...close to a cemetary in a ghost town. I didn't feel right about digging inside the boundaries, and skirted what remained of a fence. Got a heck of a nice signal and dug a handle no more than 6". It kinda startled me when I realized what it was, and I dropped it back in the hole and made tracks. Before that, I had dug a multitude of little square nails. <img src="/metal/html/shocked.gif" border=0 width=15 height=15 alt=":shock">
It was not uncommon in those days for blacks, criminals, and outcasts from the church to be buried outside the grounds proper. As well, according to a local historian concerning one pioneer community that I have researched, the original cemetary was trampled by cows and so rundown at the turn of the 1900's, that the community got together and refenced the plots and put the stones back up. Even then they had no idea of the original boundaries or where each stone belonged.
In another case, in London, Ontario, at the turn of the century, a local diocese made a lucradive deal on a large cemetary, and the graves were relocated. This fall, new construction on the original site turned up 50 graves that were missed during the location.
There are countless stories of small cemetaries throughout the country that have simply been developed and paved over in the last 100 years, roads widened through, housing built on top...
What was surprising for me was how close to the surface the handle that I dug was. If you figure a grave is 6', the top of a 30" casket is almost halfway. In that particular area, the bedrock is never very far below the surface, so it would not be unusual that some of those pioneer graves might be quite shallow when if they hit rock. Combined with the heaving of the ground each year with frost, there it was, just slightly below the surface and I have no doubt that many of the little nails I dug may have been from caskets.
All that aside, what real neat cane handle, maybe even the decorative end of an early billards cue that you found. Thanks for posting, Harold!
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.... does it go bump in the night? <img src="/metal/html/shocked.gif" border=0 width=15 height=15 alt=":shock">
