MANITOULIN—Visitors to Low Island in Little Current and other Island beaches and park areas will have noticed a group of individuals waving strange handheld detectors over the ground recently. Members of N.O.R.T.H., that’s Northern Ontario Relic and Treasure Hunters, visited Manitoulin Island during one of their field expeditions.
Darrel Crydernan, vice president of N.O.R.T.H., described the organization as “a Sudbury-based Northern Ontario metal detecting club dedicated to promoting the hobby.”
Those who see tales of vast hordes of gold and silver unearthed by detectorists in England and other European countries with thousands of years of coin and bullion-based economies might be disappointed by the relatively meagre finds treasure miss the point of the hobby.
“You aren’t going to get rich,” laughs Mr. Cryderman, a sentiment supported by other members of the club, but there are relics aplenty to unearth that carry with them tales of history of the region. Mr. Cryderman has found treasure in his time, including a valuable Canadian gold coin, unearthed near the Carmichael Arena in Sudbury’s Minnow Lake area of all places. “I have no idea what that coin was doing there,” he said, noting that another gold coin had been found nearby as well.
Many of the club members are crossovers from the Sudbury Prospectors and Developers Association.
“Some kid probably snitched it out of his dad’s collection and tried to spend it at the store, when the store owner refused to recognize it as a real coin, they threw it away,” offered up Armand Nadeau, a nearby detectorist. Gold is where you find it, the stories are often lost in the midst of time.
Far more common are the lumps of metal cast off by a consumer society, bottle caps, nails, nuts and bolts and tabs, leavened by the occasional lost ring.
Club member John Morgan, captain of the Little Current berthed racing yacht Delirious, came up with a little of both. “This is a ship’s maul,” he said, holding up a hefty chunk of iron with a flattened head and chisel-like at the other end. But it was a slag-like chunk of heavy metal that really captured his interest. “I think that might be silver,” he offered. “I won’t know until I can test it.”
His companions were somewhat sceptical, offering the opinion that it might be a chunk of lead. The truth will be revealed at this week’s club meeting where members will reveal their finds.
The wands being waved over the ground by club members consist of a control box, and adjustable shaft that ends in a flat hoop-like device roughly the size of a dinner plate containing a pickup coil. By waving the wand, an electro magnetic pulse is sent through the ground and reflects back in the form of an audible beep if it encounters anything metal in the ground. Higher-end detectors can differentiate between various types of metal, returning differing signals depending on the composition.
The tools can range from a modest under $50 to the thousands of dollars favoured by the hardcore enthusiasts.
Another tool that most consider essential is another handheld wand, smaller and without the earphones that accompany its larger brethren, the “pinpointer” zeros in on the buried item once detected by the larger unit. A small digging tool rounds out the kit (or maybe it’s the booty bag that holds the finds).
“People think we dig up big holes when we are doing this,” said Mr. Cryderman, “but we are careful to put things back the way we found them. We don’t leave behind empty holes.”
Mr. Cryderman, who admits to being well north of 70, notes that the hobby is great exercise given the amount of walking involved, and of course the stooping, digging and sifting. “Not a lot of people my age can get up and down the way I do,” he laughs. “Although even I don’t as easily as I used to.”
The club communicates primarily through its Facebook page, which boasts nearly 400 members, and those interested in learning more about the hobby and perhaps joining the club can drop by and download the forms. The protocols and etiquette are also to be found there.
“Our monthly meetings generally are at 7 pm on the second Wednesday of the month,” notes Mr. Cryderman, but adds that meetings are not held every month. “Meetings are posted on our Facebook page as they are scheduled.”
As for the results of the weekend field trip to Manitoulin, club members pulled up a bit of “coffee money,” some “nice bling” including a jeweled ring and a “whole lot of trash” as well as a 1891 one cent piece.
“We go on about three or four field trips a year,” he said. Membership is set at $25.
