Railroad item and some silver:usow:

[robez509]

The ground is green and lots of fresh air.
Hunted an area where an old railroad bridge used to be.
Found a lot of heavy iron and old tin cans. Then we came across a rare find! Thought it was a plant I.D tag wife cleaned it up
and found stamped across it "1906" cleaned a bit more noticed more writing. "Spokane Wash 1906 and the number #988"

Wife researched it and came across an old rail car that was sold in 1949 to Mr. Knight who turned that same rail car into a diner that is
located right here in Spokane and is still in business today. The rail car was built in 1906 and operated here in the pacific northwest.
Wife and I went to check out the diner we met the owner Vicki showed her the old rail car tag, she was amazed and we had a great lunch,
the diner was very impressive it feels like you've traveled back in time. We still don't know exactly what part of the car it came from.
We framed it and will be donating to Vicky our host at Knights Diner.

So, we reunited a piece lost more than 100 years ago as the train passed over a now gone bridge, back to where it belongs.

In other news I did find my 1st Washington silver quarter, plus 2 Mercs 1 Rosy and one Indian Head all in one day. (XP Deus- bottlecap prgm )


The wife struggled with her Gold Bug but has already found another gold ring this season, which is still young.

 

[Blind Squirrel]

Howdy robez509--

Excellent finds! Congratulations to both you and your wife. It's really neat to find items that have local history attached to them. It looks like that RR item found its way home. Good job! Best of luck and...

Happy Hunting!
Blind Squirrel

 

[mudpuppy]

All outstanding and wonderful finds! Thats really cool about the RR thing...Great adventure!
Mud

 

[IBdiggin]

Wow!!! What a priceless experience-----Many more to ya------------IB

 

[jim tn]

Excellent hunting research and tale. Achieving the end results of an interesting recovery is what makes this hobby so exciting. Good job to you and your wife. HH jim tn

 

[robez509]

Thanks guys, part of the fun is posting our finds on this forum and getting constructive insight.

Good luck and happy hunting!!

Here's a shot of the old bridge as it used to stand.

 

[MattBullSummerville]

That is one of the best stories I have read on here is a while. So cool to reunite the tag with the train car.
HH
Matt

 

[Goldstrike]

Very cool finds! It's so much more interesting when the finder/detectorist does research as you did and to connect the find to a story and to get the item back to the owner or where it should belong is icing on the cake If we did not do what we do i.e. metal detecting, so much history would be lost forever!!!

 

[greenwoodhunter1]

The gold bug is a great detector she got a ring and hard to find in a spot like that xp and gold bugpro two great detecters
Great finds and story