I have been fascinated with the past all my life. Although time travel is not possible (at least, as far as I know), we can still experience it through what I call "relics of the fourth dimension." Namely, as the old saying goes, "time marches on." We can't travel in the fourth dimension, except going forward in the present, but we can follow the trail of the fourth dimension. Along the way, people lose or discard items from their being. These relics are unintentional time capsules that give us as glimpse into their lives. Here on The Time Searchers blog, I will show some relics of the past that I have run across in our present. Sometimes when I am out on a relic hunt with the Colonial Relic Hunter, we know that we are not alone. There is more than just relics at these historical sites. Indeed, it could be said that there is a portal to the past, perhaps to another dimension, where that which once was, still is. A place where the real consorts with the shadows; the present fuses with the past, on Time Searchers: Ghost Relics.
The last day of the year 2015
reminds me of one of my all-time favorite movies: George Pal’s 1960 "The Time Machine”. This is a film that I first saw on late night
tv. When I was a kid, I would sneak out
to the living room of my parent’s house and turn the television on with the
volume turned way down. I would watch
the old time movies on the independent tv stations before the massive cable
television networks. One night I
stumbled upon the Time Machine movie. I
was totally captivated. This film really
sparked my interest in the concept of time travel. The trailer for the film is right below:
Rod Taylor, the star of the film
passed away early in 2015. One of my
biggest regrets is that I didn’t get an opportunity to interview him for our program. He was a very nice guy and not some Hollywood
phony. This film is a classic that I
screen every so often. Thanks again Rod,
We will miss you and this 1960 classic still inspires us.
I hope all your ambitions for 2016
come true. For the Time Searchers, we
plan new adventures with great finds (we hope).
Thanks for your support of the Time Searchers program and blog-The Time
Searcher.
Digging through my archives, I came across this postcard from 1906. Christmas is a time to reflect on the past year and celebrate with your family. On the blog and the Time Searchers program, we show treasures from the past. But, the greatest treasure you have is your family. We celebrate the birth of Christ and we celebrate our families. Those times are priceless. So take the time with your family and enjoy every second, because one day you won't have those seconds.
Merry Christmas from the Time Searcher, Colonial Relic Hunter, and the Time Searchers Production staff.
Tomorrow is Christmas Eve, so here is our gift to you; part two of our return to the Lost Colonial Village. This time the Colonial Relic Hunter makes a find of a lifetime, an original colonial spoon mold buried for over two hundred years. Meanwhile, the Time Searcher finds a Colonial button.
We'll have more finds coming soon!! Enjoy the video and if you haven't already, please subscribe to keep up to date on all videos we upload!
Here is a handmade button that I recently found at the Lost Colonial Village. It has the British Crown and dates to the 1750's or early 1760's. Most likely it was from a British soldier or Colonial Militia volunteer.
We have more exciting finds coming soon, so keep checking back. You never know what we're going to find next!
Here's a 1950's Hubley Stake Bed Toy Truck that I ran across a few days ago. Today kids want high tech gifts. Back in the 1950's a boy would have been thrilled to receive a Hubley toy truck like this one. I think a kid today needs both the high tech stuff and the basic toys like this to exercise their imaginations.
While sorting through some items I bought earlier this year, I came across this photo. It shows a recruiting poster for a National Guard Regiment in Pittsburgh, PA. What's interesting is that my research shows there was an 18th Infantry Regiment but nothing on an 18th heavy artillery regiment. Maybe it was a component of the Infantry Regiment. Also, note that it refers to the Regiment being "Pittsburgh Finest Club." Indeed, from the early militia in Colonial America up to World War II, these local militia units that later became National Guard ones acted as social clubs for men in a community. After World War II, not as much. The young lady in the photo may have been waiting for her boyfriend or husband while he signed up.
Well fellow hunters, here it is. The first installment of the Return to the Lost Colonial Village that the Colonial Relic Hunter and I took in July.
In this episode, we feature the hike to the village, the spirit box session in which we try to find out more about the 7 gold coins the spirits told us about the previous time we were at the site last season, and the Colonial Relic Hunter recovers a 1785 Spanish Two Reale coin.
Of course, if you haven't already, subscribe to the channel to have all uploaded videos from us on your YouTube homepage. You can also like us on Facebook (link in the sidebar), and we're always looking to hear from you.
