Steve Barnes was 16 years old when he joined his father for the first time on a hunt for historical treasures with a metal detector. He was immediately hooked.
It didn’t hurt that Barnes grew up in Williamsport, Maryland – an area rich in Civil War-era history. He explains that after the Confederate soldiers were defeated at Gettysburg, they formed a wagon train to head back to Virginia (now West Virginia). The Potomac River was flooded by the time they reached it, so they were forced to pull back. They then dug a five-mile-long entrenchment – the very place that Barnes discovered his first treasure trove.
“I’d get on my bicycle and ride there,” he says. ‘I’d find belt buckles on top of the trenches.”
During this time, he joined with a group of other “hunters” who together sought clues in history books, such as where certain military camps would have been stationed. Then they would find the place together, get permission from the landowners and start searching.
An “obsession”
Nearly 50 years and 13 metal detectors later, and Barnes, of Southampton Township, Cumberland County, is still unearthing numerous 1700s and 1800s items, from rare and valuable colonial coins and buttons to thousands of Civil War bullets.
Whether you call it treasure hunting, detecting, dirt fishing, or Barnes’s favorite – uncovering history – it seems that once you start, it’s hard to stop.
“It used to be a hobby, and now it’s an obsession,” Barnes says, “because I have to go out and find stuff.”
He still enjoys doing it alongside others. He finds little pleasure hunting by himself, saying, “When you find something, who are you going to tell?” He even formed his own informal organization called, appropriately, History Uncovered. He has found friends and fellow history lovers who research together. In the past, they would have breakfast together before heading out to an old homestead they discovered. They all realized that most of the stuff they might uncover would not be very valuable but what they especially enjoyed was the fun and fellowship.
Bob Rynecki, of Chambersburg, began “dirt fishing” about six years ago after he retired. He purchased an inexpensive metal detector and on his first day only found 15 cents.
“But it was a beautiful day,” he says, “and I know I was getting some fresh air, enjoying walking around with anticipation of finding something.”
About eight months later, he bought a better detector and “never looked back”, he says. He sought out others who were more seasoned and continued to learn.
“You’re always out there trying to find a needle in a haystack,” he says. “You never know when you’re going to find anything. But when you find that little treasure, and you can see a date on it, it’s like a time capsule, you go back in time. It’s wonderful. I found some cool stuff.”
His pride and joy find is a Rice and King emblem, which he later discovered was a carriage maker in Chambersburg in the 1870s.
Wanting to learn more, Rynecki joined the local historical society, and that’s when he met Barnes, who happened to be there researching for his own treasure-finding escapades. They struck up a conversation and soon began going on hunts together.
“He’s taught me a lot,” Rynecki says of Barnes. “He knows his stuff.”
Together they have found some prime sites that no one else knew existed, and they and others they have hunted with have formed a partnership. While at times there is a sense of competition, when it comes down to it, Rynecki says, even if you don’t find anything “you feel good when your buddy finds something good.” That, he says, is what makes a successful day of hunting.
For Barnes, it’s a much-needed outlet. “I like being out in the woods, getting outside,” he says. “I can’t stand being in the house.”
He spent 20 years in the Reserves as a military police officer and worked a variety of jobs, including as a machinist, welder, police officer and produce manager for a supermarket chain. He would go out and hunt with his metal detector in his spare time. Now retired, he spends two to three days a week searching for treasures on properties from Germantown, Maryland, to Perry County.
“I go as far as I have to,” he says, adding that the fall is usually the prime time for hunting, since the weeds are dying, and ticks – his biggest enemy – are not as big of a threat.
He uses online historical maps to pinpoint homesteads and he always asks for permission before searching on anyone’s property. He has been most successful at gaining access to properties owned by Mennonites, he says.
In his area of southern Pennsylvania, he says he finds more colonial items than anything else, and that’s what gets him especially excited.
“I don’t like hunting anything above the 1800s,” he says. “It’s just not old enough for me.”
