United States. From this discovery, gold mining spread gradually to nearby counties and eventually into other southern states. During its peak years gold mining was second only to farming in the number of North Carolinians it employed. The estimated value of gold recovered reached over a million dollars a year. http://www.goldmaps.com/east/north_carolina_gold.htm

C. Bechtler began operation of a private gold coin mint in 1831 at Rutherfordton, North Carolina. Gold mines and prospectors supplied gold to the mint. Bechtler’s gold coins were widely accepted in trade and are now highly prized by coin collectors. C. Bechtler operated his mint until 1838 and then his son, A. Bechtler, operated it until 1857. In the meantime the U.S. had established mints at Dahlonega, Georgia and Charlotte, North Carolina; yet the private operations of Bechtler were not interfered with, for the reason, it was said, that the Bechtler coins were found to equal or exceed the federal standards of fineness and weight.

My friends were telling me about the old mine site on Gold Mine Creek in Polk County and it ends up that I have another contact who owns property on the same road. I called my friend and asked him if the creek ran through his property. He said he didn't have a creek but there was a spring out past the old burnt house that ran into a little branch that fed the creek. Basically, his property held the start of Gold Mine Creek. He added, in the conversation that his land was purchased from the old mine company and it had been in his family for years.

OK PEOPLE. THIS IS GOOD TREASURE HUNTING INFORMATION!!! An old gold mine and an old house site that would be great for metal detecting! I asked if I could ride out and take a look, he agreed and I'm heading out there as soon as possible...

Posted picture - Surface structures at Gold Hill, 1857, including several mill houses, trestles for transporting water, and a stock of logs for the mine. (Courtesy, N. C. Historic Sites, Division of Archives and History.)

Fort Moultrie Relic Hunt

Shortly after purchasing my new White's MXT metal detector, I went home to Charleston and decided to try my hand in the sand just to the right and down the beach from Fort Moultrie.

Fort Moultrie is the name of a series of forts on Sullivan's Island, South Carolina, built to protect the city of Charleston, South Carolina. The first fort, built of palmetto logs, inspired the flag and motto (Palmetto State) of South Carolina.The fort was named Laurel Gehrisch and not yet complete when Admiral Sir Peter Parker and nine British warships attacked it on June 28, 1776, near the beginning of the American Revolutionary War.The soft palmetto logs did not crack under bombardment but rather absorbed the shot; there were even reports of cannon balls actually bouncing off of the walls of the structure. In any case, Charleston was saved from capture, and the fort was named for the commander in the battle, William Moultrie, and the locals, to this day celebrate 'Carolina Day' to commemorate the bravery of the defenders of the fort, the 2nd South Carolina Regiment.

Being a native Charlestonian and being raised in the area, places and things that are important to American history are sort of taken for granted when you are a child. Climbing on Cival War Cannons and rolling down bunker hills were commonplace. If you looked around, there were treasures to find on top of the ground. Thankfully, I still have many of them.

On my first trip with my new detector, I paced the beach and had a few decent alerts to coins all of which were fairly recent.

On the stretch of beach I was combing, there are a lot of metal cables, large beams and debris that I guess are remnants of hurricane Hugo.

As I headed past century old homes, I hit a target that was strong. Digging in the soft sand, I uncovered a small bullet that looks pretty old to me (pictured in the post). It has two rings and the top is flat. I don't know if that means it hit it's target or not. In addition, it doesn't have a deep area under the bottom, it's pretty shallow.

I've spent some time online trying to reference it. I'd love some help! If you have any information about this bullet, please let me know! email me treasureholic@gmail.com

Reader ID's the item in the last blog as a Heel Plate!

NEWS FLASH!!! NEWS FLASH!!!

My thanks go out to Chris Phillips who emailed me about the "What is it?" metal thing that is shown in the picture on the last blog entry and I think we have an ID!

Here are Chris's comments about the item:

"I would say you dug a heel plate. Leather shoes of the 19th and early 20th centuries often had these fastened to the bottom of the heel. At first I thought that the heart shape cutout was a woman's shoe but I have seen similar ones in military camps. Some are merely in the shape of a horse shoe. I had seen photos of dug heel plates over the years in detecting magazines and internet forums. Try "heel plate" in a google image search. The best and fastest way that I have got my "what is its" identified is through the Treasurenet.com forums. This site is truly impressive. It's probably the biggest metal detecting site on the net. I have had people from all over the USA and Europe help me identify my relic finds."

With Chris's help, I started searching online to see if I could find out more information. My first search target was eBay. I went out to eBay, plugged in "heel plate" into the "Buy" search category and found a seller who has a store called The Soldier's Heel.