Leave us a comment and let us know what you think!
In the spirit of giving, we here at the Time Searchers headquarters decided to give you another little teaser of the upcoming episode. In this clip, during a spirit box session, The Time Searcher himself is told his future....
The whole episode will be posted later and like always we'll let you know when that's up and ready to be viewed by you.
Here's a blog entry that I didn't intend to make this day, but I couldn't pass it up. The December 7 anniversary reminded me of a film called "The Final Countdown." It's a wonderful movie that explores the idea of time travel when a modern day U.S. Navy aircraft carrier encounters a stage storm-like vortex which disappears after the ship passes through it.
The entire ship and crew find themselves back in time to December 7, 1941. This situation raises the question of whether a person should intervene and change not only the history of that event, but the entire course of history. It is a question that all time travelers have to decide. That is, if time travel is really possible.
Here's the link to the trailer for this film. It's a Time Searchers recommended film.
74 years ago, a date which will forever live in infamy, Pearl Harbor was attacked. Here is a photo of a propaganda poster published by the U.S. Government in 1942, This poster reminds the public that the U.S. has to avenge the death and destruction that the Japanese caused us at Pearl Harbor. After the attack, the U.S. mobilized and destroyed the Japanese Empire. Japanese Admiral Tamamoto was right when he said that the Pearl Harbor attack had awoken a "sleeping giant".
The San Jose is believed to have been carrying 11 million gold coins and jewels from Spain's controlled colonies. The treasures could be worth billions of dollars.
The details of the financial arrangements between the Colombian government and the International Team of Experts it employed to discover the wreck have not been disclosed.
Check out the link below from CNN to find out what's going on with this incredible find.
The Colonial Relic Hunter and I were able to do another expedition to the Lost Colonial Village right before Thanksgiving. We made some exciting finds on this trip. I was fortunate in finding this medieval coin that dates from the 1100's to 1485. This is the oldest coin that I have found with a metal detector. A little known fact is that the American Colonists traded with any coin of value, including medieval ones that were still in circulation in the 1700's.
Photos and video of our finds will be posted soon!
Here's a Superior Drill Co. Farm Machinery catalog from 1900. I love the artwork, diction, and illustrations from these turn of the century catalogs. This type of advertising continued up through the 1960's when color photographs were used instead of the beautifully drawn artwork. This particular catalog was a pleasant surprise for me when I came across it earlier this year.
Here's some photos of a find of a lifetime made by the Colonial Relic Hunter. During the summer, we made a trip into the Time Searcher's Twilight Zone for relic hunting....the Lost Colonial Village.
We had a great day there and the video will be out later this week but we made a lot of finds that day including this spoon mold and a 1785 Spanish Two Reale coin.
So while we here in good old Western PA haven't had the first big snowfall of the year (and cursed the little flakes that did happen to fall), we took one last trip to the Colonial Village.
This time we found some Colonial Coppers and Colonial Buttons.
The Colonial Village has to be one of our top favorite spots to hunt. We always seem to come back to the headquarters with some good finds. We can't wait for the seasons to change again so we can get back out there and do more digging.
But who knows, maybe the snow will hold off for a while longer, we'll get some decent days and the Time Searchers can go a hunting again before the end of the year. If we do, we'll be sure to show you our finds, like we always do.
The episode is located below and can also be found on the Colonial Relic Hunter's YouTube channel which you can click the link to here or find it in our side bar.
We're always looking for your input, so feel free to comment and let us know what you think. You can also find us on Facebook or follow us on Google+.
Since tomorrow is Thanksgiving, we'll be taking a few days off to spend with our families and be thankful for everything we've been given. We here at the Time Searchers are very thankful for all our viewers and followers. We love what we do and we love being able to present our finds to you. With that said, we hope you all have a fantastic and safe Thanksgiving and we'll see you next week!
Here's a nice little contribution from our good friend, The Colonial Relic Hunter. He sends in the following description:
"Here is another Spike Tomahawk from my collection that is from the late 1700s to very early 1800. I have always loved the Spike Tomahawks and trade axes in general because of the usage and the history of the artifacts."
The Colonial Relic Hunter will be posting and sending us more Revolutionary War Era Canteens/Powder Kegs so keep checking back for those interesting items!
