I was detecting a late 1800s property near my house when a neighbor stopped by and asked if I'd found anything interesting. I showed him the Indian Head Cent and other items I had collected during the day. He mentioned that there used to be a homesite back in his woods (some 200 yards from where we were at now) and that the stone foundation was still present. He told me to have at it and go whenever I'd like and good luck.
A couple days later during my lunch I decided I'd give it a try. I located the stone foundation and stumbled upon a lot of modern trash which appeared to be from a trash dump. I was a little discouraged and started walking back to my vehicle. I got a signal of a scratchy 15-17 and with little luck decided to dig it up. About three inches down was a cut Flying Eagle Cent! I went home excited and decided I would go back the next day over lunch and put on my 6 inch coil to cut through the trash.
The next day I branched out from where I found the Flying Eagle and dug an extremely ornate suspenders clip with a patent date of 1869. No more than five feet from the clip I got a solid 19-21 on my Equinox 800 and showed it to be three bars deep. As I started to pinpoint it seemed a little too large to be a coin and thought it might be large iron. I felt around in the hole and saw the rim of something and gently wiped away the mud/dirt on it when I saw the 'U' and my heart skipped a beat. As I carefully unearthed the item my hands were shaking as what I long thought I would never find in Iowa was resting in my palm. A Civil War belt buckle.
Had I not had my Equinox or the 6 inch coil on my detector, I don't think I would have found this historic artifact. My love for this machine and passion for detecting has grown and grown simply because of the finds and enjoyment I get from using Minelab products. You truly never know what you will find and where you will find it and this goes to show that even in the state of Iowa, that history can be found anywhere, including a forgotten homesite less than a mile from your home.
