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Available Now! *This is a Print on Demand by the Author To purchase please email the author at david@daviddholt.com FULL COLOR 8 x 11 COPIES: $22.95 Black & White 8 x 11 Copies: $14.95 PDF file E-BOOK: $9.50 Kindle $7.75  |
My quest began many years ago as a child somewhere on the back roads of northern Illinois. I must have been around nine or ten years old, maybe even younger than that. I remember my Dad stopping at what I believe was a gas station. There it all began, there was this older couple who where showing off their success at detecting Lincoln Park in Chicago. My dad brought me and the rest of the family over to see what they were showing: two of those 3 gallon metal buckets full to the rim with coins! The silver seem two sparkle as I remember it under he blazing sun. I still can see those two buckets to this day, thirty years later. That was what got me hooked even before I had a detector and it would be several years before my father could afford to buy them for myself and my brother as well as himself and Mom. When they finally did come, I was ecstatic with joy. Now I was ready to make my fortune. At the time we lived in Virginia Beach, Virginia. That $65.00 Bounty Hunter TR 500 would become the rock that would well my craving for coins and relics. Many coins and relics did I find over the years with that little machine. I could accurately within 98% identify the target before digging just by listening to the sound. Over the course of almost ten years, that machine paid for itself over and over. You can see it pictured below with an assortment of finds from the 2nd Virginia Championship Treasure Hunt-1977.
During the course of the hunt my family and I stayed in a camper we owned. Only my Dad and myself participated in the hunt. My mom and brother cheered us on. Some of the coins and artifacts were found in the campgrounds that were not part of the hunt. I found some of my first Civil War relics there: two fired bullets, one unfired pistol cartridge. Time passed and my dad was stationed elsewhere so we had to leave the relic laden fields of Virginia to the swampy hot climate of Florida. Once I entered high school my detecting quest started to fade as until my mid-twenties when I got the bug again. By this time Mom and Dad lost interest so his Whites Coinmaster and her Garrett passed to me. For ten years I searched using that machine, living sometimes in Florida or South Carolina after I left the armed forces. During the time I lived in Columbia, South Carolina near my Uncle Jack Holt who lived near Gilbert, I was constantly out and searching the surrounding country side for possible Civil War activity sites. Not finding too much led me to another area of detecting. You guessed it Homesteading! Since then that's been my mission in life. Especially since moving back to Florida during the spring of 1989. I have always missed the relic-laden fields of Virginia; my wish is to someday hunt there again. Now, I have a family, and not keeping my hobby to myself, my wife Terry and I bought our boys detectors as they were asking for them every time I went out to the field. Luckily the land we own is in the heart of a ghost town called Ridgewood. So far over the years this ghost town has given up some nice relics and coins as will be shown later in this book. Taking my boys under my wing, I've shown them the proper ways of detecting that illustrate the meaning fulness of our hobby. They know that they must follow the rules in order to become successful at it.
Always seek permission, remove dug up trash and fill your holes in. I've instilled that into them, knowing that the
future of our hobby passes to them in how they conduct their selves. I've told them that others not following the
ules of detecting have hurt our hobby quite considerably and that through careful training, proper planning and research
would grant them success in there detecting futures. Now my only advice is too whomever reads this book, I sincerely
hope that my views are shared with yours on how we conduct ourselves in the field. I've been turned away from more
that one good site on account of past detectorists who did not respect the property owners land. In order for our hobby
to be enjoyed not only by ourselves, but for the future generations to enjoy, we must leave the area better than we found
it. Metal detecting is a privilege, not a right and everyday our hobby is being restricted in some way. Lets not only
train the children, let's train ourselves as well. Good luck and good, safe hunting.
©Copyright 2004-2012 David D Holt. All Rights Reserved.