Eureka News Feed

Eureka turns out to search for lost $8000 cochlear implant

noreply@blogger.com (Eureka) — Sun, 14 Oct 2012 23:09:00 +0000

Reese braving the cold

Article by Ron Erickson

At our February 2012 meeting we had a couple of guests on a mission. Cathy Mansur attended the meeting with her adult son and her 8 year old granddaughter Reese. They were in need of some help and I am proud to say the club responded. With the temp at 17 degrees according to the gauge in Linda’s car, I was not sure how many members would turn out. We had approximately 15 hunters show up. With a fresh dusting of powder it was easy to see where we had covered the ground and it was good training
for some who had become sloppy with their coverage. Unfortunately, after more than three hours, we did find the cochlear implant that had been lost while sledding.at a cost of $8000 it will be hard to replace. There have been several groups contacted to help with the cost involved but as of 2-23-12 they still have not been able to replace the Implant.

Treasure hunting group gives $500 to Gilpin County’s submarine fund

noreply@blogger.com (Eureka) — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 04:13:00 +0000

Colorado Gambler
by editorial on March 15, 2011
By Linda Jones

The Eureka Treasure Hunters Club, a Colorado-based treasure-hunting group, awarded $500 to the Gilpin County Historical Society for its Submarine Fund. Eureka Club President Ron Erickson presented the check on March 1 at Central City Hall to GCHS President Martie Fast.
This check is the largest gift yet to the Submarine Fund. The cost of purchasing and transporting the 1898 submarine exceeded $10,000, but the society considered it a priority to keep the submarine in Gilpin County. No other submarine was ever built in Colorado and the story surrounding this historic sub only adds to its uniqueness. The Grand Unveiling of the strange relic, which now rests in the Gilpin History Museum in Central City a few hundred yards from where it was constructed, will be at 11 a.m. on Saturday, May 28.

Treasure hunting, or metal detector searching, is the avocation of the 120 members of the Eureka Club, who include Terry Krelle, Central City police chief. A top priority of the club is bonding with historical societies and museums, Erickson said. The group finds many artifacts and treasures in their hunts and they want to preserve these historical objects in local museums for future generations. Most of their monthly digs take place at historic Indian sites and fort locations on the plains and at mining towns in the mountains.

Some metro area police departments have requested the group’s assistance in locating evidence, which they’re happy to provide, but history is the lure for most of these hunters and occasionally some rich finds are made. Steve Montano, vice president of the club, said, “I was just playing around in the park behind my house when I found a ring. It appraised for $8,000.” The hunters get very excited when they can return a lost object. Montano said, “It’s fun to locate the owners.” He checked with the police and every way he could, but never found the owner of the ring.

Erickson chimed in with a story about his wife’s co-worker, who lost her wedding ring, a family heirloom, in their yard. After endless searching of her house and its plumbing, the woman realized she must have lost it in her yard and put a memo out at work asking if anyone knew someone with a metal detector. Erickson and his wife Linda have a dozen of them and volunteered to search for the ring. Within five minutes Erickson located the ring worth $25,000.

Modern metal detectors are nothing like they were even 15 years ago. The metal detectors tell the operator exactly what’s been located and some even display a picture of the located object. Historical relics are Erickson’s favorite finds, such as coins, kitchen tools, dolls and trade tokens. In Victor he found a token from the Pioneer Saloon. His most memorable find was a token from Fort Wallace on the Kansas border, which was the last post the immigrants would find on the Smoking Hill Trail before arriving in Denver. Leadville is a favorite hunting ground for artifacts. Erickson calls his passion “Easter egg hunting for adults.”

