the fortune beneath you
Mr. Fisher and I are getting ready to do a pod for current.com about metal detecting. If anyone has any ideas or questions relating to the subject, let me know.
You probably don’t have much idea about metal detecting, or “coin shooting”, as they call it. It appeals to a hard core audience of dreamers. Men, mostly, who think they will find buried treasure. Articles in the treasure hunting magazines lay out a cold case of a missing fortune. Like this one about “Outlaw Gold In Kansas”. In 1895 badman Bill Doolen was arrested after a string of bank and train robberies. According to the story, “Until now Doolin’s outlaw career had paid off handsomely. He had organized a gang in Oklahoma Territory, and for their first venture they rode into Spearville, Kansas. They robbed the town bank of $11,000. Next was the bank in Cimarron, Kansas, which provided them with $14,000 in gold. They rode to Southwest City, Missouri, robbed another bank of $15,000, then loped leisurely towards Oklahoma. Passing through Pawnee at high noon, Doolin noticed a bank and waved towards it.
‘Let’s stop here a few minutes,’ he yelled to his men. This one they cleaned of all it had, several thousand dollars in gold. Next they struck in northwest Texas, robbing a Longview bank of more than $50,000.
With a string of successful bank holdups behind them, the gang began stopping trains to blast open safes in the express cars. They held up several trains around Wharton, Oklahoma, stormed a depot in Woodward and made off with a $7,000 payroll destined for Fort Supply. Then they moved up into Kansas to hold up trains, and it was here that Doolin cached most of his savings.”
You’re about ready to get involved aren’t you? Doolin escapes from jail but the sheriff tracks him down and he is shot off the springboard with his wife left alone in the wagon. Doolin was a family man. The secret of where his stolen loot lies is buried with his corpse. By the end of the article ten men have decided to buy a metal detector. You want a piece of the action.
But it isn’t just heist jobs gone wrong, there are stories about gold rich mines the prospector could never find again, valuable artifacts from Civil War battle sites, and occasionally you get a gripping article like the one that made the cover of True Treasure in April 1975. Take a look and tell me you aren’t sold.
please note the crocheted PBR can hat Marika is wearing in the photo.
I once found a gold plated, green enameled four-leaf clover pin with a metal detector when I was twelve. It was about a foot and a half down. I was running over a small lake beach in my home town in Ct. Not much of a story there, aside from the fact that the day I found it happened to be St. Patric’s day. What are the odds of that.?
Comment by millar — January 18, 2009 @ 6:32 am
I once found a set of gold plates inscribed with an ancient text. An angel appeared to me and said that if I came back a year later he would reveal to me the secret Knowledge of the gods.
When the day came however I was too occupied getting it on with three co-eds, a blonde a red head and an asian. Given the chance to do it over again I’d take the girls over eternal power.
Comment by Poll — January 18, 2009 @ 10:36 am
Oh yeah well I actually own a PBR hat in similar style to the one in the picture! It’s blue, though, and has a bigger brim.
Comment by Lyle_S — January 18, 2009 @ 5:12 pm
i died right after this photo was taken, only to be reincarnated as me – only without my beloved metal detector or my PBR hat.
Comment by mims — January 18, 2009 @ 7:19 pm
jon hernandez bought one a few years back you should talk to him
Comment by poopies — January 18, 2009 @ 7:33 pm
there’s a guy here who has set up shop at the lake. i guess he’s hoping that the canadian geese have left something valuable behind.
Comment by lotto — January 18, 2009 @ 11:10 pm
Am I to understand that you staged these ice lake photos and then shopped them onto that magazine cover?
If so then that’s excellent work. Really, a culmination of many staging efforts I’ve seen you post. That cover looks very authentic…almost uber-realistic, which is what you were probably aiming for. It’s “representative” art. Soulful.
Comment by Oggy — January 18, 2009 @ 11:59 pm
Thanks Oggy! It was hard to get the foam-core to look like ice out in Spreckles Lake in Golden Gate Park, but we did it!
BTW, my Dad sold Hernandez his detector back when he had his shop on Islington Street.
Comment by Rolston — January 19, 2009 @ 1:17 pm
no kidding, i wish the old man still had the shop
Comment by poopies — January 20, 2009 @ 5:57 pm