Tornados

[SteveB]

I just read the post where a 1766 coin was found out in the middle of a field and the author mused about who had last held the coin. Maybe not a person, but a tornado?

I used to live in what is known as "Tornado Alley" and the Tri-State Tornado (look it up) went through my hometown 'way back then. Lately, news reports have shown the devastation in Joplin, Missouri, and all over Oklahoma with entire neighborhoods leveled.

Not to make light of others' loss, but coins, jewelry and other valuables were picked up, flung in the vortex and deposited somewhere. Has anyone done a study of the debris paths left by these tornados and considered detecting these area?

The 1766 coin post just got me to thinking about this, and even about old homesteads that have been leveled with there never having been a record of their existence.

Thanks,

Steve

 

[BootyHunter]

My little hometown in southwestern Virginia was struck by a tornadoes in 1929. Kind of rare for the area but it was a devastating one and struck the high school pretty much destroying it. It killed 10 students and 1 teacher, if I'm not mistaken, I remember reading accounts where students were thrown hundreds of feet from where they had been and ended up in a field a good ways from the school. I have often wandered if coins and jewelry were scattered all about from that and other tornadoes. Now let me say I do not want to make light of tragedy and would not want that to happen for anything I might find, but it does make me wonder what coins from 1929 and before could be in that vicinity.

 

[PryorCreekJoe]

As someone who has lived in Tornado alley for over 60 years, yes we are well aware of the distribution of items along the tornado's path. The recent 2 - F5s that struck Moore and the El Reno suburbs of Oklahoma City, dropped photographs over a hundred miles along it's path. A Facebook account was setup to reunite the pictures with their owners who had lost everything they owned. A picture is not worth much but yet can be priceless if it has been ripped from you and then given back by a stranger 100 miles away.
My town Pryor, OK, was hit by a tornado in 1942 killing 52. In the 1990's a local detectorist found a watch-fob that belonged to a local banker's father. It was lost in the '42 tornado and was found about a mile from where the tornado hit his house. The local banker was stunned to get back such a memento of his father's.

PryorCreekJoe

 

[SteveB]

Earlier I made the point:

Not to make light of others' loss, but coins, jewelry and other valuables were picked up, flung in the vortex and deposited somewhere. Has anyone done a study of the debris paths left by these tornados and considered detecting these area?

My post was in no way intended that anyone take advantage of another' loss or disaster. I was more curious about the history of the 1766 coin and the path it took to end up in the middle of a field.

The story of the watch fob was great. It's great to find valuable coins, jewely, relics and other valuables, but being able to return an item to its rightful owner or descendants is priceless!

Steve