New site, unexpected finds

BTV Digger

BTV Digger

New member
So went to my favorite wooded park just up the road this past Friday evening to search for cellar hole #8 that up to that point I had yet to locate on several occasions in 2013/14. Did some meticulous scouting and lo' and behold I finally found it. Best part is it seems a detector has barely hit it, despite its location only 25 yards into the woods from a heavily used parking area...reason being there's no hole or well, just a slight depression that unless you were really looking wouldn't catch anyone's eye. Hunted for only 45 minutes before the rain hit but starting pulling keepers right away including: an old faucet tap, horseshoe, horse tack buckle, 1917 wheatie, Victorian-era costume jewelry ring (alas not silver), and one of my best finds of the year - A 15 cent trade token (c. 1900-1905) from a Yale Wonder Clock machine. What is that you say? Well that's what Google's for!...or you can check out a short 30 sec. video here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTdhnIbIC5w. I'll certainly be back at this site several more times, hit only 25% or so of the old yard. Thanks for reading.

John

yalewonderclocktoken.jpg
 
Yale wonder clocks are awesome!! :lol: I've never heard of such a thing. Too bad it rained...it missed us. What's on the back of that token? You'll have plenty more goodies when you get back there!
 
OxShoeDrew said:
Yale wonder clocks are awesome!! :lol: I've never heard of such a thing. Too bad it rained...it missed us. What's on the back of that token? You'll have plenty more goodies when you get back there!
Click to expand...

Thanks for the nice comments Drew. On the back it says "Clock No. 531". From some quick research it seems they made around 600-700 machines in the c. 1900-1905 era, thus dating this token to maybe 1904-1905.
 
Good job on the scouting and sniffing out that inconspicuous cellar hole John. That is a cool token! Looks like that buckle has a nice patina.
 
Nice token and ring. The only odd thing is how you found some turn of the century items there. Guessing from being near a parking area it is at an intersection of at least a new road and one old road...which those corner lots tend to be older. (That or in the middle of a street but the street changes direction dramatically right in front of the oldest house but those tend to be still standing homes). They started using concrete foundations around 1900. In other words... go back and I am sure you should be able to find some older stuff. Just being near a parking area, hope you do it discretely so no one watches you and then tells their friends or goes back on their own.
 
Great persistence on locating the elusive cellar hole. The token is pretty cool and I hope that your return trip is as productive.
 
MangoAve said:
Nice token and ring. The only odd thing is how you found some turn of the century items there. Guessing from being near a parking area it is at an intersection of at least a new road and one old road...which those corner lots tend to be older. (That or in the middle of a street but the street changes direction dramatically right in front of the oldest house but those tend to be still standing homes). They started using concrete foundations around 1900. In other words... go back and I am sure you should be able to find some older stuff. Just being near a parking area, hope you do it discretely so no one watches you and then tells their friends or goes back on their own.
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You make good points and I agree. I should have clarified that the "park" is 600 wooded acres along with a 50 acre lake, through which two old town roads used to run. They were incorporated into the public trail system in the park, and originally there were a number of old home sites along them. The park has three distinct gravel parking areas, and it was adjacent/near to one of these that I found the site. It was listed on 1857 and 1869 maps, as well as the 1915 USGS map, so I wasn't surprised to find some "newer" relics there. However, I agree...there should be some older stuff lurking.
 
Kudos on finding the site, good finds. For some odd reason I really like finding those water faucets they have a utilitarian beauty!
 
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