VOL.9 No.2                                                                                                       FEBRUARY 2004

THE SCOOP & THE BUCCANEER

SOUTHWEST MICHIGAN SEEK & SEARCH CLUB

 FIND OF THE YEAR RESULTS! TRACKING A KILLER!

A great meeting!

        While we don't have an official log book, other than our sign-up-sheet, I can un-officially say that our attendance record was shattered at the last meeting! We set a new record for January, that's for sure!

       Please keep in mind that we have many "snow-birds" within our ranks. What is a snow-bird, you ask? These folks are the very fortunate, wealthy, retired folks, who fly of to the south at the very first sign of snow. These are the members who are seldom heard from until almost June! I cannot say that I blame them; each year, as I get older, these Michigan winters seem to get longer!

       At the meeting, I counted noses twice! Both times I came up with 65 happy clubbers out and about on a cold winter's night! Once again we had a wonderful time, filled with fun, food and fellowship-- not to mention a treasure show second to none!

YEAR-IN- REVIEW CD!

         Besides Find of the Year, at the January meeting we also had our regular Find of the Month contest and it, too, had some great entries. Dan Clark has really turned the Find of the Month contest into a state-of-the-art event!

          Those of you who have been to his web site already know about our Find of the Month slide show. It is amazing! Now folks there is a new 2003 Year in Review CD! If you were at the meeting, Dan had a preview of his handiwork running on his laptop computer and it is a very professional production! I can imagine how neat it will be to look back at this CD year after year.

       Dan did an amazing job on this CD! You need get on Dan's list to get a copy of your very own! This CD has it all! There are pictures from both the spring and fall seeded hunts and even the national hunt held in Sandusky! There are 12 Find of the Month slide shows, not to mention all twelve newsletters! We are talking the on-line version of the newsletter in full color and pictures!

        And get this! There is also our Find of the Year contest done with full audio! Man, oh man, how cool is that!

      Here is another reason to get one; Dan is charging $10.00 each for the Year in Review CD and all of the proceeds are being donating to the club!

     Some call him Professor Gadget, others the Energizer Bunny. I am proud to call him my friend, but I think we should insure him-- he's way too valuable!

            Dan has asked me to advertise for one (or even better two) volunteer trainees to learn the slide show operation. We are looking for someone who could jump right in and run the equipment in the rare case that Dan is absent. Whomever it is will need his own digital camera and be able to send the photos to Dan by e-mail. (I could help with that, if needed) This will be very important for our next year's CD and Dan's monthly web site slide show.

            Finally, Dan and I agree that we cannot thank Linda Sherwood and Alan and Linda Randolph enough for all of their hard and excellent work! They have made the preparation of the Find of the Month show go much more quickly and smoothly.

       So then, if we cannot thank them enough, maybe you could help? Next time you catch up with one of these dedicated workers, say, "Thanks!"

       Speaking of Linda Sherwood, Linda was our 2003 Most Treasured Member! This was an award for her that has been long overdue! I had expected her to received this award last year, then to my surprise they gave it to me. I am really happy to see Linda receive this award, it is something that she is very deserving of! She is indeed such a great help to the club in so many ways! Thank you, Linda!

FIND OF THE YEAR!
View Dan's Find of the Year slide show click here!

One of the meeting's highlights was our Find of the Year contest. And we had some really great stuff to vote on!

1. Rare Civil War Store Card                 By: Don Benedict, Jr

2. Rare 1855 Seated Liberty 25¢                   By: Mike Walker

 3. 2-14K Gold Catholic Pendants                       By: Ann Falk

4. Rare Silver Martian Ring   By: Space Captain Ron Jenner

 5. 1600's Spanish Silver Cob                      By: John Archbold

6. Diamond & Ruby Ring                            By: Mike Berghuis

 7. Rare 1897-S Barber Half Dollar        By: Don Benedict, Sr

All of these items received votes-- in fact, Ron voted for his twice! I love to pick on Ron because I love to hear his laugh!

