New History found by Relic Hunters.
There you go. For a change lets give credit where credit is due. I've been trying to go relic hunting on land a couple of times each week so I'll get enough exercise and not be in bad shape when I go to Alaska this Summer to mine gold. Friday, my old friend Robert McDaniel and I went relic hunting in Mississippi. We have been looking for some unknown sites in that area. We were given permission to look on some land that hasn't been built on or otherwise lost. Many of the places where we found relics 30 years ago are now subdivisions or shopping centers. Don't get me wrong, I'm not opposed to developing property. I just know that we should find relics and record all the history that we can before a place is gone. I notice now when I find iron relics that they are in much worse condition than the same type relics were when I started relic hunting. Brass and lead also deteriorate due to chemicals and fertilizer in the soil and water but iron is rusting away fast. Many items that could be found and saved now will not be anything but rust colored ground in another 30 years. The tens of thousands of relic hunters, artifact hunters and collectors are the primary people who save and care for the physical remains from these lost historical places. We pay for our own gas, expenses and equipment. We don't ask for any government grants. We don't get paid wages to pursue our worthy hobby. We are the people who write the reference books used by schools, museums, collectors and the public. We are the folks who gave or lent almost all of the historical relics that are in museums. We are the guys and gals that go to the schools and talk and display history to your kids. We don't get paid for our efforts and that is just fine with us. The research and thrill of the hunt is what we like. Just like with a bass fisherman, it's not about the fish. It's about catching the fish. With us, it's about finding the relics and the history. We are the good guys. Recorded history benefits from our efforts.
Now on with my story. Robert and I are just plain old relic hunters. Old is the key word. We are amateur relic hunters and amateur archaeologists. What amateur means is that we don't get paid. It means we do what we do for love, not money. Between the two of us, we have seventy years of experience in finding, saving and preserving relics from the War Between the States.
We found a small area that had the routine busted iron pieces that probably came from stoves and cooking pans. Robert kept hunting in the junkie area and found a 24 lb. solid cannonball. Robert is one of the best relic hunters anywhere but he has only found two whole cannonballs. He looks for lead and brass. I look for cannonballs and have found about 500 on land and underwater. I have only found 20 belt buckles while Robert has found over 100. Robert has found about 50 Confederate belt buckles. He also finds lots of buttons while I rarely find any buttons.
We hunted this area and I found a 24 lb. canister plate. These two items for the same cannon pretty much means there was a 24 lb. cannon there. Robert found an adjuster buckle from a Confederate sword belt. He also found a broken piece of a CS Tongue and Wreath buckle. We found three entrenching tools and an ax. Robert says the ax was a US issue, so we can assume that it was confiscated from the invaders. This was a Confederate place, no Yankees allowed. We found several more items before we tired out. Hopefully we will find more relics and be able to learn more about the soldiers that were there. This is not a very big area and not terribly important to the grand scheme of things. It is a place that had not been written about and no other relic hunters have been there before us. We found it. We have found many great places over the years and each time we do we add to the known history of the War Between the States. We are the good guys just like almost all of the relic hunters and collectors are. We are not looters, scavengers, plunderers or any other derogatory word that the jealous professionals like to call us. We are the good guys.
Wednesday, Feb 1st the quarterly meeting of the Alabama Historical Commission will be in the auditorium of our State Capitol. The public meeting starts at 1:30 pm. Several interesting subjects will be discussed and voted on by the AHC directors. You can't vote but you can say what you think. Some of the directors will probably get up and walk out before the first public citizen is allowed to speak. Others will stay and at least listen. Possibly we can influence what happens at the AHC. Not all of the directors are bad, some are very good but they are outnumbered by directors with conflicting interests, politically correct agendas and those who just couldn't care less. I am very worried about the new regulations concerning the Alabama Underwater Cultural Resources Act. At the November meeting, new regulations that are much more friendly worded were proposed to the public by the AHC. Public comments were accepted until Dec. 9th. Many excellent comments were received in overwhelming support of public access to our waters by divers and relic hunters. We approved of the new regulations. Now I am being told that there may be further delays on the new regulations. I fear any further delay can be a disaster such as the constant delays concerning the Wheeler House. Alabama?s dive industry and divers have been trying since 1999 to fix these terrible regulations that we now have. During the last few months at least three more scuba training businesses have been forced to go out of business in Alabama. Southeastern Divers in Florence had been in business about thirty years at that location. The Dive Site in Hoover had been in business about twenty-five years and had been the largest dive store in Alabama. I'm not saying that the AHC regulations put the businesses out of business but they helped. We now have the worst diving regulations in the country. If other dive stores continue to close down, where will divers go to fill their scuba tanks? Where will our citizens learn to scuba dive? Are Alabama citizens going to be held back from what the rest of the world can do? The AHC can give us the new regulations that they proposed, NOW. We can't wait. Please come to this meeting next Wednesday.
