[ArkansasSlim]

O.K., here is the one the ink photo replaced. It is a Brachiopod fossil which is an ancestor of our oysters. The photos above are of Gastropods which are ancestors of today's sea snails. Maybe I'll get it right next time. I guess I was so excited about the possibility of $$ that my brain jumped the track There is a Gastropod stuck to the back of this Brachiopod, which I had not seen in any of the fossils I collected here.

[ArkansasTgirl]

What are you wanting for the ink? Got any red?

To bad I can't get any more of that prematharin stuff any more or I'd trade for it (they were giving it out at work and I didn't need it).

[ArkansasSlim]

Originally Posted by FriendlyFeller

What are you wanting for the ink? Got any red?

To bad I can't get any more of that prematharin stuff any more or I'd trade for it (they were giving it out at work and I didn't need it).

I sent you a DM.

[ArkansasSlim]

A couple days ago I read on MyPulse.com, an on-line news from Mena, that "a hunter stumbled across some medals in the woods". It was a long report, but the medals were from WW II, traced and returned to next of kin. Questions not answered; How many, were they all together, in a container, condition?

[Old Fossil]

In the early 1960s we built our home on 40 acres, in the woods, off a dirt county road in Hot Spring County. After moving in and exploring the property we found that an old road we had thought was an old log road was actually a very old abandoned country road. Along that road were three trash piles that were so old that the metal had rusted into small bits and pieces and contained several bottles and fruit jars. That was during a time when bottle collecting was running hot and some of the bottles were quite valuable. They didn't make a mortgage payment, but were interesting.

Later I got interested in metal detecting and bought one to find the "big one". Never found it but had lots of fun. When I first got it I was searching around the house learning how to tune it in when I got a loud "hit" and when I retrieved the item it was a 1950s Mexican silver Peso that had been drilled to be worn as a medallion. I don't have a clue where it came from, and it was lost, again, as I bummed around the country.

[124c41]

ArkansasSlim, the stories were great. Your Dad must have been a very interesting person as well. My story isn't in Arkansas, but in Texas. It is a treasure that was found....and lost.

I worked for the County many years ago down in Southeast Texas, and the heavy equipment crew was doing some work on a creek that emptied into the Brazos river. We all heard the story when they got back to the County Barn that evening.

Seems the men had finished their lunch break, and a couple of them felt restless, so they got up, and began walking around the job site. They had needed extra dirt for some back-fill, and a couple of dump trucks had brought some dirt in, earlier in the day for them. One of the guys saw a quart, igloo cooler jug laying on top of the dirt pile, and because it looked like it wasn't worth saving, began to toss it to another guy. They played a game of pass, using the cooler jug as the football. After a while, the dozer started up, meaning work was beginning, and lunch was over. The fellow that found the jug tossed it toward the dozer in a playfull act. As he was walking away, he turned to see the dozer's track roll across the back end of the water jug causing the lid to pop off. At the moment the lid came off, wads of money shot out across the ground, and the men they told us later three things happened almost simultaneuosly, and with lightening speed. The foreman ( who up until that moment had problems walking) jumped out of his truck, racing across the space between him and the money, and started grabbing handfulls of bills. The dozer operator shut off the dozer engine, and did an Olympic leap off the seat of that machine, and was in competition with the foreman before the tracks had stopped moving. The third thing was the fellow that had the jug in his hands, and tossed it away, simply stopped, realizing he was too far away to even think about getting a few bills, and stared with a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach while the other two went on a frenzy grabbing all the bills.

Someone on the crew told the boss at the County barn, and the money was pried from the two guy's hands because the police by law have to look for the rightful owner. We all had a feeling they would never find the owner since it probably came in on a dump truck with a load of dirt from who-knows-where? The two guys got their money back from the police after a month. They each got about $5,000.00 apiece. They fella that originally found it, and tossed it aside got nothing.

[Old Fossil]

Great story 124, and there are lots of them out there. Your "dump truck treasure" story reminded me of another experience I had years ago; not of money value but of great archeological value. On an archeological dig, if you anticipate going back for more work later (years) you cover the pit[s] with black plastic and back-fill them with sand to discourage looters. We had excavated a Caddo house the previous year, were back for follow-up work, and my job was to shovel the sand from the pit so we could get to work. I was just kinda "zoned out" from boredom and throwing sand into the wheelbarrow almost on remote control when I saw "something" go in with the sand. I didn't give it much thought and kept shoveling, then started wondering what the something was and decided to dig through the sand I had just shoveled and found a rare (for Arkansas) dart point that normally is not found north of the Arkansas/Louisiana line. In fact, that was only the third one, at that time, that had been found in AR. We tried to find where the sand came from but it had been hauled in by contractors the year before so we could never follow-up on it.

