Ghost Town Keeps It's Secrets

[William-NM]

Got a few hours in at the ghost town Sunday. Mighty trashy, but found an old axe head that I'm happy with. Couldn't buy an old coin, it's either been pounded or they're hiding under all the iron. Just a few 60's and up hunter drops, the remains of a souvenir spoon of the Battleship Maine, sunk in Havana Harbor in 1898 during the Spanish-American war, a nice hand wrought nail and a long iron buckboard (?) spring or leaf spring & one little white marble. Saw another detectorist, gave him a friendly hi, but he didn't seem interested, so just let him mosey on up the ravine (I guess he was prospecting...). Kind of a meager day, but 70 degrees and had a great time up there.

 

[John-Edmonton]

You should make a spoon ring out of it. That would be a real cool ring. Great hunt .......keep them coming Bill!

 

[Sailorman]

That's a cool find in that spoon. I think a ring would be pretty cool!

 

[Tom]

n/t

 

[William-NM]

Thanks, guys! Yep, that spoon would make a good ring - I certainly won't be eating soup with it!!

 

[Eric in RI]

Sweet digs man! How old do you think that Axe head is? It loolks ancient!

 

[William-NM]

My guess is that it's mld 1800s - there was a lot of pioneer activity up there before the mine bought up most of the land for the mineral rights & provide housing for their employees. Those guys worked really hard. The fence posts they used were axe-cut Juniper (the local equivalent of Cedar) - lasts forever, but like chopping rock!

 

[GIGS Is 90X]

Found some info about your spoon.

Sigsbee, Charles Dwight ˈsigzbē (1845-1923) Union naval officer, born in New York. Sigsbee graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in1863, in the middle of the Civil War. He was assigned to a series of squadron ships and performed capably in the battle of Mobile Bay (1864). He taught at Annapolis from 1869 to 1871 and became an expert in marine science, charting the ocean floor and performing coastal surveys. He discovered the deepest spot in the Gulf of Mexico, which was named the Sigsbee Deep in his honor, and invented technology for naval exploration. In 1897 he was promoted to captain and given command of the USS Maine. The ship was anchored at Havana Harbor, as a show of strength as relations between the United States and Spain deteriorated, and on February 15, 1898, it was rocked by an explosion that killed 260 men, although Sigsbee escaped unharmed. The ship sank, and

 

[William-NM]

Thanks, Gigs! I saved your info in a file with the photo in my MD finds folder. He was a pretty interesting guy - he may become a spoon ring at some point, though I'd have to re-plate the spoon, as it's mostly down to copper.
Thanks, again!

 

[Marc-Montana]

Amazing the amount of history attached to that old spoon. It's a collector's item for sure. It would be worth a lot to someone that collects rustic artifacts. I like it a lot!