Metal Detecting Online

I have several finds that I treasure as good finds. Here is a picture of one of them...

This Lousisana Pelican buckle is broken. You can see it is split on the right wing of the pelican. I found the right hand side of this buckle at the bottom of a little sandy draw on the Spanish Fort Battlefield.
I found it in a little small Yankee camp. Everything else in this little area was eagle buttons and dropped 58 minies. The soil was white sand and everything looked great that was coming out. On the top of the ground was about 2-3 inches of leaves and pine straw..so you had to listen close to get the signals. Besides that we were using early Metrotech detectors... Once I found the right side of this pelican buckle I really slowed down and pounded the area. After not finding the lost piece of buckle that day..I went back over the next several weekends and finally raked the entire area hoping to find that piece of buckle. Never did find it...

About five years later..I was walking out of the woods from a day long hunt. This spot was several miles away from where I had found the pelican buckle. As I was walking out of the woods another hunter that I had never met walked out on the other side of the road. He had a huge smile on his face because he had just found a CS rectangle buckle. We met and had a big time enjoying his successful find. Once that excitement wore down I somehow mentioned my lost piece of pelican buckle. He asked me where I found it. Since I had given up all hope of finding the other piece I told him exactly where it had been found. He smiled and said to follow him to his house...he might have something for me..!!!

Once we got to his house he brought out another piece of a pelican buckle. It was the lost piece of buckle I had been looking for.!!! He had found it about six months before I found mine. He thought his was a part of a Yankee buckle since he only had a wing. That is why he did not spend a lot of time in the area looking for the rest of it.
He gave me the lost part of this buckle...and here it is for you to see. I would never have it fixed. It is too much fun telling the story.

That relic hunters name is Melvin Nelson. He is a legend down here on the coast. We have been great friends ever since we met coming out of the woods on opposite sides of the road. That was around 1974.

The Mayor