The first and second place entries were only three votes apart. Our winner was the beautiful 14-K yellow gold ring with a ½ carat diamond and ½ carat ruby! This beautiful ring was known to be lost somewhere on a large section of land, consisting of several acres. The ring had great sentimental value and was a 3rd generation heirloom. The best part of the story is that Mike Burghuis returned this precious ring to its rightful owner!
Nice job, Mike!

Second Place went to Mike Walker's 1855 Seated Liberty Quarter and only a few votes separated the remaining entries. As far back as I can recall, this was the closest Find of the Year voting totals ever! Thanks to each one of you who entered these great items!

                   Another guy who has been working hard on our behalf is Henry Hoadley. He has taken on the task of bringing our hundreds of name tags up to date! Henry has most of the tags done and they were put into service at the January meeting.

        Not all of the tags were finished yet because Henry did not have a complete listing and that was my fault as much as anyone's. So, at the last meeting, Henry started a sign-up-sheet used to create a list of name tags he has yet to do. I must say, these tags are really beautiful!

      All of Henry's hard work is useless if we don't wear the tags! And please don't assume that everybody knows your name. Just because the guy I am talking to looks like John Dudley doesn't mean he is! When you get a bunch of us old-timers with trifocals on, John could pass for almost anyone on the cheerleading squad!

      And one more thought, please remove your name tag and leave it at the clubhouse (don't wear it home). That way it won't get lost. On second thought, if you think you might get lost on the way home, perhaps you should wear it!

      No, it's better to leave it. Besides those folks at home probably shouldn't know who you really are anyway.

                 It is rare to find bad news in our newsletters. But newsletters are all about sharing the news, good or bad, with all of our members.

      After many years as an F.M.D.A.C. club, and one of the largest member clubs at that, some have come to question the value of continuing with the F.M.D.A.C. I believe this is born out of frustration.

       I can understand this frustration! Almost monthly we see more and more areas made to be 'off-limits' to our hobby and we ask, "Who will step in to defend us?" Much of the time we are being 'shut out' of areas without valid reasons. It is really frustrating when it is one or a handful of criminals with metal detectors who make us all look bad.

      It has occurred to some of our board, and they have asked, "Wasn't the F.M.D.A.C. to be our defender?"

      Of course, I reminded them of last year's blitz on Lansing when the F.M.D.A.C. put together a brilliant strategy to flood the Michigan law makers with faxes, e-mail, phone calls and letters. And it was very effective! We heard it straight from the Michigan D.N.R.'s top brass that, had it not been for theses efforts, the state had already decided to stop detector use on ALL STATE LAND! That victory alone was worth every penny I have ever paid into the Federation.

       There were many other victories besides! The members of the F.M.D.A.C. rallied together with the help of White's Electronics to help with sign language interpreters at the national convention. I cannot begin to tell you how much that meant to me! And I can hear! Just think what it meant to Steve, Rick, and John!

     The F.M.D.A.C. helped in opening Army Corps of Engineers lands to some detecting. Most states may not see much benefit in this, but it sure had an impact on those who hunt in Michigan's Upper Peninsula! Hunting spots in the U.P. are scarce! This is because about two thirds of the land is National Forest. I'm not quite sure where we stand with hunting the Army Corps lands in Michigan today, but you still have to give the victory to the Federation.

          I know that you are frustrated, but the answer isn't to fragment the Federation buy starting up off-shoots, thereby watering down the treasure hunter's strength.

     Some like to compare the Federation to the N.R.A., with all of its power and influence. Clearly the F.M.D.A.C. does not have the membership numbers of the N.R.A. and, if it just splits over and over again, it never will. If we say that we are not getting much out of the F.M.D.A.C., it's because we haven't put much into it.

      The Federation needs tough leadership who will be strong enough to admit that a $5.00 per year membership simply isn't enough! A $5.00 per year dues is fine if the F.M.D.A.C. wants to continue as a social club. However, if the Federation wants to fight in the political realm, it will need money-- money to buy some real professional talent, and that isn't cheap. Frankly I don't ever see that happening.

              Maybe this should have also been under the "Bad News" banner. The Federation wants to get all of their member clubs to pay their yearly dues by the first of the year. That presents a conflict with our club's normal dues collection schedule and, as you can see, we are late with our mailing.

