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4" Metal Arrowhead

13 Aug 2017

I had the opportunity to volunteer for the local BLM office in Buffalo Wyoming through the Passport In Time projects. Passport in Time uses volunteers to assist BLM and Forest service agencies with archaeological projects around the US. We were doing an electronic archaeology dig of an area of over 40 acres thought to be the location of several small Calvary / Indian battles along the Bozeman Trail outside Buffalo. We were trying to find period artifacts, bullets and percussion caps dated to the era of the battles. As I normally hunt gold nuggets, I thought the GPX-4500 would be excellent for finding the small percussion caps. The GPX delivered. Up against the other detectors, using the 16" Commander Mono Coil, I had no shortage of targets to dig. On day two I got a signal a little outside the area we were searching. I had dug down around ten inches when I saw what looked like the tip of a leather needle. As I dug a little more, it became apparent that it was the tip end of a trade arrowhead pointing straight up. I called for the archaeologist to help dig it out carefully. It came out fully intact, with a light crust of rust. He said it was only the second trade point he had seen in his career. This one was a little longer than normal and was an awesome specimen. Trade points were made from wagon wheel steel, old cast iron pans, and junk iron and traded to the Indians in the mid 1800's. This one will be sent to be curated at the University of Wyoming after the study is complete. Overall I would guess I and 6 other detectorists uncovered over 500 targets in the five days I was there. We were able to definitely find three different area's that looked like evidence from three different era's. The GPX-4500 sure had a workout uncovering artifacts in the middle of nowhere.

Chris Spencer - WY, USA.

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