Today marks the 70th anniversary to the start of the Nuremberg war crimes trials. This event marked the true end of World War II and the beginnings of the postwar era. The surviving leadership of the German Third Reich were put on trial for their crimes against humanity. Some Nazis were tried in other Courts in other countries. Some Nazi war criminals fled and were caught later. Like Adoff Eichmann who was tried in Israel and hanged in 1962 for crimes against humanity. Others were never caught like Joseph Mengele.
Here's an old photograph of the judges deliberation room at Nuremberg that I pulled out of my archives. The crimes against humanity that some of the Defendant's were convicted of are a dark lesson of history that should never be forgotten.
You heard it right, we're now on Facebook. We can't believe it either, but here we are. So go on over and like us to keep up to date with all things Time Searchers!
Here's some Erie Railroad buttons and pins I recently ran across in my travels. The Erie Railroad operated from 1832-1960. It's route ran from Erie, PA to Chicago in the west and east from Erie, PA to New York City.
Probably a former employee moved to Pittsburgh, PA and that's how his pins and buttons ended up here on the Time Searcher's blog.
Here is it Time Searchers fans! The Indian Relic Hunt along with a relic roundup. In this hunt we find the arrowhead that we posted earlier on the blog.
The Colonial Relic Hunter was at it again searching for some old relics on the world wide web, because we hunt anywhere we can. Below is his write up of this amazing 1770's British Rifleman's wood & iron Canteen Flask find. If you haven't already, go on over and check out his account where you can find more pictures here, or you can check out his YouTube Channel for other hunts, which is conveniently located here, and don't forget to subscribe to keep up to date on all things Colonial Relic Hunter.
"Here is the newest Rev War Era artifact added to my collection.. This is an Nice 1770's British Rifleman's wood & iron Canteen Flask that actually came from Edinburgh, Scotland. I just love history and the story the artifacts have to tell us. This is one i sought out for a longtime and now it's here plus i have a special connection to this one too because i was born in Scotland and raised there..But anyways this Canteen has been in Scotland all these years and now here in the States. I hope you all like the canteen and it takes us back in time and wonder the stories it has to tell.."
The Colonial Relic Hunters web find of a 1770s British Rifleman's canteen flask.
Here's an old socket bayonet that I found in my explorations over the weekend. You never know when a part of the past will surface. This piece was long hidden away in the crevices of an old barn that I was permitted to crawl around in. This find shows what I have been telling the Colonial Relic Hunter for years: not all the relics are in the ground.
Here's a picture and review video of an Indian arrowhead that I found in June, 2015 on the Indian Relic Hunt that we did. There were lots of greats finds on that hunt and the full episode of it will be released on BillTheRelic's YouTube channel.
We here at The Time Searchers love the colonial relics, but the Indian artifacts are always a great find that help us to relate to the first inhabitants of North America that to this day, most people don't know very much about.
We here at The Time Searchers are very much about learning not only about the past, but about the culture of the people who left these relics for us to find. It still amazes us that years ago these objects belonged to a person, or helped him or her survive in the world that was so different from ours.
Here's an old tourist photo taken of an archaeological dig near Rome, Italy in 1957. I will assume that the dirt was sifted at another location. I don't think that any digs today would look like this one. They didn't even grid the area off. I wonder what treasures they did find....
The Colonial Relic Hunter holds up his amazing find.
With winter soon approaching, relic hunting season is coming to a close for the 2015 season. We got the opportunity last week to get out of the Time Searchers Headquarters to hunt at the Lost Colonial Village. The episode of this hunt will be released later on Billtherelic's YouTube Channel (and of course we'll have a post on that premiere), but we wanted to bring you some pictures of this find. The Colonial Relic Hunter found his fourth Spanish Two Reale coin from this site. This one is a 1803 mintage. Below you can check out the close ups of this great find. We'll be posting more of what we found, so keep checking back.
Here's a link to the trailer for an underrated film. It's Plunder of the Sun from 1953. Produced by John Wayne's Production company, BATJAC. Glenn Ford starts as Al Colby, a down and out American in Central America who becomes involved in a search for priceless Zapotecan artifacts.