      Many other things have changed with the way the Federation keeps track of its members. In the past, we just sent a check along with a request for let's say '100' memberships, to which they would respond by sending 100 blank, paper membership cards. Today the cards are all filled out and are very nice, colorful plastic cards.

     This means more paperwork for us, but there are many other reasons it's worth the trouble.

       Well, as we try to move the club closer to the Federation's due date next year, and to get our paperwork and money in that is now 'past due,' we must have your club dues paid by the start of this meeting.

Now get this and read slowly, If your dues are not paid, you cannot participate in any member privileges. . like Find of the Month. I am talking about starting at this meeting. Also this will be your last newsletter. We must send our total list in right after this meeting.
 Please get your dues in soon!

              Our spring seeded hunt is already making the newsletter!

        Already we picked a date which is Sunday, May 23rd. I can hardly wait! The location will be at Tom and Jackie Latterner's country estate-- which is perfect for the hunt! Tom even tells me that there will be camping on the grounds for your RV or tent! And get this, for the campers, on Saturday afternoon, there will be a treasure hunting trip adventure to a nearby treasure spot! After we return, that evening a big bonfire is planned where we can swap stories, singe a weiner or melt a marshmallow or two!

But wait! It gets even better! I have talked to Captain Gary Nicholls, and once again this year our friends Gary and Vicki are donating an all day charter fishing trip on beautiful Lake Michigan for a lucky member and three of his friends. We will give you more details later, but the value of this incredible prize is over $500.00!

Thanks, Gary and Vicki!

How about you? We will be looking for prize donations from our hunters --why not start looking for neat ideas now! What a club!

        A few weeks back, on a Monday, my long time friend, Deputy Richard Brooks, from the Allegan County Sheriff's Office, stopped in to my shop. He was driving a fully-marked police cruiser and came in carrying his clip-board. He had a very serious look about him, not the usual friendly smile, which I have become so used to. Usually the first thing Dick says is "Hi, Al!"

    Not this time. The first thing out of his mouth was, "Al, we have a problem!"

    It doesn't seem fair that I should have to feel my heart jump into my throat when someone in a uniform says something like that! But sadly, I have some troublesome family members, two of whom are my own children. They are not complete strangers to the police--- as much as I hate to admit it.

    Then, there are my grandmother's renters-- they can sometimes spell trouble! Normally my mother takes care of these rental problems, but she is in Florida now. Then they can become my problem! It seems like every winter at least one of these old houses has been ending up on the news!

    Two winters back, the house that was my great, great grandfather's was burned to the ground by the stupidity of the renters who were running a meth lab in it. A couple years before that, another country house was ransacked and the renters stole the aluminum siding. They tore it off to sell for drug money! So what could it be this time? All of this stuff raced through my mind in an instant.

    Oh boy! Was I relieved to learn that it was only a murder--- did I hear that right? --- A MURDER!!? "That's right, Al. We need some help finding a bullet that is evidence in a murder investigation," Dick said.

    Why do I always think of Batman's trusted friend, 'Commissioner Gordon,' of the famous Gotham City Police Department, when I am asked to, 'call in some help?' If I only had a powerful spotlight to project a huge image of a 'metal detector' (in lieu of a bat) on the moon, to alert everyone that help is needed. That way I wouldn't have to worry about forgetting to call someone as I make those very important contacts.

    I sent out about 50 e-mails, and made a several phone calls, and was able to round up about a dozen guys. Tuesday we went out into the Allegan Forest looking for evidence, the only evidence in a terrible murder case! One small bullet was in a great big state forest-- a forest we were told by the D.N.R. that is 'off limits' to metal detectors! Oh, how I hoped they would drive by and see us!

    The victim's background sounded very questionable (I dare say no more), making motives numerous. Someone had knocked on his door and, when he answered, they stuck a gun in his face and pulled the trigger! The blast put an end to his troubles (or trouble making, if that was the case), but the shooter left no evidence at the scene---- except that single bullet.

