I had a day where I got off early from work and I ride to go scope my new permission dt. I call my buddy Steven who’s teaching me and my buddies about privy digging we probe around a bit trying to learn where we might Think the privy might be as we walk around finding old bottles on top of the ground we come to the conclusion where it might be and he has to go home for dinner so it’s time to detect a bit. I turn on my Equinox 800 running a super wide open group of settings I run so that I can hear all the different sounds to pick out good targets in iron and the Equinox’s 5” coil to get better separation from the large iron targets. I start getting good signal after good signal digging two wheat Pennies a couple flat buttons and some old furniture pieces. My next target was very smooth sounding stuck out like a sore thumb and double repeating like it’s on top of the ground so I immediately grab my pen pointer which was the Minelab Pro Find 35 that discriminates Iron and move some dirt and out pops this super small target and all I can see is what looks like a brooch clip on the back so I flip it over and I see writing so excited I spring to my feet letting out a haler with no one around to hear me lol. So I immediately send pictures to every one lol we have a most of the time hilarious group text. Then we all start to realize the importance of the find quickly my buddy Bryann said this is going to be something big with that date and F.C on it so he ran down to join me digging. We rounded off the day with not to much more. Let the research begin on what exactly I had found so when I got home I immediately put on ID me on Facebook to try and get some confirmation on what we believe to be a Fire Company badge dated 1861 the year of the great Charleston fire. Right as it was confirmed the next day I received a frantic phone call from my buddy Chris saying I need to call grant ASAP I was currently out swinging one of my old permissions that gave up a few Charleston slave hire badges and a bunch of military buttons so I stop go back to my Jeep for lunch and call grant. Grant is a buddy of ours that helps run the gulla Society and we help him locate lost slave cemeteries so they can be preserved for everyone to visit helping preserve the history. I called him and a very overly excited grant said dude I’ve good new and good news not only did I just get the detectors y’all helped me get from Minelab for the gulla society but do you realize what you found? I said that’s great I’m glad we could help with that, and yes a fire badge he said not just any fire badge this badge proves my career long theory of there being a Freemans volunteer fire company pre emancipation! I said you have got to be kidding me.... he said no I’m not there hasn’t been a single pice of evidence found to ever prove freeman fire fighters existed until now and you proved it. Ecstatic at what I just heard I ask him how he knew it. Turns out the initials at the bottom of the badge lead to a very impressive gentleman named W.P.Perry born free pre emancipation! Grant with his tons and tons of research he has from the gulla society and his work for the Charleston fire museum. We were able to see who he was where he lived when he joined the fire department, when he passed away and the plot of land he was buried in along with his wife. Pretty amazing if you ask me something that no one knew existed ending up under my Equinox coil something that changes Charleston history! I’m honoured to be a part of this find and helping save the history!
Axel - North America
