JimW
04-15-2007, 11:40 AM
Given my long-time passion for treasure hunting, I will be helping out as one of the hosts of this forum. While I am sure there will be lots of good discussion about geocaching and letterboxing in this forum, I hope to also generate some really great discussion of other treasure hunting adventures around the American West, including metal detecting and gold prospecting adventures.
Back in the 1970's when I was a kid growing up in Michigan, Mr. Warner lived across the street from my house. Mr. Warner was probably in his late 40's to early 50's, but to my brother and I, he was the "old man" who was always off deer hunting, snow mobiling, visiting his cabin "up north," and metal detecting. One day my mom told my brother and I to go across the street and see Mr. Warner's treasure. Reluctantly, my brother and I walked across the cul-de-sac to see the gruff, pipe smoking Mr. Warner and learn about his treasure.
Ok, if you've seen the movie National Treasure, there's a scene at the end where the characters enter into a huge room loaded with every kind of treasure imaginable. While Mr. Warner's "treasure horde" was not quite as extravagant, there is no doubt that my brother's and my eyes were popping out of our heads when we saw the boxes of coins, rings, other jewelry items, and relics that Mr. Warner had found over many years of metal detecting. We were HOOKED!
After bugging our mom incessantly, she bought us our own metal detector, and thus began our treasure hunting adventures. Mr. Warner was kind and patient enough to take us out with him on many journeys around Bay City, Michigan, and even took us "up north" to a Michigan ghost town.
Here is a picture of my brother and I (I'm on the right) at one of the locations Mr. Warner took us to...
http://i58.photobucket.com/albums/g264/jwirth66/medding2.jpg
My brother and I enjoyed many years metal detecting together, but then other things like goofing with friends, highschool, summer jobs, etc., resulted in the metal detector settling into a corner of the garage for many years to follow.
Fast forward to the mid 1990's. Reminiscing about my childhood and the memories of metal detecting with my brother Tim and Mr. Warner rekindled a flame that had been dormant for far too long. I bought myself a new metal detector and rediscovered the thrill of dreaming about and finding treasure, while being able to explore some really neat and historic places in and around the San Francisco Bay Area.
Now that I am well armed with some of the latest and greatest metal detectors that today's technology has to offer, I will be posting some of my stories of treasure hunting adventures around the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond.
http://i58.photobucket.com/albums/g264/jwirth66/IMG_6045.jpg
As we go forward, I hope to help turn some newbies on to this great hobby. I also hope to hear from some of you veterans and see pictures of the locations you are visiting and the treasures you are finding.
Now, off to find that hidden cache of coins...
Back in the 1970's when I was a kid growing up in Michigan, Mr. Warner lived across the street from my house. Mr. Warner was probably in his late 40's to early 50's, but to my brother and I, he was the "old man" who was always off deer hunting, snow mobiling, visiting his cabin "up north," and metal detecting. One day my mom told my brother and I to go across the street and see Mr. Warner's treasure. Reluctantly, my brother and I walked across the cul-de-sac to see the gruff, pipe smoking Mr. Warner and learn about his treasure.
Ok, if you've seen the movie National Treasure, there's a scene at the end where the characters enter into a huge room loaded with every kind of treasure imaginable. While Mr. Warner's "treasure horde" was not quite as extravagant, there is no doubt that my brother's and my eyes were popping out of our heads when we saw the boxes of coins, rings, other jewelry items, and relics that Mr. Warner had found over many years of metal detecting. We were HOOKED!
After bugging our mom incessantly, she bought us our own metal detector, and thus began our treasure hunting adventures. Mr. Warner was kind and patient enough to take us out with him on many journeys around Bay City, Michigan, and even took us "up north" to a Michigan ghost town.
Here is a picture of my brother and I (I'm on the right) at one of the locations Mr. Warner took us to...
http://i58.photobucket.com/albums/g264/jwirth66/medding2.jpg
My brother and I enjoyed many years metal detecting together, but then other things like goofing with friends, highschool, summer jobs, etc., resulted in the metal detector settling into a corner of the garage for many years to follow.
Fast forward to the mid 1990's. Reminiscing about my childhood and the memories of metal detecting with my brother Tim and Mr. Warner rekindled a flame that had been dormant for far too long. I bought myself a new metal detector and rediscovered the thrill of dreaming about and finding treasure, while being able to explore some really neat and historic places in and around the San Francisco Bay Area.
Now that I am well armed with some of the latest and greatest metal detectors that today's technology has to offer, I will be posting some of my stories of treasure hunting adventures around the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond.
http://i58.photobucket.com/albums/g264/jwirth66/IMG_6045.jpg
As we go forward, I hope to help turn some newbies on to this great hobby. I also hope to hear from some of you veterans and see pictures of the locations you are visiting and the treasures you are finding.
Now, off to find that hidden cache of coins...