Just wanted to take the time to tell you thanks for building such fine Detectors that Ive never had a problem with in 20 some odd years of relic hunting. Now to the story.

I'm always looking for new places to find civil war relics. I live in the northern Georgia area, west of Atlanta. There was a lot of civil war activity right in my own backyard. Over the years, relic sites have dwindled so I have to find new places to hunt off the beaten path. My most productive sites are and have been where old houses stood in the war time period. They slowly eroded away in the decades after the war so now all that remains is usually a rock chimney or well hole deep in the woods. They are lost in time but a virtual time capsule to a by-gone era. I research maps for days and days trying to align them with modern topo maps for new house sites. I saw one I had'nt noticed before next to a small feeder creek going into a larger creek not to far from my house. One morning a buddy and I loaded up and headed out to locate it on our 4-wheelers. After a couple of hours of riding trails in the woods we finally found the site as we noticed the chimney rock in a pile. We were off the 4-wheelers and had the detectors on within minutes to begin the search. It was obvious the house had never been searched before because of the loud multiple signals in abundance. Nothing was turning up civil war so I knew by the dates of the items being recovered I was in a post civil war house. I thought, "Oh well, took alot to get here, might as well stay on it." Maybe the guy who lived here might have been in the war and lost his buckle or buttons in the trash pits usually located in the backs of the houses. All of a sudden I get a soft deep hit on my IDX Pro with blue max 600 coil and I start to open up the hole. After about a foot, the signal is really loud and definitely not a large plow point or stove part. couple more shovel fulls and out pops the item. My eyes catch the sight of a padlock in the shape of Mickey Mouse head as I call them and my initial thought was an old padlock so upon picking it up for inspection, a quick wipe across the front reveals some letters and I also notice it's brass instead of the typical iron I've dug many times before. My buddy comes over and says, "What ya got?" As I read the letters out E.T.V.&G. RY I said "Man a rail lock. Not really what we're after but I'll take it." I've seen these things fetch several hundred dollars. So after securing it away, we continued hunting to almost dark then headed home.

Jump ahead to a couple of months later. I decide to run it on an online auction site with no reserve. I did some research and found it was the East Tennessee Virginia Georgia railroad and it was in operation from 1869 till 1895 which also verified the post civil war house. Well the auction was off and running for the next seven days and I checked back periodically and answered e-mails from people offering to buy it out right and noticed it climbing in price. Well the last minutes came and then the last seconds and it really started climbing and it finally realized a price of $1400.00. I thought, man oh man, you just never know what you will find thanks to Whites detectors and research. Thats a winning combination.

Thanks again. Just thought I would share not my most valuable find but definitely my most unexpected.

Keith S.

P.S. I talked with the guy who purchased the lock and said he had a reserve bid of twice the final value. Oh well, I'm still pleased. I still had a great day detecting and maybe it paid for a little gas for a few months to look for more treasures.