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.
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.
