September 11, 2025 A Visitor From Denmark What a pleasant day. My daughter Katrine is visiting us, all the way from Denmark and at her request, and no, not at my urging, she said that she wanted to go out with Dad, metal detecting. So we did ! September 11th, in fact the entire week she visited, the weather was great. Perfect metal detecting weather for mid-September. We went to Two Little Points, which is my favorite "go to" place. It boasts of a long history with the remnants of Gautier to be found over a wide area. Gautier was a small pioneer collection of a few houses and barns and a blacksmith shop and a grist mill that died out when everything moved to Letellier in the late 1890’s when the railway came through. The location did not disappoint although our time was cut short a bit by a sudden rain squall accompanied by lightning and thunder. I really don’t know how safe it is to be out in an open field, swinging a metal coil under those conditions but we persevered until we were both wet and the soil was getting tacky. As always, there were ample ground finds to be had, even with the chaff from the recent wheat harvest still covering most of the ground. Our last 10 minutes were spent trying to locate a high pitch signal that was being stubbornly masked by iron signals. There it is…. Opps… now it’s gone. Ahhhwwww… We did however find a melted lead piece and brass item to which Katrine said “Hey, it says 12 E on it”. That my dear is 12 gauge and the “E” part is for Eley shotgun shells but the relic was too mangled to be able to make out a time frame. We eventually had to abandon our hunt for that elusive “Beep” as the rain was picking up and yes, my goal was to be able to drive ourselves out of the wheat field too. All and all, this was just one of many fine days of adventure and exploring Manitoba. Ice-cream at the Forks, a visit to Tulabi Falls in Nopiming Provincial Park and a visit and tour of the family farm were all part of the schedule. I hope that I may have instilled the detecting bug onto my daughter. Metal detecting in Denmark would be a blast…. Does a Viking gold hoard come to mind for anyone? Roger Reference: https://www.livescience.com/gold-hoard-sixth-century-denmark https://cartridge-corner.com/shotgun2.htm

September 21, 2025 Beach Bonanza 3 Just when you think you’ve heard it all at metal detecting, a young child tells his Dad, “Naw, that’s just Gold, I’m looking for the key! The reference of course is for “Keys” that opens one of three treasure chests of prizes at this year’s seeded hunt. One can find keys and better jewelry in a protective plastic case, coins, tokens and collector spoons, all of which have been discretely seeded on Bird Hill’s west beach. Congratulations to Steven, who won the top prize this year. Last year's top prize winner, Ray and Steven are coincidently both members of the Keystone Detectorists Club (KDC). Go club go... Welcome to Beach Bonanza 3 !!! An annual seeded hunt put on by Robin Pare, his family and a score of helpers. Hats off to Robin and to OK John Metal Detectors, your local metal detectorist supplier. A locally owned shopping place for detectors, pin pointers, and a slew of tools and equipment to help you indulge in this, your favorite hobby. Robin had wisely selected a secondary “rain” day for this event. And that turned out to be a lucky move as the initial date was a complete rain out. Consequently, Sunday was a cool and cloudy day that felt just right. The sand was wet and it provided detectorists with great signals. Three huge beach areas, all marked out with flags, showed the hunt areas which easily accommodated the 45 plus participants. Lunch was provided as well as a gift bag for all registered participants. I fared well this year. I did manage to find 2 keys but the treasure chests were opened before I had a go at it myself. I laid out all of my finds for you to see as well. A lesson to be had was a light hit in a large hole dug moments ago by a fellow participant. He or she must have given up trying to find the source of the beep because the item was a tough one to get. For a moment or two, I also almost gave up. I had the item in hand full of sand because my pinpointer is telling me so, yet I see nothing. It was very much like the time I found a shotgun pellet on the beach in Gimli. Finally, the item reveals itself… It is a small copper colored navel ring with 3 balls inside of the loop. Not an easy find. Another hole I dug turned out to have 2 coins in it. Lesson is: never give up and always double check your holes. There might be more than just one coin to be found. I’ve also learnt to trust my metal detector. Thankfully, this occurred at the end of the last event so I didn’t waste time digging up junk but… Because of the sand’s high moisture, my detector locked in on a very faint signal. I knew it was deep and probably not planted as a part of the hunt but as I scooped sand ever deeper, my pinpointer confirmed a strong signal. I was hoping that this might be a very old coin that had been here a long time. At a depth of over 1 ½ feet I pulled up the source of the signal: the bottom half can of a meat can. The signal persisted and I assumed the top half was next but no, to my surprise, the “Key” to open the can came out next. No other signal. And, Yes, we do help to clean out the beach too. So my question to Robin is… The roll up key for the Klick Can… does it open any of your treasure chests? Again, thank you to Robin and his entire family who truly put in an incredible amount of time and effort to make this all happen. Roger Reference: https://www.okjohnmetaldetectors.com/

September 27, 2025 Gauthier’s Blacksmith’s Location? Here I am on River Lot 154 again. It is the location of a proto type town, by the name of Gauthier, that never developed. When the railway came through the Red River Valley in the late 1880’s, its fate was sealed. Everything moved to Catherine, which later became the town of Letellier. The same fate befell St. Pie, a community; complete with a church, 6 ½ miles north of Emerson and another small community called Le Marais which was situated off the Marais River. Both the St. Pie and The Marais churches were eventually moved to Letellier. According to historical records, Gauthier had a blacksmith shop, a grist mill and a boarding house off of the Pembina Trail called Le Cheval Rouge. (The Red Horse). Gauthier, Le Marais and St. Pie all petitioned for their location to be chosen as a railway stop but Catherine was on a more direct route and the three small communities were bypassed and eventually died out. But their footprint on the prairie remains in the way of metal, glass, ceramics and a host of other daily life artifacts found on these sites. Today, I focused my metal detecting attention in a new area and in a west to east direction, and it did not disappoint. I ended up with 41 lbs. of mostly big iron. A lot of it came at a greater than usual depth due a good amount of moisture in soil. The area had recently received over an inch of rain and it soaked in nicely. Good soil moisture allows for deeper metal detection. In fact, on one specific spot, that I know to have been detected over more than once, I dug up the 16 inch long metal bar that is featured at the top right of one of the photos. It laid flat in the ground at over 14 inches in depth. Today, it rang up with a faint signal on my detector. Dry ground conditions and thus no signal would explain why it was missed before. Found and of interest are: 1 - Flint flake from Knapping 1 – Axe head. Shotgun Shell: Dominion Canuck No 12 1916 – 1935 1 – Brass Handle 2 – Sprockets 1 – Dry Battery Post with Metal Rod in center. Big flat sheet metal pieces. Possibly used for patching roofs or walls. Can you spot the “Woolly Bear Caterpillar”? Roger Reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyrrharctia_isabella https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dry_cell https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knapping