Amazing What You Can Find On An Abandoned Road!

[William-NM]

My research found that what was once a busy road was re-routed and the old route is no longer used. I decided to give it a try yesterday. It passed near Fort Bayard, which was active from 1866 - 1899, and is now a Military Medical Center and historic site. So I figured that there had been lots of military and other early traffic. The road had been paved at some point, but has nearly disintegrated. Hiking in a ways, about 2-3 miles from the fort, I noticed a clearing and did some random checking. I got a 90s signal and decided to dig. Lo and behold, out came a nice Great Seal General Service button! That got my attention, so I started circling around and found a total of 10, 5 larger (about 7/8") and 5 smaller (about 5/8"). Did some circling around the area, finding signs of an early homesite or ranch - no structure, but lots of ranch wire, fencing tacks, and a few shells, see pics.

The mystery is that the buttons are all by the C. Kenyon Co of New York. The Great Seal pattern was used from 1902 on, and the references to the Kenyon Co. say that they produced buttons from WWI - 1930. It also says that they produced black and brass buttons, but the one I polished (because I scraped it while recovering) appears to be Copper. There were many, many Indian raids on the homesteads in the area and on Fort Bayard itself (those guys had it tough, I'm currently reading a book on the subject). So, I guess the buttons weren't the result of an Indian encounter, as things had 'settled down' by the early 1900s. Maybe a settler had been in the service and somehow dropped or tossed them there?

In any case, I have a new area to hunt, and it's BIG. Enjoy the pics and fruitful hunts to all!

p.s.Glad I got out yesterday, it's snowing today! Supposed to get up to 70 deg. by mid-week, though- that's New Mexico for 'ya.

 

[MNCoinhunter]

Wow ! They all had to have come from the same coat? Nice finds !!!

 

[26cent]

That's it William, I need to head down your way some weekend so we can hunt together.

 

[William-NM]

Any time, Buddy!

 

[John-Edmonton]

Nice! You never know what's at a location until you search it.

 

[GoGoGopher]

The latches are most likey off Military Foot Lockers...

HH,

 

[B.RATNY]

n/t

 

[William-NM]

Thanks, Guys!
GGG: Foot Lockers, huh. They're pretty small, the little one is about 5/8" x 1". The left one shows the front, the right one the back (different sizes, but same setup - the little piece of iron at the top of the right one locks the teeth closed. Thanks for the tip!

I'm looking forward to getting back out there - I feel sure that there are some nice old coins & other goodies to be had along the 3+ mile stretch and it's really nice and quiet. Next trip, I'm taking the 'heavy artillery' - the long bladed transplanting spade. There were some deep iron signals that I might ignore in other spots, but I think this stretch calls for 'relic mode' !!

 

[blade310]

Man thats great stuff William, hope you have many great finds along there!!!

 

[salmonriverhotrock]

If this is on anything but private land, you may want to check on any State or Federal Historic Preservation Acts and the Federal Antiquities Act. The consequences can be huge if caught and I know a guy up here in Idaho that went through the mill after a BLM Ranger cited him over a lead bullet saying it was from the Indian Wars. Great finds, reminds me of a stretch I detected years ago and was suprising the number of things I was finding from many years before.

 

[Paul Crecraft]

n/t

 

[Worlds Strongest Lot Lizard]

The "F" is for the Frankford Arsenal and the "R" was for rifle vs. "C" for if the shell was loaded for a carbine. The caliber should be 45-70, which was the standard military caliber when you case was loaded. The 12 is for December and 84 would be the year 1884, this would be the date the cartridge was manufactured. You can check this by the dia of the opening in the cartridge's neck. Should be tad over 11 mm. The first two years Frankford loaded the 45-70 the cases were not headstamped, which might be what your other cartridge is.

 

[William-NM]

Thank You, Thank You, Lot Lizard! I was hoping someone would help with the cartridge ID's - I have a lot to learn in that area.

 

[Worlds Strongest Lot Lizard]

Your welcome William here's some more tidbits on another of your brass cases:

Your "W.R.A. Co. on the 38-55 case stands for the Winchester Repeating Arms Company. The original cartridge was developed by the Ballard Rifle and Cartridge Co. and put in production in 1884. it was known then as the 38-55 Ballard. Winchester started loading the Mod 1894 for this cartridge that eventually became known as the 38-55 Winchester. The 38 stamped on this case in this instance stands for the rounded off dia of the bullet. to the nearest hundreth's of an inch, its was actually in the neighborhood of .3775 dia,... so it's became an undersided 38 caliber bullet, .......the 55 stands for the weight in grains of the BLACK powder pushing the 38 caliber bullet.

The WRA Co. headstamp was used by Winchester from 1866-1932, the "Co." on it was dropped from the headstamp and that dates your brass as older than 1932.

 

[William-NM]

That's great info, thank you! It helps to establish the dates when there was activity at the site. I've been looking at various satellite images of the area for clues as to where there may have been structures and got some good leads. There's something about these places that time forgot that really appeals to me.I also found some references to indian attacks in the general area, some mention landmarks (creeks) that may lead to some fruitful hunts.

 

[Caretaker me]

bet there is more there, great stuff