I recently saw a post from the San Jacinto Battleground folks after someone turned a cannonball into them. After further research they don’t think it was one since it didn’t match any normal sized ball. Here is their explanation.

The closest town is Campbellton. Kinda a spot in the road.

Goatboy, You ought to contact one of the historical societies or museums around to find out if it could be a cannonball. As you know where it was found, you will also have that info for them which may help pinpoint where it came from. I'd love to hear what you find out.

my favorite thread! Keep em coming!

My guess based on the size of that ball is that it was for a 2 or 3# galloper gun, a small cannon pulled by a single horse. No idea of they were used in TX though, either by the Mexican army or the Texans.

Went to pick my Brother up from stand only to find he had gotten out and fell asleep setting by and leaning against big mesquite tree with more deer 40 yards in front of him than the rest of us had seen in 2 days

We are sometimes too rigid in our thoughts. As in one of the posts above this one where a cannonball did not match the nominal dimensions of those made by a foundry in Galveston. If the cannonball were not U.S. made (instead Mexican) then it might very well be correct.

The same might hold true here. Just because a cannon of a certain type would not 'normally' be used....doesn't mean in the case where weapons/munitions might have been hard to come by...that everything that could possibly be brought along wasn't used.

Our ranch house burned down in the early 90's (a family friend showed up and threw a mighty log on the fire to "keep the casa warm" while he went hunting....and apparently it rolled out onto the wooden floor).

Every now and then we find some silverware or some pieces of pottery that got dozed off the site, around where the new house sits.

Friend of ours sent me a pic and said "what's this?"




I immediately recognized it as the towel holder that was in the old bathroom. Not many folks remembered it, but I had a super clear memory, because as a 10 year old, I never saw a "cool" towel holder until then.

I had forgotten we even had it in the house until the text popped up.

So, while I didn't find it personally, it was found on our place and a neat little link - Will probably attach it to near the skinning station to hold a hand towel while we are cleaning or something. Gotta re-use it somewhere.

Not hunting, but was exploring in the 1950’s. The ranch this wan found on is in my buddy/neighbors family. He said it was actually in Ector county northeast of Odessa.

http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,860995,00.html

Sorry- link didn’t “hyper”. Here’s the text.

The most famous "oldest American" is Folsom man, known by his peculiar, fluted spearheads. These "points" have turned up in many parts of the U.S., and since they have been found with the bones of extinct animals, they are supposed to be about 10,000 years old. But Folsom man himself is an anthropological ghost; his own bones have not been found.

About a year ago, Keith Glasscock, a pipeline welder and amateur archaeologist, spent a Sunday afternoon poking around the Scharbauer Ranch near Midland, Texas. In a "blowout" (a hollow scooped by wind), he found some Folsom points. When he returned a few days later, the wind had dug the hollow deeper. On the surface of the blowing sand were fragments that looked like broken human bones. Glasscock picked them up, but was wise enough not to dig without expert advice.

Extinct Animals. On vacation a few days later, he went to Santa Fe and told Anthropologist Fred Wendorf of the Museum of New Mexico about his bones and points. Dr. Wendorf was so enthusiastic that Glasscock gave him the whole collection. Soon Wendorf and a group of learned colleagues were digging a trench at the Midland site. They found a few more bone fragments, and six months later, in a full-dress expedition, found a selection of ice-age animals, most of which were probably extinct before the period of Folsom man. It looked as if both human and animal bones had come from a stratum of grey sand that lay considerably below the reddish sand containing the Folsom points.

The diggers made no announcement. Like most anthropologists, they had been intimidated by the recent British proof that the remains of Piltdown man, reputedly 950,000 years old, were a deliberate fake. They did not want to say anything until the bones, which had been sent to Anthropologist T. Dale Stewart of the U.S. National Museum at Washington, had been scientifically authenticated.

Fluorine Proof. Last week they got the news. Dr. Stewart had fitted about 60 of the fragments into part of a skull, and he was convinced that it is extremely old for a relic of New World man. Dr. F. J. McClure of the National Institute of Health analyzed both animal and human bones for their fluorine content, which increases with age. He decided that their age is about the same. Since the animals lived in the Pleistocene (glacial) era, "Midland man" must be Pleistocene too. He may have lived anywhere from 2,000 to 10,000 years before Folsom man, who therefore remains a ghost, but is no longer the oldest American.

Midland man, according to Dr. Stewart, had a long, narrow skull and probably looked like a modern Indian. The bones found were probably those of a male who had serious trouble with his teeth. At the time of his death, when the glaciers still covered much of the U.S., one of his teeth was growing up toward his nose.

While the Midland diggers were proceeding with commendable caution, the relics found at Piltdown (and accepted for years without sufficient tests) had a second and more thorough exposing by Brit ish scientists. Not only the human remains but the animal ones, too, were proved to be fakes. The flint implements found with "Piltdown man" had been stained, and the bone implement had been shaped with a steel knife. The perpetrator of the erudite hoax is still unknown.

That is a cool story. Thanks for sharing.

My youngest son and I were walking the Brazos near Mineral Wells . He called me over to help him pull it up, was flipped upside down with only teeth exposed . It was fossilized and full of river sand pretty heavy.

I grew up in south eastern Oklahoma. When I turned 18 in the 1970’s, I started bow hunting at the McAlester Army Ammunition Depot, formerly the Naval Ammunition Plant. I had a relative who worked there and when I showed up for standby, I always managed to get in. Thursday was scouting, Friday, Saturday, and half a day Sunday was hunting. Thursday, scouting the area I was assigned, I found a very promising trail laced with deer sign, thanks in part to some solid inside information. Anyone familiar with hunting that part of Oklahoma is also familiar with the large post oak with limbs almost all the way to the ground and what a ready made deer stand they make. There was one tree amid that deer sign that was the obvious spot in a north wind. The next morning found me perched on a large limb in that tree. It had a ready made seat in the form of a big limb at the perfect height. When it got light I noticed a small hollow in the tree about shoulder high. Inside the hollow was a pack of Marlboro lights with two cigarettes and a $100 dollar bill inside!

That's badass

You ain't just whistlin' Dixie.

Was the $100 bill rolled up?

Yes. Is there some significance to that? Or was it yours? For an 18 year old in the 1970’s it was a major windfall.

Crack can't be any more addictive than this post. Great stories. Keep going please.

Years ago I found a big one like that along a river in south central Kansas right after a flood. Only one horn was sticking up from the sand. I pulled it up from the sand but it was so heavy I couldn't carry it the half mile back to the truck. I set it up where the sand inside it could dry to lighten the load, and came back a few days later. Unfortunately someone else had taken it in the mean time. I always think about going back there to look for another.

Pretty dang cool

More than likely, a rolled up $100 bill in a cigarette pack was used for snorting lines.

Buddy found two brass rings beside two brass disks about 2 inches across and a horse bridle bit.
The disks were marked "US ARMY" with 13 stars in a circle around the words.

These were found in Northern Alberta about 800 miles north of the US border.

any new finds???

Some canuck stole U.S property.