For more information on the Eureka Club and how to join, call 303-279-3584 or visit www.eurekathc.com

American Digger in Colorado

noreply@blogger.com (Eureka) — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 02:59:00 +0000

Article by Jeff Lubbert

My favorite magazine is American Digger. For those of you who are not familiar with this publication, it is the “Magazine for the diggers and collectors of American Heritage”. Basically it’s published by and for relic hunters, which is what I prefer to do with my detecting time. Butch and Anita Holcombe live in the Atlanta,
Georgia region and are the force behind this wonderful bi-monthly periodical. My collection of American Digger starts with Volume 1, Issue 1 and continues with no end in sight. I have written a couple of articles, one of which was in Volume 4, Issue 6 (Nov-Dec 2008) and the other is currently going through their editing
process it will be published in the next couple of months I have also had a few items in their “Just Dug” section as well.

A few years ago Butch came up with the idea of a regular article called “American Digger on the Road” where he would visit American Digger readers across the nation, attempting to find at least one historical artifact from every state in the Union. Instantly I became a fan of this regular article and it started me thinking,
why not invite them out to Colorado. So I sent Butch an email extending my invitation to come and do some relic hunting with me and my regular crew of detecting buddies. Shortly after the inception of the “On the Road” series of articles, Butch became so involved in the day to day running of the magazine that the article series was on the brink of going by the way side. This is when John Velke came into the picture, he was a long time digger and author but at that time only an acquaintance of Butch and Anita’s. Through the grape vine he heard of the timing conflicts that Butch was having and volunteered to split the duties of writing the series. Due to a series of events neither Butch nor John could make it out to Colorado for the first two years following my invitation. I assured them that my invitation was open-ended and whenever they could make it out here, I would make things work from my end.

Finally this spring things were starting to work out, John could come out the weekend of the 4th of July. John was set to fly in on Friday afternoon and out on Monday morning. That left us only two days for some serious relic hunting, that is, if Mother Nature cooperated. I picked John up at the Airport and we headed to the best metal detecting and prospecting store in a seven state region, Gold-N-Detectors. I wanted John to see some of the relics that I have as well as some of the caches that Bill has found that are on display in Bill’s shop. Bill had scanned the cover of the latest issue of AD and placed it along with a welcome to John on his front door. John was very impressed with it and really liked that welcome. After that we headed towards my house as I arranged for a BBQ that night in order for John to meet his future hunting partners. Good food and swapping of stories were the theme of the night. Soon enough it was time for clean up and off to bed as we planned to get an early start Saturday morning. Saturday John and I arose shortly before sunrise, loaded my truck with our gear and headed over to pick up Ron and Linda Erickson and then onward towards Leadville.

Since John lives near sea level, I wanted to give him a taste of some high altitude relic hunting. We headed towards an area that I have done well in the past and was hoping for a return of some of that luck. Well, we hunted pretty darn hard for several hours with little to show for our efforts. There were a few pieces of pocket watch, some blasting caps, some bits and pieces, a spoon and saw blade. Sunday morning was once again hitting the road shortly after sun rise. This time the prairie schooner, Ron’s van was our mode of transportation. We were headin’ east to an 1870’s military post so the gathering point was my house. Fitting six people and all our gear in a single vehicle was a small miracle; it is a darn good thing for a “Rocket Box” Ron had mounted to the rack on top of the van. Ron, Linda, Cliff McGaughey, Bill Chapman, John Velke and I crammed into the schooner and we were off.

Soon after arriving at the site, while most of us were just trying to get a nice positive signal, Cliff digs his first good signal. He wasn’t sure what it was as he had never found anything quite like it. He wandered over to get John’s thoughts as to what it may be. John gave Cliff an inquisitive look as he was not certain if Cliff was pulling his leg or not. Cliff reassured John that he had no idea what it was that he had just pulled from the soil. Well, that item was the hand guard from a sword. An INCREDIBLE start to the day! The rest of the morning continued with the usual bullets, casings and miscellaneous metal bits and pieces along with nearly a bucket of solder top can pieces and iron. During lunch we discussed following the trail out of the camp area to see if we could come across another area. I decided to walk as I have come to the conclusion that you don’t find much sitting in the vehicle. The others hopped in the van again and drove up trail to hit some likely looking spots. Ron ended up finding some dropped Spencer cartridges, which are great finds, along with a few other items. Cliff, on his way through that same area picked up a few miscellaneous pieces as well. More bullets, casings and soldier top cans and pieces of can were being dug. We were confident we were in the middle of a cavalry camp that up until that point had not been hunted. Woo-hoo!!

