I Find the Strangest Things in my Backyard

[DavidGC]

Digging in the backyard of my home in northeast Vermont -- As far as I know, the land had always been pasture until my home was built on it about 25 years ago. We abut a very old cemetery (goes back to early 1800s -- there might even be a late 1700s grave or two in there). Lots of antique horseshoeing nails, so someone was shoeing horses here (maybe used as a horse coral at one time). I have found a couple of flat buttons and an 1822 large cent here, so I know people were here and losing stuff. In fact, I wonder if folks used to park their buggies along the property line when going to the cemetery.

I found my first intact horseshoe today. I also found this:
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It's a hub cap from the wire wheel on a Chandler Automobile -- circa 1913 - 1928. It was made by the Wire Wheel Corporation of America. It's about 3 - inches across. Too bad it's a little beat up, but it sure is a strange thing to pull out of a field in rural Vermont.

[Full Metal Digger]

That's pretty cool and a lost piece of Americana for sure! I would be hitting those buggy parking spots pretty hard though! Gotta be some coins there from folks getting in and out of the buggies. HH, Dave.

[Bell-Two]

What a neat find, back in those days it was not unusual for some one to drive out in a field.

[GA1dad]

Awesome piece of history!!

[OxShoeDrew]

It's weird we dig more ox related stuff than horse. I'll dig maybe 20 oxshoes for every horse shoe. I guess the shape of ox shoes sounds better, and they're prb older, so deeper with more halo. Just my guess though.
Nice relic you found, it's fun to date relics!

[BTV Digger]

Nice early find David, and great to have a hunting locale right out your front door. Shoot me an email and we can line up a date to do some hunting together as we did last year.

John

[DavidGC]

Here's a few more things I found in my backyard yesterday:

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My first Ox knob (a pretty small one, too) and my third flat button.
The buckle looks like it was off of some horse tack

Can any button experts tell anything about it?

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[GA1dad]

Okay,, this time I'm playing closer attention just in case I find a whatzit again. LOL

[del]

David your button looks like a tombac the shank is the confusing part , as I've seen that type of shank on newer type buttons (1810ish) but I've also seen them on older types as well. Generally speaking tombacs can range in age from the mid 1700's to about 1810. These buttons can be very ugly (brownish greens when you fist dig them ) but usually clean up to nice shiny gun silvery greys . I usually use some diluted CLR and a soft brass brush under a running faucet.

Dan

[DavidGC]

Thanks, Dan. Very interesting.
Unfortunately, I had a problem with my electrolysis set up and the button crumbled into pieces. :(

[SeabeeRon]

Nice David! Your yard is virtual history museum!!