My Favorite Outings part 2

In early 2007 after reading the finds locals were digging at The Camp Logan area on the forum, DirtJournal.com ( now defunct) I remembered an article I had clipped from the newspaper years before. I searched for and found the article in my closet and read it again. It told of a water tank on top of a small brick structure that was believed to be from the camp (circa 1917-1919). The newspaper writer even had a few historical experts look at the building and it was undecided if it was made before, during or after the camp. The bricks used in the structure were those used from the early 1900's-1920's. It was located on a bend along the bayou in an unused section of a park.

From the article

Along the trail

I told a few forum members about the tank and where it was located and they went in search for it. I finally got a day off and went to see if I could locate the water tank.The area was in an out of the way section of the park and very heavily wooded along a bayou. As I looked around a bit I noticed an old path going along the edge of the bayou. It was hard to see but it was defineitly a footpath. I took it with my Whites M6 detector in hand, scanning along the old footpath. The path went up and down along the bayous sloped edge close enough to where the water was within a few feet at times and 15-30 feet at others. I noticed some railroad ties and old boards along the path made to where the path was level to walk on. After going about 500 feet along the trail, it started to go up to a rise of ground. I was scanning around a few large oak tree bases and got a overload signal on my detector. I raised my loop about 6 inches and scanned again to see if it was a very large target close to the surface. The M6 told me it was a half dollar. Still thinking it was a large item I moved the thick layer of leaves from around the target area. I saw something round, picked it up and couldn't beleive my eyes. It was a very worn 1875 Seated Liberty Half Dollar !!!! Since this was in the Camp Logan area I wondered if one of the soldiers stopped under the tree sat down and lost the coin from his pocket, back when the soldiers were training in the woods.

I was so excited I almost ran back to the car, up and down the footpath along the edge of the bayou. As I got to my car I was out of breath and had to rest in the car with the air conditioning on full blast. This was the oldest silver coin I had ever found while detecting !!!! ( At that time)

It was then I remembered I didn't find the water tank. I decided to return another day to try and find it.

I didn't know it at the time but if I would have continued up along the path along the slope of the bayou about 100 more feet, I would have arrived to where the water tank was located.