LONG HUNT AT THE OLD ARMY DEPOT

[basque-man]

After a day of being skunk yesterday; my son and I decided to hit Herlong. It was built in 1942 as one of several ammunition storage facilities and was home to many enlisted families from the 40's through the 70's. A few years ago, the base shrunk and left the old housing areas outside base property. Some of the housing tracts are long gong but not the streets and items that got left behind.

My son kicked but with 2 silver dimes and a war nickel plus 10 wheats.

I was able to grab 2 silver dimes and 25 wheats. (One was cut in half) Also found a large silver ring with a dark colored stone. Looks like an aget that is almost black. It's funny, but every time one of us finds a marble, we hammer that area and somewhere we can find a coin or 2. We have found the old cars as well which are really deep most of the time. Almost all the ground is sand so we are lucky with the shape things come out. Thanks for looking.

 

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[Argentium]

Could you please show several pics of the ring ? including the shank and the underside /backplate Thanks ! Great find .

 

[cjon455]

that's a nice group of finds, the silver is awesome of course
but I really like those old cars, really cool!!!

great hunt!

 

[pepperj]

Nice assortment of finds, really liking the car lot of finds they're in great shape.

 

[treblehunter]

Interesting ring, just looks like silver from what I can see, Sounds like a great spot.

 

[I-DIG-IT]

Nice digs.

 

[Carolina Tom]

Very well done... lots of silver coins, old toy cars, marbles, a ring... dang man, you got it all! Jealous...

 

[Subterranean]

Wow, you guys are a relic gold mine! Your big cameo ring may be silver, as mentioned before, and heavily covered in patina. Those Tootsie, Hubley, and vintage plastic cars are very valuable in their own right. Congrats and I will look forward to seeing many more cool posts from you guys. Sub

 

[sutphin]

Man,. like the ole dodge wrecker that's cool,vanzutphen

 

[releventchair]

Great haul!
Nice mix of oldies.
Even a lead sinker thrown in for good measure.

 

[basque-man]

Could you please show several pics of the ring ? including the shank and the underside /backplate Thanks ! Great find .

Here are some more photos of the ring. I'm having a heck of a time showing the stone cause it is so dark. The area we are hunting is also near an old NCO railroad and depot. The main part of that ghost town is on base so we have not been able to get on there yet. But i'm working on it!!

 

[Argentium]

Thank you for those pics ! I'm pretty sure that your ring is Navajo made (AZ.or NM. likely ) circa 1940's there was a
period - the war years - when turquoise became much less available , as such many jewelry items that would have been
made with a turquoise setting in mind - got agates , or black onyx - others . The triple "split shank" to the back plate
is typical of the Navajo style of this period . Interesting to see flat wire around the bezel ornamented by "crinkling " it ,
this may well have been done by feeding the wire into the gear wheel on a hand drill or some other low tech crank and
gear method . Very Nice finds.

 

[46Wheat]

Thank you or taking the time to share your hunt and those pictures with us

 

[basque-man]

Thank you Argentium. A lot of the rings we have found on the old base don't have markings. Figured they had come from overseas or something. I wasn't going to clean this ring and leave it as is. I was unable to find any type of markings on it.

 

[Argentium]

The no markings is not untypical for Native American work of that period - you can gently clean the piece without compromising
it's value (it is not a rare /high value piece ) this is up to your taste really .

(while I might prefer to leave the piece as is , if you would like to give the ring to a special lady , then I
would not hesitate to clean /polish it )

 

[RichieRich]

great FINDS

 

[wheatfinder13]

Those are some really great find. I like that dinosaur and the cars

 

[BIGSCOTT]

Nice finds
the stone in the ring looks like moss agate, or bloodstone agate.