[Old Fossil]

Originally Posted by 124c41

ArkansasSlim, the stories were great. Your Dad must have been a very interesting person as well. My story isn't in Arkansas, but in Texas. It is a treasure that was found....and lost.

I worked for the County many years ago down in Southeast Texas, and the heavy equipment crew was doing some work on a creek that emptied into the Brazos river. We all heard the story when they got back to the County Barn that evening.

Seems the men had finished their lunch break, and a couple of them felt restless, so they got up, and began walking around the job site. They had needed extra dirt for some back-fill, and a couple of dump trucks had brought some dirt in, earlier in the day for them. One of the guys saw a quart, igloo cooler jug laying on top of the dirt pile, and because it looked like it wasn't worth saving, began to toss it to another guy. They played a game of pass, using the cooler jug as the football. After a while, the dozer started up, meaning work was beginning, and lunch was over. The fellow that found the jug tossed it toward the dozer in a playfull act. As he was walking away, he turned to see the dozer's track roll across the back end of the water jug causing the lid to pop off. At the moment the lid came off, wads of money shot out across the ground, and the men they told us later three things happened almost simultaneuosly, and with lightening speed. The foreman ( who up until that moment had problems walking) jumped out of his truck, racing across the space between him and the money, and started grabbing handfulls of bills. The dozer operator shut off the dozer engine, and did an Olympic leap off the seat of that machine, and was in competition with the foreman before the tracks had stopped moving. The third thing was the fellow that had the jug in his hands, and tossed it away, simply stopped, realizing he was too far away to even think about getting a few bills, and stared with a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach while the other two went on a frenzy grabbing all the bills.

Someone on the crew told the boss at the County barn, and the money was pried from the two guy's hands because the police by law have to look for the rightful owner. We all had a feeling they would never find the owner since it probably came in on a dump truck with a load of dirt from who-knows-where? The two guys got their money back from the police after a month. They each got about $5,000.00 apiece. They fella that originally found it, and tossed it aside got nothing.

Yes, Arkansas Slims Dad was quite a character. He went to Arizona and became a working cowboy when the wild west was still wild and could tell great stories. He was a chain-smoking alcoholic and sill lived to age 87, and enjoyed every moment of it.

[Old Fossil]

THE GEMS OF PIKE COUNTY ARKANSAS is a quarterly publication of the Pike County Archives and History Society and contains county genealogy and historical stories. They have one of the most complete archives, for a small rural county, I have had the pleasure of researching in. The following story was published in the current issue and written by J. C. Whisenhunt and was part of a family history story.

The present day U.S. Highway 70, west of Daisy, Arkansas, was once a dirt road that forded the Little Missouri River a quarter-mile south of the present bridge. In 1917, the Coffman family was crossing the river there in a horse-drawn wagon soon after a flood. The waters had receded, leaving a sandbar below the crossing. In the sandbar there were several silver coins shining in the sunlight. Seventeen-year-old Goldie Coffman and his fifteen-year-old brother Leonard (Dink) Coffman jumped from the wagon and started to pick up the silver dimes, quarters and half-dollars from the sandbar. When they dug in the sandbar they found more silver coins.

The next time the river flooded and receded, the boys went to the same sandbar as before and there were more silver coins. It seemed that every time the river flooded and went down, there were more coins washed up in the same sandbar.

In the early 1950s, water from Lake Greeson backed up over the sandbar and the old crossing where the silver coins were found. We may never know how these coins got into the Little Missouri River, but we do know that the Coffman children kept their pockets filled with silver coins at a time when penny candy was very popular.

[Old Fossil]

This is another story by J.C. Whisenhunt that was also published in the above THE GEMS. It is long so I've edited it down to the basics. It is also about Goldie Coffman. In 1923 an old man [his name has been forgotten] moved near the Coffmans, took a liking to Goldie and when the old man needed some work done around his place would send for Goldie. The old man became sick and the doctor advised him to move to a drier climate, so he moved to Arizona. A year later Goldie received a letter from the old man which stated "--go over to Double Spring Swamp and look for a skull hanging from a Hawthorn tree. Dig there and you will never have to work again in your entire life." Goldie thought the letter was a joke and did nothing about it. A few days later Goldie received a letter from the old mans nurse stating he had died and his last words were "about you". After this letter Goldie took the first letter seriously and he and his brother Dink looked for the tree, dug, and found a "tub of gold coins". Dink got a small share and they decided to keep it a secret because they didn't know who may claim it. After 14 years they decided it was safe to make a move and Dink bought a nearby farm and Goldie bought a Cadillac dealership in Long Beach California.