Made a valuable contact today

[MrGee]

The next town over from here had, from 1942 to 1945, a POW camp that had up to 350 German POW's in it. Today I decided to check it out and drove out there expecting to find a weedy, brushy area. Imagine my surprise when I pulled in between the two brick pillars (original ones) and found about 4 or 5 neatly mowed acres of lawn. And did I mention that there was a guy on a lawn mower at the time? He came over and we chatted about the history of the place. it was his grandfather who rented it to the Army for the camp and the property has been in his family for about 100 years. He pointed out to me where the mess tent was, the hospital tent and the POw tents. The only building was the HQ which also contained a small commisary building....which is still standing. He showed me the inside which is fixed up as a "get way" cabin and still has the original wood burning cook stove in it. He also pointed me to the pond where they took their baths and the artesian well where they got their water (which still has the best tasting icy cold water anywhere). And to top it all off, the hill behind the camp was, before and after the war, the tobaggan hill, And he gave me permisssion to hunt the whole place.

I spent a couple of hours, mostly just getting the feel of the place, although I did swing the detector a bit. found a couple of modern coins, a 44 or 45 cal. bullet, and a crucifix, which I no longer had when I got back to the car. I had gone to check the place out and hadn't planned on spending a lot of time there. so back tomorrow!. It's gonna tike the rest of the summer to check this place. Gotta be silver there!

MrGee

 

[widebody]

[size=large]now that's the cat's meow. all to yourself. a no hassel hunting place. must feel great. hope you find loads of silver and relics.

HH[/size]

 

[oldranger]

Good luck and Happy Hunting

Ron

Rangers Lead The Way

 

[metalhead]

Man, that's awesome! Hopefully you find some buttons and such, 'cause those guys wore their uniforms while imprisoned.
Best of luck to ya!Happy Hunting!

 

[MrGee]

Good thought metalhead. I had pictured them in some kind of POW uniform, but in those days I believe you're right...they kept their uniforms until they wore out. Planned to go back today but it rained off and on all day and supposed to rain all day tomorrow. I'm not as hardy as some of those Canuk that I could name. Besides, for some unknown reason I came down with a cold this morning...it's been in the 80s for the last month and I'm coming down with a cold. So much for "mr haven't had a cold in three years".

MrGee