    The autopsy showed that the bullet passed along the roof of his mouth and out the back of his neck. In his neck tissue, they found a small piece of thin copper. Then the bullet passed through the mobile home's interior paneling right near the ceiling, then passed through a tiny amount of fiberglass insulation. Finally the projectile ripped through the aluminum siding on the outside. . . and it was still climbing.

When we arrived at the crime scene, one of the officers placed a straight rod into the bullet hole in the wall, so that we could see the trajectory, or upward angle of the bullet's path. Just outside the wall, and in the direction the bullet was heading, stood a big, spindly tree. At first we thought the bullet may have slowed down enough to bounce off the tree and then drop to the ground. So right around the base of the tree is where I started to detect. It was then that we realized we were in big trouble! My detector was going off everywhere! The whole area was loaded with small metal trash!

Picture shows:
Taken from the road looking across the plowed parking area. Mobile home is in the back ground. Club member Mark Sherwood bravely checks the tree with his detector for the bullet (he is at the top of the ladder!). Tom Latterner bends over to check a target that I just found with his pin-pointer, while Deputy Brooks (right) and another deputy look on.

 
      If the bullet somehow managed to get past the tree, yet even slightly grazed a small twig or branch, it could have been sent off in an entirely different direction than we thought, quite possibly deep into the State Forest.

    About 150 feet from the trailer was a gravel country road. Between the tree and the road was a parking area. You see, the victim was the watchman for this facility which, of all things, is a shooting range for a gun club! And to think we were looking for a bullet at a shooting range! Fortunately, the people using the range are shooting into the opposite direction as our killer-- at least we hoped!

    Some of our hunters felt that the bullet cleared the road and was somewhere deep in the forest, so off they tramped deep into the woods. Where to start hunting was anyone's guess.

    The detectives felt that the bullet was traveling at a nearly full speed, and had not slowed down to tumbling speed, when it exited the trailer.

    Maybe I have watched Forensic Files, one of my wife's favorite shows, too much! When I saw the outside aluminum, I had to disagree with them. Having grown up around this 'trailer aluminum' all my life at Dad's RV business, I know how easy it is to puncture this thin, soft, metal. The thin aluminum would do little to slow the speed of the bullet. Also, this thin, soft metal would easily be punctured by the bullet. If the bullet was traveling even at half speed, it would leave a clean hole in the metal without tearing. Well, the aluminum was clearly torn, meaning the bullet had been slowed a great deal. I felt sure that it wasn't deep in the woods.

    Sadly, the parking lot had been plowed of snow shortly after the shooting. This may have been done by someone with good intentions, perhaps by someone wanting to make the detective's parking during the investigation a little easier. As we searched this freshly plowed area, we got dozens of likely hits, but because of the plowing, the ground was frozen hard as a rock! This made our job very difficult! Great care had to be taken expose the targets. We needed to avoid contact with the bullet, if at all possible. With the frozen ground, we had to chip our way through the hard ice.

    One of the ways we used to eliminate as many targets as possible, was by using detectors with accurate target-depth readouts. The target we were looking for, was not likely to be more than a couple inches deep, and more likely it would be on the surface of the frozen ground. Of course, those guys searching in the woods had four to five inches of snow to deal with, as well as a heavy layer of last season's leaves. Nobody said this was going to be easy!

    Tom Latterner had his Periscope-brand pin-pointer with him, which came in very handy for checking the depth and overall size of the targets embedded in the ice. Yellow flags were placed at every target having the greatest potential of being what we were looking for.

    By the time I had slowly worked my way away from the mobile home and had started working the road, Gene Carruthers had already scanned a large portion of it. Gene was about 30 feet from me, detecting near the middle of the west lane, on the mobile home side of the road, when he got a hit from a near-surface target frozen into the gravel.

Tom Latterner watches as one of the deputies checks out a target. Deputy Dick Brooks watches as Don Benedict, Jr snaps a photo.

    Gene called one of the detectives over to have a look at his find, which was barely visible, yet near the surface. The detectives noticed a fine vein-like thread of copper around what looked like a piece of gray-colored chewing gum. Right away they seemed very hopeful about this target! Soon a couple of the deputies were checking it out and I wondered what the excitement was about. As I walked over to see what Gene had found, Dick Brooks said, "Al, run your detector over this and see what you think."

