The Wood County Metal Detecting Club will be one of the area treasure hunting groups hosting the East Texas Treasure Show, upcoming Aug. 8, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., at the Gilmer Civic Center in neighboring Upshur County.
“This is our third year to do this, and it’s a free event to the public with no admission fees,” Jerry Tinney of the Wood County Metal Detecting Club said. “We’ll share some of the things we’ve found, in Wood County or counties we live in, plus a lot of items brought in from the Civil War, Texas Revolution sites down in South Texas, Spanish items from the Spanish Fort up on Red River, some dating back to the 1700s.”
The event will feature exhibits, displays, and activities including metal detecting supplies, bottle displays, Native American artifacts, gold panning, as well as relic and coin displays. There will be activities for children, including coin and token panning.
“We want to show people what we’ve found, and show people that there is still so much to be found,” Tinney said. “People love treasure.”
The club meets the first Monday of each month, usually at the Quitman Public Library unless there is a conflict with an election or other meeting there. Updates are posted to the group’s Facebook page. Tinney said members, of which there are 30 to 40 regular attendees, range in age from middle school students to people in their 80s. The group is working to draw more young people into the hobby with public events like these and special activities at their monthly meetings. Each year the club does two “seeded hunts,” where they will hide items underground for adults and above-ground for children to find, similar to an Easter egg hunt. Children may participate at no cost.
“The kids can find coins, tokens, treasure like that,” Tinney said. “It gets them familiar with what’s going on with treasure hunting.”
Tinney said metal-detecting equipment can cost anywhere from a few hundred dollars to tens of thousands of dollars.
“For most hobbyists, we tell them to go treasure hunt in your own yard first,” Tinney said. “Mineola, and all small towns in East Texas, really any place can have old artifacts already on it. Metal detecting is a lot of research and history. I prefer to go to the oldest piece of property I can find and get permission to hunt. I’ve found my oldest objects that way.”
Although Native American artifacts are rare in the area, Tinney said he once dug a hole while metal detecting and discovered an arrowhead when he turned over the soil. In Alba, he found an 1833 half dime minted before the city was established.
“It must have come in with a family on their property. They were some of the original settlers of Alba,” Tinney said.
North of Quitman, Tinney said he found a large cent dated around 1818. In Golden, he found a one-piece, cast-iron military button featuring a double-headed eagle. After doing some research, he learned it was an “oppression Army” button from the 1850s.
“There is an amazing amount of stuff that hasn’t been found yet,” Tinney said. “Do your research; see if there was an old settlement or an old house on the property. The places I go don’t even have the building anymore, they’re mostly just cow pasture now. I found a uniform button in a field in Alba for the Grand Army of the Republic from after the Civil War.”
One of Tinney’s oldest relics is an 18th-century Chinese coin he found in Alba. He said it was likely brought to the area by a worker who helped construct a railroad running from McKinney through Emory, Alba, Golden and Mineola to Tyler.
For those who love such treasures and treasure hunting, Tinney encouraged people to join the group for their monthly meeting or the upcoming event in Gilmer.
“If you love history and talking to people about history and treasure hunting, come to a meeting,” Tinney said. “We have people in the club who have hunted all lover the United States. We feature a monthly speaker, and one of those speakers has been to England five times, finding gold Celtic coins dating back to 20 A.D.”
For more information on the WCMDC, call Tinney at 903-235-4528 or visit the club’s page on Facebook.
The Gilmer Civic Center is located at 1218 U.S. Hwy. 271 North in Gilmer.