Wisconsin trip, pt. 1 - clouds and red ochre

[BlackX]

Headed out to Wisconsin shortly before the 4th for a little over a week. Got out most mornings for a few hours.

Everything I saved from the trip minus the better goodies that will be in close-ups:

[attachment 98398 0807_WI_bags_8314.JPG]

Holy cow, you folks there have hard soil when it's not wet! I bent one steel trowel repeatedly and broke 2 composite ones--one all at once and the other a bit at a time. I'd finally picked up a Lesche not long before the trip but couldn't take it on the plane. I ordered another one shipped out to WI on Monday for my later trips. Some wonderful storms and clouds out there though. During one storm I counted for at least 3 minutes and the longest gap between lightning strikes was about 1.5 seconds. Never did get a good shot of the lightning but here's one of some of the impressive clouds:

[attachment 98400 IMG_8261_sm.jpg]

Behind the house they're clearing land:

[attachment 98401 IMG_8267_sm.jpg]

The first morning I took a walk through that cleared land to see what I could find. Close to the house I found evidence of old trash-dumping but further up I didn't find any positive evidence of human activity. I was keeping an eye out for arrowheads, etc. but only came up with some flint-like rocks and one spot with a concentration of red ochre all in one spot except where the 'dozer had pushed some off to the side.

[attachment 98402 0807_WI_behindEKB_FeOxide_8321.JPG]

The red ochre did get me wondering about Indian activity. Did WI Indians practice vertical burials in combination with red ochre? Thought about calling an archeologist to ask about it but forgot about it. Anyone have any idea on that? The concentration was only in one spot about a foot or two across (hard to tell exactly after the 'dozer went through) and I didn't see any sign of it anywhere else in the whole field.
[attachment 98403 0807_WI_behindEKB_8320.JPG]

What are those white glass lid things? Old milk bottle lid? Other? (I remember someone posting one once but forget.) Next to the white-glass thing is a tack of some sort. On it is some sort of small spherical object with two holes in it. That stumps me.

 

[Erik in NJ]

I think the white glass disc is a seal from a Mason or Ball type jar for preserving. Nice read on your trip!

 

[BlackX]

The next morning I headed out to a place I'd found the last time I was out. (I didn't get much interesting that trip (using a Sov).) I'd talked to a nice lady at the train depot and she helped me track down this place where there used to be a church/school but now the only evidence is a graveyard.

[attachment 98405 IMG_8255_sm.JPG]

After getting temporarily lost a few times, I found it again and went to gear up. This place has obviously been used as a partying spot as smashed aluminum beer cans and pull tabs are pretty thick on and in the ground in the upper area. Didn't get much that day because I'd left all my digging tools behind! Except for the spare composite trowel. Picked up a stick out of the woods but that wasn't much help so gave up on that. I think I only dug one object and started to dig two things that I left in the holes since my trowel was breaking bit by bit, no matter how carefully i tried to dig. The heat and the **** mosquitoes didn't help much. Went back the next(?) day with digging tools. They really are quite helpful. Also brought bug dope.

Tried to work the treeline and in to the woods a bit thinking perhaps previous detectorists weren't as likely to have been there. After too many cans and can slaw I finally found what I think is the top reflector from a lantern but, even with the bug spray, the skeeters were so thick they drove me out. Kept flying in my eyes and ears. So I went back and dug up the two objects I'd left last time, which turned out to be a doohickey and a nice key! (Which I think I broke in trying to get it out of the rock-hard clay soil. ) Then worked my way around the front until I hit a smashed modern aluminum can at about 10-12" so then headed down below the graves by the fenceline. (After thinking about it afterwards, I'm pretty sure that whole place has been reworked except for where the graves are.) Dug up this thing. Some kind of button? Medicine bottle lid? ???

[attachment 98408 0807WI_Q-snap-lid_obverse_8306.JPG]

After I'd covering that area fairly well while avoiding the grave areas, I picked up the detector and went back up top. Not too much later I got yet another pull-tab sound and started to keep going. But a few swings later something made me go back and dig it. I'm glad I did. My first "fat" Indian Head! 1863. It hits at 8-9 Fer | 12-13 Con and was only about 4" down.

[attachment 98406 IMG_8258_sm.jpg]

[attachment 98407 0807WI_1863-IH_obverse_8301.JPG]

I may have lost some of the detail with the peroxide treatment. I'm not sure but I didn't even think about the amount of nickel content in the fatties until I'd already treated it.

The rest of the trip I kept digging signals in that same range but they were all pull-tabs, can slaw, etc.