Along the way, Glenn Ford's character is approached by others searching for the treasures. They tell him that he can trust them and it would be better if they teamed up and became partners. Despite his jaded attitude, Al Colby learns life lessons the hard way. These hard way lessons are the same ones the Time Searchers learned in our search for relics. That's why I like this film so much.
Today we're pleased to bring you the latest episode from The Time Searcher's series. A few days ago we posted a clip of the spirit that communicated with us, but here's the full episode. We're back at the colonial village where we find some British Coppers, colonial buttons, Spanish Reale, and of course, our not so friendly ghost. This has to be one of our favorite episodes that we've shot over the years. It was really a fun and exciting trip.
So go ahead and check out this episode. We'll back soon with more interesting finds!
With Halloween soon approaching (5 days and counting), here's a funny clip from an upcoming Time Searcher's show. This episode will be coming out within the next day or two over at Bill the Relic's YouTube channel, so be sure to check it out. I'm not entirely sure many followers know this, but the Time Searcher's also dabble in ghost hunting. We feel that in order to really understand the relics we find, we should understand the people that were connected to these items we dig for. Sometimes a spirit can be attached to an item, and it's a fantastic idea to think that we might be communicating with the spirit of the person who owned this piece of the past. Could it be possible that they may have something to say to us? We've had some amazing encounters since we started ghost hunting, but this one is a classic as far as I'm concerned. Great finds and some of the off the wall stuff that you would expect from the Time Searchers!
Here's a button I found this week at the Lost Colonial Village while relic hunting with the Colonial Relic Hunter. I wonder how it came to be at this lost and forgotten place. Was the person a loyalist to the British crown? Was he a British soldier who deserted to become a Revolutionary, or did he settle here after the Revolution? We will never know (unless Bill can raise him on the spirit box...). The video of the rest of the finds will be out later. Check back!!
Above is an old photograph taken locally in Western Pennsylvania.
It reminds me of some places that me and the Colonial Relic Hunter have been to in the past. Mostly, we are searching for 19th and 20th century layers of finds to get to the earlier 18th century items. But, there are interesting 19th and 20th century items to find too. Old bottles and coal company tools are my favorites.
This picture reminds me of the History Channel's mini series entitled, "The Men Who built America." Indeed, we live and metal detect in the heart of Andrew Carnegie's and Henry Clay Frick's old stomping grounds. All of the rich history that surrounds us makes for the potential of a great day's relic hunting.
We here at the Time Searcher's Blog understand the importance of not just the relics we find in the field, but the remembrance of historical past events. We decided to start our new series titled "This Day in History," and take a look back at some of the more major events of the past. The Time Searcher usually has something laying around that he found on hunt that correlates to the topic at hand!
On
October 16, 1962, a thirteen day confrontation between the United States and
the then Soviet Union over Soviet ballistic missiles began in Cuba. In response to the failed Bay of Pigs
Invasion, Cuba requested placement of nuclear missiles to deter future
harassment of the County. Soviet leader
Nikita Khrushchev agreed to terms during a secret meeting with Fidel Castro in
July and a that summer a number of missile launch facilities were
constructed. The whole ordeal played out
publicly on national television, and became the closest moment the Cold War
came to escalating into a full nuclear war.
While an election was underway in the States, the White House denied charges
set forth by Republicans that it was ignoring the problem of Soviet missiles
some 90 miles off the coast of Florida. Despite
the increasing evidence of a military build-up in Cuba, no U-2 flights were
made from September 5th until October 14th, but when the
Air Force sent a U-2 spy plane over Cuba, it returned with photographic evidence
of both medium range and intermediate range ballistic facilities. On October 19th, EXCOMM formed separate
groups to examine the options of an air strike and blockade and ultimately
settled on the blockade option. At 7
p.m. on October 22, President John F. Kennedy delivered a nationwide televised
address on the discovery of the missiles, and during this speech a directive
went out to all U.S. forces worldwide placing them on DEFCON 3; the United
States established a military blockade of Cuba, preventing any more missiles
from the Soviet Union to enter the Country.
The U.S. demanded that they would not permit any offensive weapons to be
delivered to Cuba, and those already there needed to be dismantled and returned
to the USSR.
On the evening of October 25th, William Clements announced that the missiles
were still actively being worked on, which was later verified by a CIA report
suggesting there had been no slow down at all.