Steve Phillips
Southern Skin Divers Supply
4515 5th Ave South
Birmingham, AL 35222
205-595-3052
www.ssdsupply.com
There you go. For a change lets give credit where credit is due. I've been trying to go relic hunting on land a couple of times each week so I'll get enough exercise and not be in bad shape when I go to Alaska this Summer to mine gold. Friday, my old friend Robert McDaniel and I went relic hunting in Mississippi. We have been looking for some unknown sites in that area. We were given permission to look on some land that hasn't been built on or otherwise lost. Many of the places where we found relics 30 years ago are now subdivisions or shopping centers. Don't get me wrong, I'm not opposed to developing property. I just know that we should find relics and record all the history that we can before a place is gone. I notice now when I find iron relics that they are in much worse condition than the same type relics were when I started relic hunting. Brass and lead also deteriorate due to chemicals and fertilizer in the soil and water but iron is rusting away fast. Many items that could be found and saved now will not be anything but rust colored ground in another 30 years. The tens of thousands of relic hunters, artifact hunters and collectors are the primary people who save and care for the physical remains from these lost historical places. We pay for our own gas, expenses and equipment. We don't ask for any government grants. We don't get paid wages to pursue our worthy hobby. We are the people who write the reference books used by schools, museums, collectors and the public. We are the folks who gave or lent almost all of the historical relics that are in museums. We are the guys and gals that go to the schools and talk and display history to your kids. We don't get paid for our efforts and that is just fine with us. The research and thrill of the hunt is what we like. Just like with a bass fisherman, it's not about the fish. It's about catching the fish. With us, it's about finding the relics and the history. We are the good guys. Recorded history benefits from our efforts.
Now on with my story. Robert and I are just plain old relic hunters. Old is the key word. We are amateur relic hunters and amateur archaeologists. What amateur means is that we don't get paid. It means we do what we do for love, not money. Between the two of us, we have seventy years of experience in finding, saving and preserving relics from the War Between the States.
We found a small area that had the routine busted iron pieces that probably came from stoves and cooking pans. Robert kept hunting in the junkie area and found a 24 lb. solid cannonball. Robert is one of the best relic hunters anywhere but he has only found two whole cannonballs. He looks for lead and brass. I look for cannonballs and have found about 500 on land and underwater. I have only found 20 belt buckles while Robert has found over 100. Robert has found about 50 Confederate belt buckles. He also finds lots of buttons while I rarely find any buttons.
We hunted this area and I found a 24 lb. canister plate. These two items for the same cannon pretty much means there was a 24 lb. cannon there. Robert found an adjuster buckle from a Confederate sword belt. He also found a broken piece of a CS Tongue and Wreath buckle. We found three entrenching tools and an ax. Robert says the ax was a US issue, so we can assume that it was confiscated from the invaders. This was a Confederate place, no Yankees allowed. We found several more items before we tired out. Hopefully we will find more relics and be able to learn more about the soldiers that were there. This is not a very big area and not terribly important to the grand scheme of things. It is a place that had not been written about and no other relic hunters have been there before us. We found it. We have found many great places over the years and each time we do we add to the known history of the War Between the States. We are the good guys just like almost all of the relic hunters and collectors are. We are not looters, scavengers, plunderers or any other derogatory word that the jealous professionals like to call us. We are the good guys.
Wednesday, Feb 1st the quarterly meeting of the Alabama Historical Commission will be in the auditorium of our State Capitol. The public meeting starts at 1:30 pm. Several interesting subjects will be discussed and voted on by the AHC directors. You can't vote but you can say what you think. Some of the directors will probably get up and walk out before the first public citizen is allowed to speak. Others will stay and at least listen. Possibly we can influence what happens at the AHC. Not all of the directors are bad, some are very good but they are outnumbered by directors with conflicting interests, politically correct agendas and those who just couldn't care less. I am very worried about the new regulations concerning the Alabama Underwater Cultural Resources Act. At the November meeting, new regulations that are much more friendly worded were proposed to the public by the AHC. Public comments were accepted until Dec. 9th. Many excellent comments were received in overwhelming support of public access to our waters by divers and relic hunters. We approved of the new regulations. Now I am being told that there may be further delays on the new regulations. I fear any further delay can be a disaster such as the constant delays concerning the Wheeler House. Alabama?s dive industry and divers have been trying since 1999 to fix these terrible regulations that we now have. During the last few months at least three more scuba training businesses have been forced to go out of business in Alabama. Southeastern Divers in Florence had been in business about thirty years at that location. The Dive Site in Hoover had been in business about twenty-five years and had been the largest dive store in Alabama. I'm not saying that the AHC regulations put the businesses out of business but they helped. We now have the worst diving regulations in the country. If other dive stores continue to close down, where will divers go to fill their scuba tanks? Where will our citizens learn to scuba dive? Are Alabama citizens going to be held back from what the rest of the world can do? The AHC can give us the new regulations that they proposed, NOW. We can't wait. Please come to this meeting next Wednesday.
Steve Phillips
Southern Skin Divers Supply
4515 5th Ave South
Birmingham, AL 35222
205-595-3052
www.ssdsupply.com
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