    I was running a new Whites MXT in the relic hunting mode, which was designed for battlefield hunting, and this target made the detector scream! Together we looked down at the detector's target ID meter, and it said, "BULLET!"

    After the area was measured and photographed, the detectives carefully removed the bullet from the roadbed. It was indeed a copper-jacketed bullet, just as suspected it would be. The bullet's last few feet of travel was provided by the courtesy of a county snow plow. The plow, tumbling the bullet along with the snow, did little to damage it. We just hope the lab work will tell some more of the story--- and who knows? Maybe it can point to a killer!

Here are the Find of the Month results for January!

Coin finds!

1. 1874 Indian Head Penny!                                  By: Mike Walker

2. 3 Indian Head Cents 1889,1890,1890!                    By: Ann Falk

3. 1838 Half Dime!                                                        By: Ron Falk

4. 1865 Indian Head Cent!                                 By: John Archbald

5. 1911-D Wheat Cent!                                             By: Rick Burch

Should I report on who took second and third place? Well, there was a second and third place, but that's it! 98% of the vote went to out first place winner! Our winner was Ron Falk's beautiful 1838 Half Dime!
Great find, Ron!

1. Antique Gent's Cuff Link                             By: Mike Walker

2. Union High School Class Ring                      By: Keith Payne

3. Antique Pocket Watch                                        By: Ann Falk

4. Antique 9 Glass Stone Ring                                By: Ron Falk

5. Antique Earring                                               By: Rick Burch

6. 14-K Gold Anklet Chain                         By: Linda Randolph

7. Gold Plated Child's Ring                                 By: Ron Jenner

It was easy to see that our jewelry finders have been forced out of the water by Old Man Winter! But that there were any jewelry finds at all is amazing!

Our winner was Ann Falk's very old pocket watch! Right behind her, by only a couple votes, in second place was Linda Randolph's gold anklet chain! Great job, gals!

1.1¢ Short Leaf Lumber Token 1908                   By: Steve Jellison

2. CLK & CO Tool Tag                                   By: Don Benedict Jr.

3. Alexander Fleming Token                                   By: Rick Burch

4. South Bend IN Bus Token                                        By: Ron Falk

      Steve Jellison was our winner with his dated 1908 Short Leaf Lumber Company Token, good for 1¢! Steve's find is from Arkansas. That is where Steve found it while on a trip with Rick Burch to visit our friend, and fellow club member, Arthur Dale Harris in Little Rock. Steve had a large picture display showing their adventure. It was great!

5. Old Printing Plate                                   By: Bob McDougall

6. Old Iron Cooking Pan                                    By: Rick Burch

Steve Jellison was our winner again with a Starr bullet. This was another item found during his trip to Arkansas. This item was found at a Civil War camp site!

1. E.R. Durkee Sauce Bottle                            By: Steve Jellison

2. Handmade Coin Ring                              By: Don Benedict,Sr

3. Masonic Jewel Watch Fob                    By: Brian Crittendon

4. 14-K Gold Necklace                                           By: John Wise

5. 1916 Canada Large Cent                              By: Mike Walker

6. Twisted Handle Pickle Fork                          By: Carol Firlik

7. Silver Bracelet                                                      By: Ann Falk

8. Embossed Iron Bar                                       By: Erik Mitchell

9. Old Sadd Iron                                                    By: Rick Burch

10. 1927 Motor Vehicle Rulebook               By: Bob MacDougall

    Don Benedict, Sr was our winner! Don proudly displayed a coin ring made for him by his son, Don, Jr. The ring was made from a 1935 Walking Liberty Half. He did a beautiful job! Maybe we should raise the price for 1935 half dollars in our value guide--- they just became more scarce! Nice job, Dons!

SEE YOU AT THE MEETING ON FEBRUARY 17th, MEETING STARTS AT 7:00 SHARP!

RETURN TO THE MANY FACES OF TREASURE HUNTING