Digging into the past: Dennison woman enjoys relic recovery

Sam Waters of Dennison first experienced metal detecting as a child with her dad, who mainly looked for and found coins. She picked up the hobby again about 10 years ago, and got hooked. Her first significant find was a large cent, a coin produced from 1793 to 1856 when it was replaced with what we now call a penny.Like all technology, metal detecting didn’t go mainstream until it became practical. Today’s modern metal detector is a distant relative to the models patented in the 1920s. Waters is on her third machine, upgrading along the way. She prefers White’s, a family-owned company based in Sweet Home, Oregon, that has been in business since 1950.“I use White’s because that’s what my dad used,” Waters said. “Every time I upgrade, my digs are more successful. The machine is easy to use and very powerful.”While coins are still of interest to Waters, she prefers to hunt for relics, pieces of the past that tell a story. She finds buttons, bullets, hem weights, jewelry, toys and shoe buckles among many other items. “It’s all about finding history,” she said. “Some people get into this thinking they’re going to get rich finding old coins, but there is real satisfaction in finding pieces of history, our history.”The hobby has taught Waters a lot about her finds, and she can easily identify objects that once seemed foreign. Waters is not alone in her relic recovery pursuits. An online community allows hobbyists to communicate with one another through social media and YouTube videos. One of Waters’ favorites is Stealth Diggers, a group of friends based in New Hampshire that share her love and passion for American History and even donate many of the relics they find to local museums, something Waters would like to do as well.Prime locations for relic recovery include the obvious places where many people have congregated, former outhouses, trash dumps and places a bulldozer hasn’t touched in decades, but Waters also digs in the forest where families might have gathered wood to heat their homes, hunters might have left bullets or coins and loggers might have left behind tools of their trade.Waters has collected many treasures in her decade of hunting. Some of her favorite finds include a 1907 Wright Flyer watch fob, a Civil War belt buckle, a 6th Calvary crossed-saber hatpin and a heart-shaped railroad lock, which had been on her bucket list. “All diggers have a bucket list,” Waters said. Other items on her list include King George coins, a whole pocket watch, gold coins and items like class rings.“When you find something like a class ring, you can return it to the owner or their family,” Waters said. In May, Waters coordinated a dig at the former Zoar Brewery that included 16 other metal detector enthusiasts. The foundation and its arched cellar were uncovered in March and will be the focal point of a new pavilion at the Zoar Wetland Arboretum. Built in 1830, the brewery made beer and cider from ingredients produced in Zoar. It operated until 1901 when it was converted into a dance hall in the 1920s or 1930s, and it burned in 1959.“We turned over everything we found except for coins,” Waters said.Waters likes that relic recovery and metal detection are hobbies she can enjoy with her son Devon Wilcoxen, a sixth-grader, and her niece Kira Tristano, a seventh-grader.“I hope when I bring them on digs, it sparks an interest in the hobby and in history in general,” Waters said. “Devon is proud of the glass insulators he found.” Insulators were originally designed to keep telephone wires insulated from the wooden poles that held them up. Today they are quite collectible.Waters doesn’t often sell treasures she finds.“Once in a while I will,” she said. “I’m a single mom trying to raise my kids, so some extra income always helps. What I really enjoy is finding something that has meaning to the homeowner. If it means more to them than it does to me, of course I give it to them.”Waters has helped families discover their history and has found objects once thought lost forever.Waters is interested in starting a local relic recovery club. She has a website at www.backyarddiggers.jimdo.com and she hosts a Facebook group called Back Yard Diggers.