First hunt for 2009

[Tim_IL]

I made it out to a new location today. My friend from work told me about an old park in Arnold MO. called Cliff Cave Park located on the Mississippi river. The area has quite a bit of history especially the cave. One thing that I thought was interesting was Anheuser Busch stored their beer in the cave around the early 1900's. And the whole area surrounding the cave was riddled with broken glass, and yes I was wearing leather gloves thanks to Twisted's post. The terrain was rough and trashy, and a mountain biker stopped to see how we were doing and asked if we had a club or something that was out today. I said no but I was curios why he asked that, and he told me he seen another guy detecting on the other side of the valley where my friend and I were. So we are obviously not the only ones who think its a good spot. I worked my way out of the trash and started on the hill sides leading down into the valley where the cave is located. I kept getting modern pennies, so when I dug my first wheatie for the day It surprised me, 34'. Shortly after that I dug a spill of three wheaties 44' 49'd and the third one was so smooth I could barely tell it was a wheatie. I also found a neat silver plated fork. It was my friends first time out detecting with the Ace 250 he bought from Brett, he learned fast and he's hooked. It was really nice to get out and do some detecting today, maybe next time there Ill score silver or an IH.

Its gonna be a good year! Thanks for reading. Tim

 

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[treasurefiend]

Great job, glad someone is able to get out and hunt!!!

 

[AmericanCoinHunting]

I made it out to a new location today. My friend from work told me about an old park in Arnold MO. called Cliff Cave Park located on the Mississippi river. The area has quite a bit of history especially the cave. One thing that I thought was interesting was Anheuser Busch stored their beer in the cave around the early 1900's. And the whole area surrounding the cave was riddled with broken glass, and yes I was wearing leather gloves thanks to Twisted's post. The terrain was rough and trashy, and a mountain biker stopped to see how we were doing and asked if we had a club or something that was out today. I said no but I was curios why he asked that, and he told me he seen another guy detecting on the other side of the valley where my friend and I were. So we are obviously not the only ones who think its a good spot. I worked my way out of the trash and started on the hill sides leading down into the valley where the cave is located. I kept getting modern pennies, so when I dug my first wheatie for the day It surprised me, 34'. Shortly after that I dug a spill of three wheaties 44' 49'd and the third one was so smooth I could barely tell it was a wheatie. I also found a neat silver plated fork. It was my friends first time out detecting with the Ace 250 he bought from Brett, he learned fast and he's hooked. It was really nice to get out and do some detecting today, maybe next time there Ill score silver or an IH.

Its gonna be a good year! Thanks for reading. Tim

Hmmmmmmmmmmm Anheuser Busch stored their beer in the cave around the early 1900's If the beer is still cold I'M game.........
Missouri Wait I thought this was the Illinois Forum.........No Matter........ I will travel to MO.........For a Bud........LOL...............Keep Diggin.......
.................Expecially if there are "BUDS" to be found.............HH, Dave

 

[Lowbatts]

Might want to find the old bottle dump there! I think the original AB tall beer bottle is one of the most valuable old bottles one could hope to find, fetching somewhere in the $6k range.

 

[Tim_IL]

Great job, glad someone is able to get out and hunt!!!

Thanks TF it was nice to get out there and do some hunting, I heard you guys got a blizzard up there. I guess our warm day are getting skinny.

 

[Brett]

Congrats on your first good finds of 2009 Tim! Also, congrats on your oldest coin

Did you ever figure out what the date of the smooth one was?

 

[Tim_IL]

I made it out to a new location today. My friend from work told me about an old park in Arnold MO. called Cliff Cave Park located on the Mississippi river. The area has quite a bit of history especially the cave. One thing that I thought was interesting was Anheuser Busch stored their beer in the cave around the early 1900's. And the whole area surrounding the cave was riddled with broken glass, and yes I was wearing leather gloves thanks to Twisted's post. The terrain was rough and trashy, and a mountain biker stopped to see how we were doing and asked if we had a club or something that was out today. I said no but I was curios why he asked that, and he told me he seen another guy detecting on the other side of the valley where my friend and I were. So we are obviously not the only ones who think its a good spot. I worked my way out of the trash and started on the hill sides leading down into the valley where the cave is located. I kept getting modern pennies, so when I dug my first wheatie for the day It surprised me, 34'. Shortly after that I dug a spill of three wheaties 44' 49'd and the third one was so smooth I could barely tell it was a wheatie. I also found a neat silver plated fork. It was my friends first time out detecting with the Ace 250 he bought from Brett, he learned fast and he's hooked. It was really nice to get out and do some detecting today, maybe next time there Ill score silver or an IH.