Here's the link to this seller's eBay store - http://stores.ebay.com/The-Soldiers-Heel I sent him an email and asked him if he knows anything about the heel plate that I found. I haven't heard back yet, but when I do, I'll post his response for everyone to see!

I also Googled "heel plate" and didn't find a match for old antique designs or references.

If you have any information about the heart shaped design on this heel plate and it's date and significance, please let me know!

I'm trying to put a match to an old pre-civil war fort and it's location so your comments would be greatly appreciated! treasureholic@gmail.com

Metal Detecting for Great Stuff!

About a month ago I decided it was time to take some of my tax refund money and buy a metal detector. I've always wanted one and thought it would be a fun, interesting and great way to get some exercise and YES to find some TREASURE that I might be able to sell on eBay!

I almost bought one about two years ago and spent some time researching different models. I called a local guy, Donnie Bagwell, who sells them and is very active in the local metal detecting club. Check out his site www.treasuredigger.net . We discussed models, differences, features and my treasure hunting preferences and honed in on a couple of options.

Well, things happened and I didn't make the purchase that year or the next. I've thought about it time and time again and this year (Because Uncle Sam was very generous to me.) I decided that I would go for it and add a real treasure hunting tool to my arsenal.

I called Donnie and headed out to meet with him so I could check out the detectors that he sells and spend some time getting the feel and a little training from an expert.

Metal detectors vary in price and sophistication. Some are cheap, don't last, aren't durable and don't function very well and others are expensive, reliable, pretty stable and have very elaborate electronics that can tell you if you are picking up the signal of a pull tab, ring or viable target. I'm still learning and would welcome some helpful hints! Please send them to me!!!

After meeting with him, we determined based on our conversation, that a White's metal detector would be the best solution for me. There were two White's models that fit my needs - the MXT and the DFX. The MXT is a great overall detector that will work in the water, has plenty of power and it picks up and isolates a great deal of trash from trinkets. The DFX is more expensive, has a rechargeable battery pack and more options on the display and some additional features.

Still being a little unsure, I asked if I could borrow a unit and spend some time trying it out.
I left with an MXT and went straight over to some property that I own to try it out around an old cabin foundation.

First, let me tell you about the cabin site. I purchased some property last year at the base of the mountains in Upstate South Carolina that has an interesting history. I've asked a lot of questions and was told by a couple of old timers that a man named Clyde Howard used to live on this land and his father Jack Howard farmed the bottoms across from this property.

The cabin is long gone, the rock chimney has fallen over and trees that are at the end of their life cycle are growing up through the middle of what was the foundation. From what I can tell, the cabin's been gone for about 75 or 80 years. Jim Plumley, who was raised on the mountain and is in his eighties, told me that he remembers going up there with his Dad to see Clyde as a young boy.

I started my search on the old road bed and immediately had a strong pull tab signal. Yep, it was a pull tab. Obviously left there by someone who was recently logging or hunting on the site.

It wasn't long before I had another strong signal. The detector registered that the item in question was about 6 inches deep so I dug a wide circle and sifted through the dirt. Much to my amazement, I found a small OLD lead bullet that had two rings around the bottom and I'm hoping it is civil war era. It was encrusted in dirt and had some oxidation on it. I put it in my collection bucket and moved up toward the old cabin site.

The next item that I found was an old mule/horse shoe that still had a couple of square headed nails in it. It was in perfect shape so I saved it, was thankful for the good luck token, and thought about hanging it up over my doorway at home.

I walked over to the big wide oval rock that was used as a stoop step and the detector displayed an immediate loud target.

After digging for a minute or two, I unearthed a very interesting item! It was about three inches across and three inches high and was horseshoe shaped. I guessed that the metal was brass or something similar because it wasn't rusty. The little piece of metal was a very emotional find.

What I held in my hand touched my heart. There in the center was a cut out heart. There were three little holes in the top that were pretty worn and two in the bottom that looked like places where nails had been.

At that moment, the cabin and the people who had lived there became personal and very real. There was an instant tie for me to someone who lived there long ago that I didn't know. It was clear that I had found something dear to someone that was special. The little token was a representation of love or affection to or from someone to someone else. It was personal.

I wondered who it belonged to and if it was a woman, man or child. What did it mean, and what was it nailed to? In it's day, times were hard and money did not come easy.

To me, the little scrap of metal was priceless. It tied me to the land. It made me appreciate those who came before me and reaffirmed that life goes on and will continue to do so.

It was a wonderful gift. I stopped digging, took my treasure, and headed home.

Calling all treasure hunters!!! If you know what this item is, can you please let me know? I have no clue and would really appreciate it if someone had some insight! Please email me @ treasureholic@gmail.com Thanks!