Rare finds
Barnes says it’s the thrill of what he might find next that keeps him going.
“The way the hobby is, you can walk right into a field and ‘bam find something,” he said. “Other times, you can search forever and not find anything.”
He’s had his share of both experiences. But over the nearly 50 years he’s been doing it, he certainly has found plenty that he can boast about.
For instance, an 8 Reale coin from 1755, made of 92 percent silver, which he found at Fort Armstrong in Edenville. Then there were the 1794 George Washington inaugural buttons he found in Newville, West Virginia, and at an old homestead near the colonial Fort Loudoun. He also uncovered a 1700s button with an engraving reading “Hail Columbia” – a national anthem pre-dating the “Star-Spangled Banner.”
He keeps valuable items like this in a secured space.
And then there are those items that have a special way of taking him back into time. For example, a glass bottle that he found in Antietam. “I guarantee a soldier was drinking out of that,” he says.
He has found a cosmetic compact with a mirror and even an applicator inside. “When I opened it up, I could smell it,” he says. He went home and researched more about the company that made it. Based in Paris, he says that “it’s the oldest perfume company in the world.” It dates back to the 1920s.
Barnes also uncovered a U.S. Marshal’s badge, for a “special deputy,” in an old homestead that used to be the location of the area’s original post office.
He has sold many items – mostly on eBay – including enough Civil War Items at one point that he could take his wife and son on a cruise.
But it’s never been about the money for Barnes. “I don’t want to do it as a job,” he says, “because when you start doing something as a job it’s not as fun.”
His greatest pleasure is meeting people at the homesteads he finds and getting them to appreciate and understand the history that’s in their backyards. He usually shares items with the landowners as well, displaying them in shadow boxes they can keep in their homes. He has put some of his own items in shadowboxes as well, but admits, “I look at it a couple of times, and then I’ve gotta go find something else!”
Learning curve
Over the years, Barnes has gained a lot of skill simply by doing it a lot, and learning what to look for. He’s been able to find even more as the years have gone on, as metal detector technology has continually improved to the point where it can now pinpoint almost exactly where there is a valuable metal underground while nulling out the less desirable metals. Barnes said there is a “learning curve” involved in listening to the tones and watching the numbers on the detector to know when to dig. He has also learned, after hitting far too many objects with his shovel, to dig further out to find an object without harming it.
He has also gained a knack for knowing what terrains might be prime for finding treasures. Some places are considered “convenient,” he says – such as near old houses. But many times, it was when he ventured off the beaten path, such as in neighboring pastures and along stream lines, that he has made numerous worthwhile finds.
He’s learned other tricks as well, such as searching underneath trees where people would have gathered to stay cool in the hot summer months.
At times, his successes were often due simply to taking advantage of great opportunities.
In his younger years, Barnes and a group once found numerous coins and buttons on a ridge in Germantown, Maryland. The next day, a foot of snow fell on the property.
He says, “We had the fever so bad that we went back and we were trying to hunt in that snow ”
They found even more coins, dating back to the 1700s. Years later, Barnes contacted one of the guys who remembered where this particular ridge was, then returned and found 14 more coins with his new and improved metal detector.
Barnes also found a lot of Civil War items in Antietam before the government claimed a lot of the battlefield area (according to Barnes, there are very high penalties for detecting and digging on government-owned land). By the time the government took over, though, “we already cleaned it out,” Barnes says with a laugh.
Not done yet
Now that he’s getting older, Barnes admits that his passion is strong but his physical stamina sometimes isn’t as good as it used to be.
“My body’s starting to break down now,” he says. “I can’t swing [the detector] as long, I’m starting to get arthritis.”
He still has some items on his bucket list, however. He has yet to find a gold coin, and he says his dream hunt would be to travel overseas to places such as Italy and England and find items that date back to the 1300s.
He is thinking of someday moving to Tennessee, but a drawback is that there aren’t as many historical items to uncover down there.
“I’m not ready yet,” he says. “I still got a lot of history to find up here.”