U.P. Northwoods
Full Member
Well this all started back in 2001 when the wife and I were looking for a place to build in our beloved U.P. of Michigan. In 2002 we located a 20 parcel with an old homestead on it in Elo. We got it quite cheap as it was quite a mess. It had been used as a deer camp for sometime. When they had purchased it they never cleaned anything up or out from the previous owners who had lived there from 1903 until the 80's when they had all passed away. Everything from tractors to trashpiles were all over.
You can't imagine the burnpile we had going when we started to clean up. We actually started on the outside first and after trimming the trees , mowing and burning we had it looking like a park. Next was tackling the house. It had originally been log and they put tar paper and cedarshake over it. Inside the logs were originally whitewashed. The toilet was hooked up in the corner of the living room. All the water and fuel oil lines were run exposed on the wall. One of the first things we found of value inside was a beautiful old Gustav Stickley rocking chair which we hauled out of there right away. Up stairs was where there were box upon box of old clothes, shoes, purses, blankets, Christmas cards, and personal items.
I went outside and pulled my trailer outside the upstairs window so I could start pitching everything out on it to the burnpile.
We found a green box in the corner while rummaging around. In the box were many old pictures, insurance papers (all in Finnish) and the original deed to the property. Get this. The original purchase price was for 3.09.
After getting alot of small things out and burned I started to work on getting the beds out. On one bed there were three old horse hair matress and several blankets. I started to peel the blankets off and pitch them out the window when I turned back to the bed lo and behold there laying on the mattress was an envelope with what my eye caught was green sticking out. I just could not begin to fathom this as it is only what you hear about and never think it could happen to you. I called out to the wife and she brought the camera and captured the moment. A total of 2744.00 Even got a couple of one dollar bill that were silver certificate. Alot of the money went back to the mid to late fifties. Anyway the following are the pics. I of course will never forget this experience as long as I live. But seeing is believe, this stuff is out there! We ended up selling the place after having it for 2 years and buying a place that was already built.
You can't imagine the burnpile we had going when we started to clean up. We actually started on the outside first and after trimming the trees , mowing and burning we had it looking like a park. Next was tackling the house. It had originally been log and they put tar paper and cedarshake over it. Inside the logs were originally whitewashed. The toilet was hooked up in the corner of the living room. All the water and fuel oil lines were run exposed on the wall. One of the first things we found of value inside was a beautiful old Gustav Stickley rocking chair which we hauled out of there right away. Up stairs was where there were box upon box of old clothes, shoes, purses, blankets, Christmas cards, and personal items.
I went outside and pulled my trailer outside the upstairs window so I could start pitching everything out on it to the burnpile.
We found a green box in the corner while rummaging around. In the box were many old pictures, insurance papers (all in Finnish) and the original deed to the property. Get this. The original purchase price was for 3.09.
After getting alot of small things out and burned I started to work on getting the beds out. On one bed there were three old horse hair matress and several blankets. I started to peel the blankets off and pitch them out the window when I turned back to the bed lo and behold there laying on the mattress was an envelope with what my eye caught was green sticking out. I just could not begin to fathom this as it is only what you hear about and never think it could happen to you. I called out to the wife and she brought the camera and captured the moment. A total of 2744.00 Even got a couple of one dollar bill that were silver certificate. Alot of the money went back to the mid to late fifties. Anyway the following are the pics. I of course will never forget this experience as long as I live. But seeing is believe, this stuff is out there! We ended up selling the place after having it for 2 years and buying a place that was already built.
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