President Kennedy responded with the issue of the Security Action
Memorandum 199, which authorized the loading of nuclear weapons onto aircraft
under the command of SACEUR. The Soviets
responded to the blockade by turning back 14 ships, all of which were
presumably carrying offensive weapons.
The next morning, Kennedy informed EXCOMM that he believed an invasion
was the only way to remove the missiles, but was persuaded to give it time and
continue with both military and diplomatic pressures. In agreement, he ordered the low-level fights
over Cuba to be increased from twice a day to once every two hours. It was at this point the crisis was
ostensibly at a stalemate. The Soviet
Union showed no indication of any retreat and made several comments to the contrary. The United States had no reason to believe
otherwise and was in the early stages of preparing for an invasion, which
included a nuclear strike on the USSR in case it responded with force, which
was already assumed.
That same day, Castro was convinced an invasion of Cuba by U.S. forces was
imminent, and he sent a telegram to Khrushchev that appeared to call for a
preemptive strike on the United States.
In a 2010 interview, however, Castro said only of his recommendation of
a Soviet attack on American before they made any move against Cuba.
October 27th, promptly at 6 a.m., the CIA delivered a memo reporting that three
of the four missile sites at San Cristobal and two sites at Sagua la Grande
appeared to be fully operational. They
noted that the Cuban military continued to organize for action, even though
they were under no order to initiate action unless attacked. That same day, a U-2A, which was modified for
air-to-air refueling and piloted by USAF Major Rudolf Anderson, was hit by a
S-75 Dvina SAM missile launched from Cuba.
After, the stress negotiations between the USSR and the U.S. intensified
and it was later learned that the decision to fire the missile was made on site
by an Soviet commander acting on his own authority. However, later that day several U.S. RF-8A
Crusader aircraft on low-key photo reconnaissance missions were fired on as
well.
After
much deliberation between the U.S. and the Soviet Union, Kennedy agreed to
remove all missiles set in southern Italy and Turkey which boarder on the USSR,
and in exchange of this, Khrushchev would remove all remaining missiles in
Cuba.
For the next 24 days the U.S. continued their blockade of Cuba. On November 20, 1962, effective at 6:45 pm,
the blockade was lifted.
While the scars of the Cuban Missile Crisis ran deep, it was the closest the
two powers came to nuclear war. The Cold
War officially ended in 1991 with the dissolution of the Union of Soviet
Socialist Republics.
October 16, 2015 marks the anniversary of the beginning of the Cuban Missile Crises on 1962. This was the height of the Cold War when people feared the world would be destroyed at the push of a button.Fortunately, cooler heads prevailed and the Kennedy Administration and the Soviet Union reached an agreement where the Russian Missiles based in Cuba were removed.In exchange, the U.S. agreed to quietly remove it's missiles from Italy and Turkey.The picture and video above are of a fallout shelter sign that was a common sight in the U.S. during the Cuban Missile Crisis.Another relic from the past.
In
this episode, the Colonial Relic Hunter recovers a boot pistol, 1785 two Spanish
Reale coin and The Time Searcher recovers a British Army button and other finds
at the Lost Colonial Village.
Keep on the look out for more finds from us and keep checking the blog - we have some good articles coming up!!!
Here's a photograph I ran across recently. It looks like a Lockheed Electra. This is the same type of airplane that Amelia Earhart flew on her ill fated trip around to circumnavigate the globe. I checked the registration numbers and this one is different than Earhart's. Still, its an interesting photograph that gives a us a look at the early days of aviation before the jet age. I always wondered how the Colonial Relic Hunter would do in an expedition out to the Pacific in search of Amelia Earhart. While there are a ton of interesting theories as to what happened to Ms. Earhart, the most compelling seem to be the Gardner Island theory and in 2012 an underwater expedition off the northwest reef of Nikumaroro suggested a possible wreckage site of the plane. The other items found on the island are listed in the link above, but nonetheless, the legacy of Amelia Earhart lives on.
Here is the introduction video for our latest site we have been relic hunting on. It has been a great one! We were fortunate to discover this site and it's yielded many great finds as our videos will show. The other parts will be uploaded through the fall months on The Colonial Relic Hunter's YouTube Channel.