By day’s end we had all recovered several more bullets and casings. Linda found some nice general service buttons; Ron had recovered several dropped Spencer cartridges; I had found two pieces of the crossed sabers that won the July artifact FOM; Bill had an assist on the crossed sabers as he found one of the pieces; Cliff ended his day finding an 1874 Indian head penny; and John found a “bulls eye” canteen. Wow! What a great day of relic hunting. John has a l ready submitted his article to AD for editing and publication, the article should be coming out before the end of the year. You can pick up a copy of American Digger at Gold-NDetectors when the article comes out. Or better yet, subscribe and never miss an article.

Eureka Member Finds Two Superman Rings!

noreply@blogger.com (Eureka) — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 04:45:00 +0000

While detecting an old Denver park that was being renovated by the city, a Eureka member had the good fortune to find not one, but two Superman Rings from the 1940s! These rings are exceedingly rare. The ring is a silver metal ring with a brass Superman in the center, surrounded by the brass inscription "Supermen of America Member" on a red painted background. One side of the ring has two lightening bolts, and the other side has a planet.

The history behind this ring is that it was a Contest Prize Ring issued by DC Comics and promoted in the Superman and Action Comics. A total of 1600 rings were produced and then issued to "Supermen of America" club members. According to "experts," only 12 to 20 are known to exist, with only about 12 in "recognizable" condition.

With the Eureka member's find there are now two more know to exist. These rings have fetched prices in the tens of thousands of dollars in Ebay auctions based on their condition. Once professionally restored these two rings will be quite valuable and will make a great addition to an Americana collectors collection.

Eureka Members Aid Brighton Police

noreply@blogger.com (Eureka) — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 03:50:00 +0000

On Monday, February 8th, 2009 a Eureka member received an early morning call from a detective with the Brighton Police Department. They requested assistance in finding a handgun used in an attempted murder and later tossed into a large open field. In speaking with the detective, the member assured him he would be happy to lend a hand with his metal detector and thought about which other members of the Eureka club to contact.

After making some calls and rounding up a few Eureka members to aid in the hunt they met at the police station in Brighton and awaited direction from the detective in charge. By the time the members had reached Brighton, the officers of the Brighton P.D. were searching the residence of the suspect. The detective phoned and asked that Eureka members meet with them at the location to be searched.

Along with a large contingent of Brighton police officers, the field was searched for some two hours without finding the weapon. The Eureka members suggested that the Eureka club could give more assistance through the clubs PERT team volunteers. The detective said he would appreciate any aid that might be given.

On Saturday morning, several members of the Eureka Treasure Hunter’s Club met at the Brighton Police Department to resume the search in Brighton.

The terrain in the open field was difficult, overgrown in places with weeds, and with earthen dump piles in various places, but each member did their very best to find the handgun. The team searched for some 2 hours, covering a large area as directed by the police detective.

The areas around the dump pile were hard hunting for everyone, but each gave it their best effort. Where the weeds were overgrown was also difficult, but it was well covered by Eureka members. Although unsuccessful in finding the weapon, the detective in charge of the investigation was thankful for Eureka's help and said they’d keep Eureka in mind for future investigations where our members can help recover evidence.

Local Detectorist Returns Valuable Wedding Set

noreply@blogger.com (Eureka) — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 04:28:00 +0000

A local detectorist answered an email at work where someone was looking for a metal detector to find the lost rings. The detectorist graciously loaned the detector to the ring’s owner who was unsuccessful in finding it. The detectorist was subsequently called to the home and found the two separate platinum rings with diamonds about 2 feet from each other just under the turf. The rings estimated worth was in excess of $10,000, not to mention the sentimental value.