Recent and Upcoming Events

Hey everyone!  I thought I'd let you know, I probably won't have a lot of time to detect in the next two weeks.  Don't worry, I won't leave you without posting - and I'll have a mega-update in mid-November.  I'm getting everything in order to attend the "Diggin' in Virginia XIX" event on the weekend of November 11th.  DIV is an invitational group relic hunt held in or around Culpeper, Virginia.  Hundreds of relic hunters from around the country will be gathered on 500+ acres of Civil War battle sites and long-term camps.  (All sites are on private property with owners permission, of course).  The event will consist of three days of metal detecting, hut excavation, a lecture on the Civil War history of the site, and seminars covering modern improvements in metal detecting technology and techniques.  I can't wait!!  I will have lots of pictures and video to share with you all when I get back, and hopefully some more interesting relics from the War Between the States.

In other news, I attended the monthly meeting of the Triangle Relic Recovery club on Tuesday, which is always a blast.  I got to see some friends and a few new faces, as well as a host of great relics and coins on display.  I was very fortunate to have been voted the "best display" at the meeting (I have an upcoming post planned on my latest budget display project) as well as 1st place for the "best relic" of the month, the Virginia State Seal button with original thread found here at Victory Calls Stables.  I also received second place for the "best coin" category with my 1927 Standing Liberty Quarter.  First place went to Ken with an outstanding pocket spill - three barber quarters found in the same hole.  Way to go Ken! 

I hadn't been paying much attention to year-end-award points, but I did quite well at both this meeting and the last one, which brought me up to second place overall.  I'm still quite a ways behind my hunting partner Brad for first, but it's possible if I come up with a couple of really great finds this month.  I'm going to try!  But the third-place hunter (John from my Bentonville trips) is an experienced and consistent detectorist, and he won't make it easy for me to hold on to 2nd place.  A little friendly competition can be quite motivating!

While I can't get out detecting much until DIV (and during some of the colder months ahead) I'll be focusing my posts on research and previous finds.  I still have a lot of history in my collection that I'd like to share with you all as the months go by.  If there's anything in particular you'd like to hear more about, please let me know in the comments section below or email me.  Thanks for looking, and God Bless!

Detecting Report: Battle of Bentonville

Yesterday I took a trip with some of my detecting friends John, Bubba, and the other Tony to a site near the Battle of Bentonville.  The battle took place over three days in March of 1865, the last major battle between General Sherman of the Union Army and General Johnston of the Confederacy.  It involved some 80,000 men with over 400 killed and 2800 wounded.  Johnston retreated from the battle, and failed in achieving a critical victory against the much larger Northern force.  He surrendered his army to General Sherman at Bennett Place near Durham just a little over a month later.

Despite some technical difficulties (my White's DFX is now in the shop for repairs), we had a great day and pulled some nice dropped bullets and worked camp lead.  Check out the video of the day.  We also had out monthly meeting of the Triangle Relic Recovery club in Raleigh after our trip.  I'm pleased to have won the "best finds" award this month for best coin (186X Nickel Three Cent) and best relic (I'll be doing a blog post on this one in the future, it's one of my best so far!).  My detecting partner Brad also won the "best display" category for the month with a truly impressive amount of historic finds including a beautiful Federal army cavalry spur, featured here.

Thanks for looking, and I hope you enjoyed!  And if you really enjoyed it, please join our fan page on Facebook!

Featured Find: M1859 US Cavalry Spur, Hillsborough

This isn't my find, but it comes from my good friend Brad from Mebane.  I'm sure I'll be mentioning him in the future, as we metal detect together quite a lot.  He was detecting over in Hillsborough, NC at the kind of site I typically enjoy - not a lot of targets, but every one of them is old.  The best find for the day is this simply BEAUTIFUL model 1859 US cavalry spur.  The rowel (revolving disc) is missing from the neck, but on many dug examples the neck is broken off altogether.  The hooks for the fastening straps are bent inwards, but the yoke (body of the spur that goes around the heel) is quite straight.  The patina on this spur is simply lovely, and the characteristic M1859 foliate design around the neck shows nicely.  These spurs tend to be associated with production at the Allegheny Arsenal in Pennsylvania, and would have been issued to an enlisted cavalry soldier.  Overall, this is one of the better Civil War finds I have seen recovered in this area in recent months.

Congratulations, Brad, on the stellar find!

Welcome to Detecting Saxapahaw!

Hey there, and welcome to Detecting Saxapahaw!

This blog is dedicated to preserving the history of Saxapahaw, NC and surrounding cities and towns through the documentation of research and recovered artifacts.  My name is Tony Stevenson, Saxapahaw resident since 2008.  I had used a metal detector in the past to search for coins and jewelry on beach vacations, but it never occurred to me that it could be used to foster a connection with our history.  That realization came when my wife and I purchased Victory Calls Stables three years ago.  We purchased the property with no indication of what had been there previously (the house was built in 1970), but the sheer magnitude of the massive oak trees caught my interest.  How old were they?  What might they have seen?  Who walked under the expansive canopies?

I began my search for the past at the UNC’s North Carolina Collection reading room, where the curator retrieved a large map drafted by William Luther Spoon in 1893 (there will certainly be a future blog post on the Spoon maps of Alamance County).  It didn’t take long to locate our property, with a small black rectangle indicating a home site with the name “Miss. S. A. Webb.”

My research into the Webb family, a labor of love if there ever was one, has taken countless hours of library and internet research.  A summary of my Webb family biography, as well as a sneak peak of some of the artifacts I will be detailing on this blog, can be found at the Victory Calls website.  Webb family researchers are encouraged to contact me, as I have quite a bit more information and additional pictures which are not yet published on the internet.

I don’t remember exactly when my “ah-HA!” moment came with regards to metal detecting, but not long after I began researching I realized that I could go beyond reading about these individuals and search for an even more tangible connection.  I took my trusty Garrett GTA1000 Metal detector out into the fields around VCS, and the rest (if you’ll excuse the pun) is history.  I have since been a member of both the Triangle Relic Recovery club in Raleigh and the Old North State Detectorists club from Greensboro.  In 2010, I worked alongside professionals from the North Carolina Office of State Archeology and other volunteer detectorists in a systematic survey of the Alamance Battlegrounds historical site (I recovered the musket ball in the above photo from that battle).  I have been detecting at dozens of local historical sites, including homes, fields, churches, and even one private residence on the National Register of Historic Places.  I will be telling many of the stories of my favorite spots and most interesting finds over the coming weeks and months.

Please check back to this blog as I update with information about detecting finds and the people and places that have interacted with them (both present and past).  If you would like to learn about the art of metal detecting, let me know – I’m always looking for new hunting partners.  Some of my detecting colleagues will most certainly be featured in the future as guest bloggers or interviews.

Last but certainly not least, I can’t make exciting finds without exciting locations to find them.  If you live in central North Carolina and would like me to search for your property’s history, please contact me by email (tony@victorycallsridng.com) or through the Detecting Saxapahaw facebook group!  I look forward to hearing from you.

Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoy my work.
Sincerely,
Tony Stevenson
Detecting Saxapahaw