Its gonna be a good year! Thanks for reading. Tim

Hmmmmmmmmmmm Anheuser Busch stored their beer in the cave around the early 1900's If the beer is still cold I'M game.........
Missouri Wait I thought this was the Illinois Forum.........No Matter........ I will travel to MO.........For a Bud........LOL...............Keep Diggin.......
.................Expecially if there are "BUDS" to be found.............HH, Dave

McEtrak,

The Cave was also used as a Wine Company in the late 1800's, some of the old stone work at the entrance is still intact. And as for the comment about me posting this in the IL forum, I'm from IL and I live in IL. So I post my finds in the IL forum so the people that I hunt with can see my finds and where I'm hunting. Hopefully that clears it up a bit. And yes we could have used a BUD or two while we were out.

 

[Tim_IL]

Congrats on your first good finds of 2009 Tim! Also, congrats on your oldest coin

Did you ever figure out what the date of the smooth one was?

Thanks Brett

I couldn't read the date on the last one I found. If it were any smoother it would be a slug, but I haven't put it under the scope yet. It's doubtful but ya never know.

 

[litefire56]

Way to go Tim! Sounds like a really cool place to hunt . So were you able to detect in the cave?
Hows was the digging down your way, hard or manageable? I'm thinking about a getaway south for a day or 2 of digging.
Lets see a pic of them wheats..

Dadfire56

 

[watercolor]

Tim, you're off to a great start!
You've got a great place there and I'm sure there's more to come.

Best of luck!
watercolor

 

[Tim_IL]

Way to go Tim! Sounds like a really cool place to hunt . So were you able to detect in the cave?
Hows was the digging down your way, hard or manageable? I'm thinking about a getaway south for a day or 2 of digging.
Lets see a pic of them wheats..

Dadfire56

Thanks Dad,

It was a very cool place to hunt. Even if I didn't find a single coin I still would have had a good day. The cave is off limits unless you request a tour. Digging was easy out there, but were not going to have another nice day like that for a while. So the ground is getting hard now. Sorry no pics my camera isn't in my possession right now.

 

[litefire56]

Way to go Tim! Sounds like a really cool place to hunt . So were you able to detect in the cave?
Hows was the digging down your way, hard or manageable? I'm thinking about a getaway south for a day or 2 of digging.
Lets see a pic of them wheats..

Dadfire56

Thanks Dad,

It was a very cool place to hunt. Even if I didn't find a single coin I still would have had a good day. The cave is off limits unless you request a tour. Digging was easy out there, but were not going to have another nice day like that for a while. So the ground is getting hard now. Sorry no pics my camera isn't in my possession right now.

Tim,
I would be digging anything deep in that area, looks really cool!

Here's a link to some pics and info on the cave.

http://users.stlcc.edu/mfuller/CliffCave.html


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AD 1600s Osage or Illini see the cave as sacred?

AD 1700s - French fur trappers make cave into a tavern

1749 - John Baptiste D'Gamache receives cave and land in Spanish Land Grant

early 1800s - Crystal City steamboat sunk at nearby Landing

1830s - Cliff Cave Wine Company formed - masonry work in cave

1850s - Two cattle thieves used cave or band of outlaws?

1860s - Confederate soldiers rendezvous at the cave

1871 - Cliff Cave Wine Company made 3000 gallons of wine (St. Louis the Future Great City of the World, 1871, page 81).

1879 - Cliff Cave Wine Company shut down

1898 - Cave a recreation spot for volunteer soldiers from Jefferson Barracks and they build a saloon in the entrance.

ca. 1910 - Anheuser-Busch leased cave. Stored beer was cooled by blocks of ice cut from the frozen river during the winter.

1920s - SpeakEasies along Cliff Cave Road. Mob dumped bodies in cave