Here's the rest of the stuff from that site:

[attachment 98411 0807_WI_churchschoolgrvyrd_8315.JPG]

Anyone have any idea what the large doohickeys are?

I found some other things that I think are kind of neat on the trip but I'm overdue to hit the sack so that will have to wait until tomorrow.

 

[Chris(SoCenWI)]

Perhaps next time you get to WI we can get together. When the ground is that hard and mosquitos that bad I quit until the fall. No way can dig lawns when that dry.

Nice fatty.

Chris

 

[BlackX]

I'd even lost track of what day it was and thought it was Wed. on Thu. until late in the afternoon.

I can see what you mean about digging lawns. The ground I could dig that first day tended to fall apart. And where I'd tried to dig those two signals with only a plastic trowel, the grass had died by the time I came back. I guess that's not too surprising considering it hadn't rained yet that day I couldn't dig deeply w/ that trowel.

 

[BlackX]

Before I'd headed back to the graveyard site, I went to the local big park. I stayed away from the ballfields and tried my luck around the edges. Since it was already hot out, I parked by some trees and got this '17 wheat a few steps from where I started.

[attachment 98425 0807WI_17-wheat_8309.JPG]

That and the '63 fatty were the only old coins I dug the whole trip. But at least I found some other things that were kinda cool. Like this brooch(?) that I dug up in an iron patch about 50 feet from the wheatie. It's thin metal, not a thick piece. The other end of the wire is loose and I didn't think it looked like it was attached anywhere else. Anyone know for sure what it is?

[attachment 98426 0807WI_Q-brooch_8303.JPG]

Spent my last detecting morning at this park too. First attempt was up the side of a shaded hill but the carpet of pulltabs and can slaw, along with ever-more-voracious mosquitoes, drove me out into the sun. Here's the rest from that park. (The middle row is mostly lead items except for the one on the left.)

[attachment 98428 0807_WI_Racetrack_8319.JPG]

On a trip back from Verona and Madison, I saw what looked like an old schoolhouse or some such on the side of one of the main roads that was now a public facility. That really perked my interest so I went back there one morning. I didn't find much so figured it had been pretty hunted out. Chris later confirmed that. After trying to hunt In the back of the building until the skeeters chased me back to the car for bug dope, I had 3 iffy signals that sounded good. I found a mangled heavy-gauge copper wire about 10-12" down in each hole. Cleaned up a bunch of a tree that had fallen in a storm and ended up around front where there were a lot more signals and pulled a couple of zincs and dug a really iffy signal that turned out to be this porcelain knob thingy.

[attachment 98429 0807_WI_CksvllCmCntr_knob_8317.JPG]

One more.

 

[BlackX]

One of the last days I went to the center of town and tried a park that looks like it's been significantly landscaped. Was surprised by the dearth of even surface coins but before too long I dug what I think is an old toy shovel. Started working my way over toward an older looking builiding trying to get away from the landscaping and, near a tree, got a signal that was jumping all over the place but had some good sounds in it. Found a silver(?) earring back right under the plug, some trash I can't remember, and a thimble in that hole.

[attachment 98434 0807WI_thimble-n-earring-back_8308.JPG]

This thing I might have found in the same hole but not sure by now. It has some sort of design on it in the center that I can barely make out. Segmented interlocked ovals/rings? It was bent a bit and, when I straightened it out, some shiny whitish metal shows where the copper plating(?) flaked off. Anyone know what this might be?

[attachment 98436 0807WI_Q-copper-butterfly-composite_8304.JPG]

Also found another white-glass seal with part of the metal still on it, what I think is part of a lantern, and a gold-plated(?) doohickey. Dug the oval copper piece pretty deep and only realized when I was taking the photos that it was probably part of a key. Wish I'd been more careful to have looked for the rest of it but I think I thought it was part of a tiny buckle then.

[attachment 98439 0807_WI_CentralPark_8316.JPG]

As I was reaching the older-building area, a police car drove up and parked within observation range. Made me a little nervous that I was going to be chased off but kept detecting. Found a fair amount of surface clad here but it was so littered with aluminum that I switched to conductive so those hits would be low-sounding and tried that for a while until it was time to go. As I walked past the police car, a policeman with a big, fancy moustache rolled his window down and asked, "how'd you do?". Turned out to be nice, friendly guy who told me his father detected that park a lot 20 years or so ago. After chatting a bit, including me asking for suggestions, I headed back for lunch.

Fini.

 

[therick]

n/t