SCdigger, Saving History, Episode 56, Coppa's and Lobsta's" Tour in Western Mass

Congratulations Greg Toney otherwise known as SCdigger, Saving History is a good show that is getting more professional and more exciting to watch every episode.  I have known the YouTube Personality SCdigger for about five years. He's a metal detectorist and a skilled relic hunter - this blog profiled him a few years ago, SCdigger is Saving History on YouTube

SCdigger or South Carolina Digger was one of the early adopters on Dumpdiggers.com my antiques and collectibles social network (now just a discussion forum) (which nobody can join).  SCdigger was one of the premier experimenters; he had his own table and uploaded relics to the photo galleries and even some curious classified ads. I came to really like his energy.

Of course anyone interested in metal detecting and hunting military relics tends to keep an eye on a guy like that, and I watch his videos when they pop up in my YouTube feed (those videos on your homepage when you first log into the site).  becuase I subscribe, so that's when I think to watch him, and over time I've noticed something. These videos are getting really good. 

Saving History Episode 56 PART ONE Published on 15 Nov 2012  is an excellent relic hunting adventure story with colourful characters and great historically relevant discoveries.  In the description SCdigger writes,

Colonial "coppa's", silver and relics!!! Join us as we continue our "Coppa's & Lobsta's" Tour with an amazing hunt in a colonial field in Western Mass. This is PART ONE of a two part series. Amazing finds are made throughout part one, but part two ends with the rarest of rare! Join us as we Save History, now in HD!

SCdigger is the guy wearing the brown vest on the right, and I'm not sure who the fellow is on the left? What his name is, but he is a chatterbox with colourful diction and so is an excellent guest.  Television producers love a guy like that... You'll see what I mean if you watch the video and listen to his chatter.  In  PART TWO of a two part series, he really does discover a wonderful rare find.

I'm telling you this video is as good an adventure as I've ever seen, and I think SCdigger did a great job capturing it all, and from a participant's perspective. It is both authentic and action packed media - it really is. I predict Saving History will soon be recognized and celebrated as the truly ground breaking metal detector adventure show that it is, and SCdigger will rise from relative obscurity to internet fame as the most prolific relic hunter in America. He doesnt need a TV show - his web show is pioneering a new form of storytelling.

However, if I were directing this for television and had a production budget, I would get wide shots of the group in the field, which SCdigger never gets, (because he's one of the guys in the field) and which the show desperately needs. I would attempt more sophisticated storytelling by finding some pictures of Redcoats in American Colonies ie their buttons and coins. I'd take a break from the constant discoveries and describe the role of the metal items as I panned the camera slowly over stock pictures of British Army captains and colonels in red and white coats with shiny brass buttons, their Brown Bess muskets, musket balls, playing cards and coins and other minutia (a frizen pin?) that is worth so much money today as it appears dirty and muddy under the squawking metal detector's coils.  I would do dissolves from the group in the field to Civil War battles from the same perspective and in this case (Episode 56) Revolutionary War battles and tell two or three stories at once.

I predict here on the Dumpdiggers blog that SCdigger will have his own cable TV show by this time next year, if he doesn't already have a deal in the works now. Check the comments. 

Bottle Dumps on Country Roads

The autumn landscape is bright yellow, orange and red in Northumberland County, Ontario, Canada. The fall colours excite me and my fellow history hunters; the end of summer ignites a burning desire to explore crimson forests in search of old stories.

On October 12^th, 2008 Dumpdiggers had another outdoor adventure. Armed with a small spade shovel and a garden fork, I wandered the country roads around Dartford Ontario in search of old bottle dumps. I’ll be sure to post more information on this historic village later in this series, including an 1878 survey map.

How To Find Bottle Dumps on Country Roads. The township roads are usually the lot and concession lines on the first local maps. These are the second oldest roads in most areas; the oldest roads in North America are the Indian trails. When veteran dumpdiggers hunt for bottles and relics in roadways and farm lanes they are of course scanning the ditch, looking for any signs of century old trash buried below the surface.

Look for surface tins and rusty cans Even though these objects are worthless, they can sometimes mark the spots where older material is buried. Even if the surface tins themselves are not very old, the places they gather along fencerows and in gulleys are natural collection spots and should be excavated in shallow test pits - look for rust coloured earth and bits of glass and pottery.

The Dumpdiggers Handbook holds that there are six different types of old dumps; we are hunting deserted ditch dumps and these are places near roads where farmers and townspeople emptied wagons filled with rubbish. The best country roads are near busy towns, but still lonely strips of gravel that bisect overgrown swamps and scrub brush pasture, and the best bottle dump roads are still deserted today.

Study gates in fences. The gates in farm fields are the best place to look for bottles and coins and that’s because the gate is where all the action happens. Beyond the everyday spillage that might occur in the simple act of opening and closing the portal, there’s also the jumping and climbing of gates and this activity temporarily inverts pockets. Let’s also remember the workers who once gathered in the breach to wait for instructions or equipment, and to celebrate a job well done with some cold drinks. The bottles are seldom taken away and usually deposited in fencerow on both sides of the aperture with the intention of an eventual recovery, someday.

Look around the stumps and trunks of the oldest trees. The fence near the largest tree trunk is always a good place to swing a metal detector, or fork the tree leaves out of the grass, and move small rocks in order to look for signs of inhabitation. The shade of a thick tree is precious on a hot summer day, and it's right here that relaxing labourers would often idle about for lunch or a relaxing break. Depending on their customs, its right here that would have enjoyed a refreshing soda, or a cold beer, or even a dram of rum, or a swallow of whisky. Here's an amber whisky flask that I unearthed in a deep test pit beside a decaying tree stump. I spent an hour digging there before I found that, and I'll be sure and visit this site again in the spring to look for more specimans when the foilage is more manageable.

Inspect over-turned tree roots. When walking at the side of the road, keep a careful eye out for overturned trees and inspect the dirt on their roots. Are there any pottery shards hanging from the tentacles? Bottle caps? Is there bottle glass or glass of any kind? This is a sure sign of a dump.

Tree roots are like fingers and they often inch down into the morass and clutch buried objects which they wrench out of the mud when the wind blows the tree over. Cedar trees are particularly susceptible to strong winds . They have shallow roots that find the trash below the mud and grass of the forest ditch. This Wampole bottle exists like an ominous marker on the upturned horns of these roots - here there be old bottles and trash.

Go off road. Good century old trash can be found as far as the arm can throw, and the forest paths that meet farm lanes are likely places for wagon dumps.

On the October 12th county roads expedition I uncovered a jade teacup from the 1930's, a small amber whiskey flask from the early 1900s, and a square druggist bottle embossed CANADIAN KODAK.