Over the last nine years I'd gone from hunting with an entry level metal detector to a $1,400 machine. I'd seen it all, and done it all, at least locally.
I'd made progress over the years: I'd learned my machines, their language, and managed to get myself onto sites where the potential for Colonial artifacts were outstanding.

For anyone in the hobby, there are artifacts that are the stuff of dreams… A Pine aTree Shilling, a Washington Button… I'd rubbed elbows with people who'd found these, and I reckoned that if I'd kept at it, my turn would come. I felt it in my gut.

Eventually, I would come to find not only a Washington button, but another less known button belonging to that same family, a Washington Mourning button. I also was able to come across a very rare
and unique item, a 1775 counterfeit Eight Reales coin. One of a kind, as I was told by an expert on counterfeit Colonial coinage. But still, I wanted more.

In New England, the cellar hole is the focus of many a detectorist, treasure hunter, or relic hunter, depending on which term one chooses for one's self. Of out of about one hundred of these cellar holes I'd come across and detected only two seemed to be "virgin": untouched and undetected since the day they were abandoned by their inhabitants. One of these, the last one, came courtesy of a friend of mine with whom I immediately felt a good connection with. I found a gorgeous 1784 Half Reales there, and he came away with a handful of old coppers. He, just as I, had done a good share of research in order to find long forgotten sites that others may have overlooked.

And then one day, I stumbled upon something rather unique and special. Material that was not readily available to others, and not on the internet: the tale of the first settlers in one specific area in a neighboring state.

As it turned out, while looking through a collection of historical material at a friend's house, I found hints and clues to the original location of a now well established town in New England. The funny thing is that the original location is miles aways from where the town stands today. Did anybody else know about this? There was only one way to find out.

I phoned my friend, and explained to him what I'd found. He was interested, and ready to partake in any further research. We mutually agreed that this was something worth checking out. Over the course of a couple of days we reviewed the historical documents and plotted a course. This was going to be quite the road trip, and whether or not it was worth our time and effort could only be determined by going there with our detectors. That's the only way to know: go there, and detect.

The initial challenge was getting permission to the land. We did it. The next challenge was to find the sites where people had built their rudimentary homes in the early and mid-1700s. We had approximately 400 acres at our disposal to explore, but it amounted to a giant haystack. Much of what we had to fall back on while on site was just common sense: "where would you build a cabin, or dig into the side of a mountain?"… "On the south side, of course!"

Looking at the map and the GPS, it all seemed accessible, but being there, surrounded by woods and nothing else to go by forced a reality check.

The mosquitoes were relentless. I'd not seen so many ever before, and I wondered how they'd managed to survive out their before we'd arrived.

The woods were thick and old, and even in the slightest of clearings the flora and undergrowth presented a hefty obstacle for swinging a coil. But we'd found a level area, with slightly less vegetation than the surrounding forest, and a on a hunch, we switched on our detectors. After just a couple of minutes I got a signal worth digging.

To be continued...