Dirt-Fishing

While following a hunch trying to discover a 1600’s Indian fort I traveled along a logging trail through he woods swinging my Minelab SE looking for clues. I had spent the better part of two hours without so much as a signal. Criss-crossing the woods in no particular pattern had always proven a reliable way to find some signals and start a more defined search pattern in that area. I decided to remove the little discrimination that I was using. Upon doing so I found an old rusted shovel and some fairly new trash. Good luck struck when I discovered a musket ball not far off the logging trail. I started a search pattern by going clock wise around the musket ball, expanding and overlapping my search area. Coming upon a slight rise in the terrain I received a rusty metal signal. The flat tone was all too familiar with a rusty can or rusty ox shoe. I evaluated the tone, depth, and the location and decided it was probably an ox shoe and worth digging. About 5 inches down I found a rusty can. I was disappointed. But since I had revealed the can there was no need in filling it back in so I removed the can and put it in my pouch. I looked into the hole left by removing the can and noticed a bottle top with a cork in it. I pulled on it. It did not budge, telling me it was a large piece. I dug around the bottle and discovered it was whole! It is not often that these buried bottles are intact. Wiping the brown bottle off I noticed it was ¾ full of liquid. I carefully placed it aside and re-examined the hole. In the bottom was anther rusty can or bucket. I carefully removed the dirt surrounding the rusty area and pulled a piece of the rusted metal out. Down in the hole was the top and handle of clay jug with a cork in it! I excitedly dug further around the object. The hole now being 2 feet deep and not less than 2 feet across gave up another clay jug similar to the first. “Selters Nassau” was engraved on the side of the clay with a picture of a bird of some sort. These jugs were heavy and upon shacking them I realized that they were full of liquid. I set the jugs aside with the bottle and searched the bottom of the hole (now about 3 feet deep) for any signs of further finds. I received no signals and proceeded to fill the large hole. Having filled my pouch with rusted steel and my arms with bottles I trekked the ¾ mile out of the woods and back to my car. Satisfied with the intriguing finds I went home.

Once inside the corks started drying out rapidly. I lit a candle and dribbled wax over the clay jugs hoping to preserve the delicate corks. The brown glass bottle’s cork came out with little effort. One sniff of the contents told me it was whiskey of some sort! It was then I realized I had found someone’s booze stash from by-gone days. The clay jugs dated in the mid-late 1800s. This whiskey was buried ~150 years ago! What an exciting find! Now to plan my return to the now named “Whiskey Hill”.