I ended up in Deming NM about late 96. It is located in one of the more desolate high desert regions of the southwest and at first glance, doesn't appear very appealing. But I had met this tall blonde at a big "Loners on Wheels" rally at the "Slabs" in southern California and her next destination was LowHi RV ranch in Deming, NM. Danged if I didnt end up at the same place. A real coincidence. Funny how that works. Small world aint it? Gee, funny meeting you here.
Besides chasing girls, my other hobby was treasure hunting. I found out that a group of local treasure hunters met every day at Arby's restaurant at 2:00 PM for coffee and tall tales. A real interesting bunch. One old fellow in his late 80's was still hunting with his trusty old BFO detector. Another had written for mining and geological magazines at one time and was knowledgable in rocks and minerals and such stuff. Most of us were just run of the mill detector swingers still hoping for the "BIG HIT". The center piece of these little gatherings was H. Glenn Carson who had written quite a few treasure hunting books and manuals and at that time was still writing a monthly article for Western and Eastern Treasure Magazine. Glenn is a scholar and a gentleman of the first order as well as a man of humor and would pull a trick on you if you didnt watch him close.
A heart attach had slowed Glenn down some as far as the physical side of treasure hunting. I did go on one detecting trip with Glenn up to the old ghost town of Elizabeth Town in the Gila mountains near Silver City. We separated and went our own ways. I was finding nothing but iron trash which is typical of these type sites untill suddenly I got a good tight signal and dug up this little tear drop shaped piece of silver colored metal. It was heavy. It was definitely something that had been melted. Could it be silver? Using scientific deciferation, I took my pocket knife and tried cutting it. It was soft enough to cut. To hard to be lead but just right to be silver. Son of a gun! In an area about 4x4 feet square I found about 8 more of these little teardrop shaped objects.
I went hunting Glenn and showed him my finds and told him it looked like Silver to me. With a straight face, he said, "Hmmmmm, you ought to show that to Steve (our coffee group mineral expert) at coffee time tomorrow. I said I bet there is lots more of that stuff around here and Glenn said he was too tired to do more hunting but I sure ought to come back and he bet I could find some more of that stuff.
So the next day at coffee time, I made a dramatic entrance into our little treasure hunting group and proudly rolled my valuable silver droplets across the table in front of Steve. Steve went through an elaberate inspection process including biting and tasting and then that jewelry loop on the eyeball thing, nodded sagely, and said "Babbit". And everyone else collapsed into hysterical laughter. Glenn had already alerted everyone to the fact that they had a "live one", a real "sucker" on the string. From that time on I became the Babbit King of southwest NM.
What made me feel so stupid was that I had worked with babbit bearing material on the old Chevy 6 engines (up thru 1953) and also in some older electrical motors. In the old mining equipment back in the early days, they would melt the babbit material and pour it into molds to make their own bearings. What I had found was some of that melted babbit material. As I remember, it is a mixture of lead and tin and maybe some other metal. What it aint.....is Silver. But when your mind is on treasure.......it is easy to BS your way into thinking you have made the "BIG HIT".
Besides chasing girls, my other hobby was treasure hunting. I found out that a group of local treasure hunters met every day at Arby's restaurant at 2:00 PM for coffee and tall tales. A real interesting bunch. One old fellow in his late 80's was still hunting with his trusty old BFO detector. Another had written for mining and geological magazines at one time and was knowledgable in rocks and minerals and such stuff. Most of us were just run of the mill detector swingers still hoping for the "BIG HIT". The center piece of these little gatherings was H. Glenn Carson who had written quite a few treasure hunting books and manuals and at that time was still writing a monthly article for Western and Eastern Treasure Magazine. Glenn is a scholar and a gentleman of the first order as well as a man of humor and would pull a trick on you if you didnt watch him close.
A heart attach had slowed Glenn down some as far as the physical side of treasure hunting. I did go on one detecting trip with Glenn up to the old ghost town of Elizabeth Town in the Gila mountains near Silver City. We separated and went our own ways. I was finding nothing but iron trash which is typical of these type sites untill suddenly I got a good tight signal and dug up this little tear drop shaped piece of silver colored metal. It was heavy. It was definitely something that had been melted. Could it be silver? Using scientific deciferation, I took my pocket knife and tried cutting it. It was soft enough to cut. To hard to be lead but just right to be silver. Son of a gun! In an area about 4x4 feet square I found about 8 more of these little teardrop shaped objects.
I went hunting Glenn and showed him my finds and told him it looked like Silver to me. With a straight face, he said, "Hmmmmm, you ought to show that to Steve (our coffee group mineral expert) at coffee time tomorrow. I said I bet there is lots more of that stuff around here and Glenn said he was too tired to do more hunting but I sure ought to come back and he bet I could find some more of that stuff.
So the next day at coffee time, I made a dramatic entrance into our little treasure hunting group and proudly rolled my valuable silver droplets across the table in front of Steve. Steve went through an elaberate inspection process including biting and tasting and then that jewelry loop on the eyeball thing, nodded sagely, and said "Babbit". And everyone else collapsed into hysterical laughter. Glenn had already alerted everyone to the fact that they had a "live one", a real "sucker" on the string. From that time on I became the Babbit King of southwest NM.
What made me feel so stupid was that I had worked with babbit bearing material on the old Chevy 6 engines (up thru 1953) and also in some older electrical motors. In the old mining equipment back in the early days, they would melt the babbit material and pour it into molds to make their own bearings. What I had found was some of that melted babbit material. As I remember, it is a mixture of lead and tin and maybe some other metal. What it aint.....is Silver. But when your mind is on treasure.......it is easy to BS your way into thinking you have made the "BIG HIT".
