Hunting small yards can be a good thing if they are on a battlefield...

[jbow]

The battle of Peachtree Creek in Atlanta was mostly fought between Peachtree Creek and I-75 much of the hottest fighting being along what is now Collier Rd. I own a pest control company and have quite a few customers in that area. I got permission to hunt a really small yard between Northside Drive and Tanyard Creek Park. The yard can't be much more than 2,00 sq ft total. I found, so far, 15 minnies, and a couple of iron rings. It being someones lawn I am not digging everything, not yet anyway. Last week, when I was there I got a signal that sounded and read like a quarter and I almost didn't dig it because it didn't read much depth and I didn't think to check the size. Anyway I dug it anyway and was I ever surprised. It is a large bracelet. With jewels all around it. It looks old and is hollow I think. It is about as big around as someone's little finger and the jewels look to be emeralds, rubies, and sapphires, with swirls of some white inlay at places. It four large emerald cabs, about 3/8" long. The rubies and sapphires are smaller. I cleaned it just a little and it began to turn greenish as it dried so I wrapped it in two moist paper towels and put it in a ziplock bag.
I will take some pictures later and post them before I clean it. I'd like some advice on cleaning it. I DO NOT want to mess it up. I bought some metal cleaner that claims to be safe for brass, gold, silver, bronze, etc. Just not good for stainless steel.

I'll have pics in a few hours I hope.

Got to love the ET.

I'll take pics of all my recent finds while i'm at it and post them too.

I am guessing that if this bracelet is as old as it looks, it was probably something that was looted by a yankee because they were on this part of the battlefield and it was Collier land. The Collier plantation was about a mile down Collier Rd, across from Piedmont hospital. Their mill was on the creek maybe 200 yds away from where I found it so.. I reckon i'll never know for sure where it came from.

Julien

 

[D&P-OR]

jbow----By all means--take that bracelet to a REPUTABLE jeweler before you do ANYTHING with it.---He can give you an idea of value of it (if not age) & advise you on a safe cleaning procedure for it.----How you been doin ole buddy?---We finally got back from the SW a short time ago.---Got a book you might be interested in reading--you gotta send it back though!! -------Del

 

[jbow]

That''s a good idea. I don't know any reputable jewelers around here. I am going to visit my parents this weekend and I know one there. Whether or not they will know anything about, well... I guess i'll find out.

Thanks,

Julien

 

[jbow]

I will ask before doing anymore cleaning... There are six of the green stones. I hope they are emeralds. They look a lot like the emeralds that come out of NC...

[attachment 128011 IMG_5190800x600.jpg][attachment 128012 IMG_5191800x600.jpg][attachment 128013 IMG_5192800x600.jpg][attachment 128014 IMG_5194800x600.jpg][attachment 128015 IMG_5196800x600.jpg]

J

 

[edjcox]

You might have an american indian artifact there. The stones look a lot like Torquise..

 

[jbow]

Maybe but they don't look as much like turquoise in person. They are more crystalline than turquoise that I have seen and the rubies, if they are, are faceted. It does have an Indian look with the swirlies though. I'll be finding out.

Thanks for the tip. I will keep that in mind when asking about it. I know the person at the Atlanta Historical Society who is the foremost Cherokee expert in the area, if not the world.

Since you brought up the Native American i'll add a little about the history of the Cherokee in this area. Most people have heard of the "Trail of Tears" but not many know what actually happened. It was a truly low point in the history of our country.

The Cherokee lived all along the creeks and rivers around here and actually built and ran ran most of the mills before the palefaces took them. They were highly advanced and were assimilating well until we wanted their land. They decided to fight in the courts instead of with weapons.... and they won. However, Andrew Jackson said, (of the supreme court decision in favor of the Cherokee)...

"John Marshall has made his decision; now let him enforce it! ... Build a fire under them. When it gets hot enough, they'll go" Andrew Jackson 1832
.
Then he proceeded to build removal forts and in the period of a few days rounded up all the Cherokee in NW GA, put them in these stockades. Then marched them to Oklahoma. They were brutalized worse than most people know. The local people were appalled but took the mills and homes and lands anyway.

"I saw the helpless Cherokees arrested and dragged from their homes, and driven at the bayonet point into the stockades. And in the chill of a drizzling rain on an October morning I saw them loaded like cattle or sheep into six hundred and forty-five wagons and started toward the west....On the morning of November the 17th we encountered a terrific sleet and snow storm with freezing temperatures and from that day until we reached the end of the fateful journey on March the 26th 1839, the sufferings of the Cherokees were awful. The trail of the exiles was a trail of death. They had to sleep in the wagons and on the ground without fire. And I have known as many as twenty-two of them to die in one night of pneumonia due to ill treatment, cold and exposure..."
Private John G. Burnett
Captain Abraham McClellan's Company,
2nd Regiment, 2nd Brigade, Mounted Infantry
Cherokee Indian Removal 1838-39


http://ngeorgia.com/history/cherokeeforts.html
Conditions at the forts were horrible. Food intended for the tribe was sold to locals. What little the Cherokee had brought with them was stolen and sold. Living areas were filled with excrement. Birth rates among the Cherokee dropped to near zero during the months of captivity. Cherokee women and children were repeatedly raped. Soldiers forced their captives to perform acts of depravation so disgusting they cannot be told here. One member of the Guard would later write, "During the Civil War I watched as hundreds of men died, including my own brother, but none of that compares to what we did to the Cherokee Indians."

 

[edjcox]

Well aware of the history and that's why I thought it might be American Indian.. Seems very heavy as well and they liked to make bracelets that way. Good luck in identifying it.

A better photo wold be nice...

Ed

An never you mind about rambling on. That chapter in our Nations history should serve as good reminder that we seem to forget and relearn our duty as humans over and over. The WWII treatment of the Japanese is another rotten chapter...

May we we look back at our history and remember all and that the much good we aspire to came along with the bad we should learn from...

Ed

 

[jbow]

I'll have it back aroung July, 1

It has been going through a cleaning process in a magnetic tumbler, it will be polished, and seed pearls reset where they used to be. It appears to be bronze. Can't wait to see the result. I found a small medal in the same yard today, about the size of a nickel, a seated man, cocked head, looks Greek, holding something like a scroll across his right knee, wearing knickers, one small loop on top and one below each foot. Don't have a picture yet, no precious metal, don't know what it is. Found two bullets in a sidewalk redo, gave one to a young black man pushing a shovel, he was thrilled with it... said " it's union"?
It made him really happy.

J