Searching on hands and knees
I have enjoyed some good times lately with Judson and Theresa Carden, a couple I met through the Alger Sullivan Historical Society. They allowed me to accompany them on a relic hunt in Bluff Springs. I'll write more about their finds in Bluff Springs later; today I want to focus on the story of Judson Carden, relic hunter and Civil War buff.
Judson grew up in Flomaton, with many visits to grandparents in Century. He told me about trips to Brewton with his grandmother. She always took the back roads, telling him stories of the families she had known who had lived along the roads in the past. That began his interest in the past and the history of our area.
His uncle took him on his first metal detecting trip in 1977. About the same time he began to be interested in the study of the Civil War, especially battles which took place in our area. Pollard, which he visited often in his youth was the site of a large Confederate encampment. He has spent many days relic hunting in the Pollard area. One of his most prized finds came on a day when he had been having little success. When his metal detector indicated buried metal he said to his wife, "Well, let's dig up another beer can." Instead he dug up a state of Louisiana Confederate belt buckle. Other prized finds are a railroad lock from the Alabama/Florida Railroad and a pewter plunger from a syringe that probably dates from the Civil War.
Watching Judson's relic hunting process is fascinating to me. I had pictured walking along, getting a signal from the detector, digging up the found item. It's a little more involved than that. He chooses his hunt area, then walks through it swinging his metal detector slowly in front of him (wearing headphones to help him hear the detector signals better). When he gets a signal, he swings even more slowly in different directions over an ever decreasing area until he pinpoints the signal's origin. Laying aside the detector he digs a square hole about six inches deep, digging up a roughly six inch to the side cube of dirt and laying it to the side. Back to the detector, he listens to see if the find is still in the hole or if it is in the dirt he has laid to the side. If its still in the hole he digs a little more. When the signal indicates the find is in the dirt removed from the hole, he picks up a handful of dirt at a time and runs it over the detector. Eventually the detector indicates that he is holding the find in his latest handful of dirt. He searches through his hand and finds: maybe a Civil War musket ball, maybe the remains of a more modern shotgun shell, maybe a piece of aluminum foil. No beer cans found so far in this part of Bluff Springs.
Sometimes a find sends him back to his books and internet sites to find more information about it. Sometimes he finds something he has already been looking for based on his book and internet study.
I end with three quotes from Judson, "Everything tells a story." "The last person that touched this was over 150 years ago." "It's one way of touching the past."
Look for more on his Bluff Springs finds in my next column.
