Hunt the river beds…
During this past year’s dry summer the gages of our local rivers – the Mississippi, the Big Black, and the Yazoo – read fairly low levels. Since the beds of all our rivers and oceans are home to TRILLIONS of dollars in treasure, I couldn’t resist temptation. No, I didn’t dive for it this time. I found some spots that hadn’t see sunshine in several years and used my metal detector and shovel.
The banks of the streams were very muddy, and I lost my shoes a couple of times. Which reminded me of a lesson I’d learned years ago and had since forgotten: wear sturdy shoes that are tightly laced. I used the Troy Shadow X5 metal detector for the searches; it’s one of the best all-around detectors I’ve ever had the pleasure to use. Good ground balance, great discrimination, light weight, and good overall depth.
One spot I checked would, I thought, yield Civil War relics. But that’s not what I found at all. Instead, the relics were much older, dating back to the early eighteenth century - French or Spanish buttons and musket shot from the earliest days of settlement of the “Walnut Hills.” I’ve attached a couple of photos. 
