I went back to the old house again and here is what I found.



An old lock


A bottle that says "Wallis & Giesecke Druggists Rockdale, Tx"


A 1919 wheat penny (no mint mark)


And a huge axe head that was in the first photo. I was hoping I would find some old silver coins, but I guess maybe next time.

The axe head you found appears to be a Broadhead Axe. It was used to square up logs for building and went out of major use after sawmills became common in the country. It should be flat on one side and beveled on the other and both left-hand and right-hand models were available. A fine find.

The pharmacy bottle you found dates back to the 1880's when Edward Gesecke, a druggist went into partnership with two medical doctors, R.C. Wallis and D.R. Wallis. It was common practice in those days for doctors to have their offices above the drug store and also have an interest in that enterprise.

Way ta go DJ, does my heart good to see you getting good hits. They are even better with all that
info Red has supplied.
My first thought on seeing that unbroken bottle was . . ." My gosh, how much could it have cost them to do a special run of bottles for a relatively small business ? " Usually think of custom personalised bottles for a Coca Cola sized outfit.

Other coin shooters are following your progress, You already know this, so just for them.

Even an inexpensive set of head phones will greatly increase chances of hearing that very
slightest buzz indicating a very small target OR a very LARGE target VERY DEEP.

To get the very deepest and smallest of signals, the discriminate mode should be ZERO. . . .if you can stand it ! Anything ferrous will ring, even a pin head [ in damp soil} ]

Good show

Thanks for that info Redman. I couldn't find anything on the medicine bottle when I tried researching it. Hal, this is a site on my aunts land so I can go anytime I want. Hopefully, I can show ya'll some good stuff for a while. I need to get some head phones for sure. I probably have missed a bunch of things. I have to weedeat before I even get started, so I'm limited to where I can detect. There's four or five oak trees around the house and I think next time I'm going to focus on them and see what I find.

good job dj. what county is that old house in?

Garrett with 9" & 6" coils but my most used is the least expensive Bounty Hunter, 9" open coil.

I was really pleased with the TINY bits of metal I was picking up, like an inch long piece of rusted
bailing wire. Since around middens & older ruins I dont use the discriminate, I gotta dig everything. It was wasting a LOT of valuable time to locate the object.
I bought that Garrett "pencil" detector. Just run the tip through the loosened soil to find target.
Around $90. OR, I epoxied a flat magnet on a piece of acrylic plastic to run through the soil, around .29 cents

Have not really found anything worth reporting, other than trying for trade points, I havent gone to much
effort for the usual coin shooting.

Thanks, Travis. The house is in Glen Rose about an hour or so from me.

Hey Hal, didn't know you were into metal detecting and that you looked for trade points. Well here' some I've found over the years with a MineLab. Hope you and DJ enjoy these.
That is a great bottle DJ. If I were hunting there I'd be headed strait for the privy. That's where the good stuff will be.
Happy Hunting. AL.C

I JUST KNEW IT. . . . . . Some people might fall for that " green Tomato " disguise but not me !

I've been detecting middens for YEARS with the sole goal to find at least ONE metal trade
point. All I got was interesting "objects" like diggers smoke pipes, broken pick points and
THOUSANDS of fence staples.

Thats a great selection of points you have and precicely what I have been suggesting to others
to check for even in Archaic middens / camps.

Thanks a lot for posting those.

great finds DJ. Love the trade points Al

Thanks guys. I'm going to try another spot tomorrow and I'll post if I find anything good. Those are cool metal points Al.

Just looked at DJ's finds again as long as I was over here looking at Al's iron.

Anybody else notice something REALLY odd but obvious about that padlock ?

You talking about something that is in reverse?

Times up. No key hole !

I saw that too but I thought that it probably rusted closed

I cleaned the lock (kinda) and you can see on the front it says, "PAT. FEB, 25, 1896. I guess to clean it better I need to do electrolysis. Here is a picture of mine and one that I got from my research.

Mine

Is that the type padlock they used to use on Wells Fargo stagecoaches? If so, you better be checking by the biggest tree, ten paces from the corner of the barn, or around that big "X" out in the field.

Guys, could you just tell me how to find a good place for metal detecting? I used to hunt on the hills, but no gain. Where are you guys usually go detecting?

K, you dont want to know where others have been detecting...whatever was there, they got !

Your own originality is what will produce finds. For example, instead of working the "hills"...sweep the very lowest drainages.

Just like many of the great shipwreck finds we hear of, they researched the archive for leads first....
Over the last 100 + years many small towns in Tx would have organised a rodeo or even a small carnival...They would have been just outside of town...find that area and you wont believe the finds.

When we lived in Frio county, old maps showed three other towns, now long gone. Two were depots for the train, places to stop for the old steam engines to get water. Once diesel came into play the towns dried up and vanished. The other town po****tion started moving out around the time of the depression and a fire destroyed the buildings. No signs any of them now, younger generations don't even know they exist. Old maps are a good place to check.

Years ago I found a bunch of old bottles in a ravine. It was a old lignite mining camp, the different types of bottles was very interesting.
Whiskey
perfume
medicine
embolming fluid
malted milk balls
there were a few more different ones, maybe I can get some pics posted when I get some extra time.