Spring brings metal detecting hobbyists in search of treasure
This 156-troy-ounce gold nugget, known as the Mojave Nugget, was found by a prospector in the Southern California Desert using a metal detector. Image by Chris Ralph, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
On the last Sunday of March, Sorge, 42, went to this undisclosed Lincoln location with the gear he’d picked up recently at Midwest Diggers, Bruce Schwenke’s metal detector-specific store at 4120 La Salle St.
As a kid, Sorge said he’d had a brief fling with a metal detecting hobby, but it never got serious. But Sorge has hunted for treasure at garage sales for years. This year, he decided to get back in to detecting.
“I’ve always been fascinated with history,” Sorge told the Lincoln Journal Star. “This kind of makes it more fun.”
And today’s metal detectors dwarf the technology of the ones from Sorge’s childhood. They include displays that produce readings that tell diggers what material likely lies underground, and how deep. So you have a pretty good idea sometimes that the thing in the ground will be a nickel or a penny or a can. But you never know for sure until you dig, he said.
At the park, his detector started bleeping, signaling that something foreign was about 4 inches beneath the ground. He knelt down to dig a hole, and found something in the first clump of dirt he lifted – a heavily scuffed coin.
During a previous hunt, he came upon what turned out to be arcade tokens from a ShowBiz Pizza Place. He thought he’d found another of those, or maybe a quarter. But when he sifted the coin out of the dirt, he found that one side of the coin read “United States of America” and “1856.”
“Crazy find,” Sorge said.
The pre-Civil War penny – an unheard of find in a state founded 11 years after that coin was minted – has been the talk of the Midwest Historical Preservation Society, a recently formed Lincoln club consisting of 14 metal-detecting enthusiasts.
Founded by Schwenke, the club members meet at the store on the first Tuesday of each month to tell tales of their recent finds, plan future hunts and talk about their favorite locations.
Their ranks includes a pastor (Bob Lynn), a Nebraska State Patrol employee (Jason Halouska), the owner of Hungry Eye Tattoo (Sorge) and more.
“We have one member that’s 10 years old and one member that’s 74,” Schwenke said.
“I’ve always liked history and I liked finding stuff, and those two go hand in hand,” Halouska said.
Last year, he found a Civil War badge from a Union soldier who he learned was buried at Wyuka Cemetery. Each member has a favorite find or three, even one of the newest ones. Renae Oliver said she found a 1952 penny in her parents’ backyard.
“That’s just the plus,” Schwenke said. “That’s the excitement.”
For Schwenke, who’s been metal detecting for more than 30 years, the main appeal lies beyond a surprising or valuable find. On April 11, he and a few members took a look around College View Park, and Schwenke couldn’t stop remarking on the nice pre-snowstorm spring weather.
“Today’s a beautiful day,” he said. “Just eat it up.”
He posts videos on YouTube not only of the wheat pennies or, say, an antique lamp base he found but also of a softball-size mushroom he happened upon along the way.
“You really are paying attention to detail,” Schwenke said. “You’ve gotta love nature and we try really hard to leave it better than we found it.”
That’s part of the Society’s code of ethics. When they go detecting, the members ask permission to dig on private property, pick up litter, fill any holes they dig and close gates.
Information from: Lincoln Journal Star, http://www.journalstar.com
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AP-WF-04-27-14 1734GMT
ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE
This 156-troy-ounce gold nugget, known as the Mojave Nugget, was found by a prospector in the Southern California Desert using a metal detector. Image by Chris Ralph, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
