History on the point of a spade

[GaryE]

In 1917, the Canadian port of Halifax was partly leveled by an ammunition ship explosion - one of the largest human made non nuclear explosions in history, and the largest blast on record until Hiroshima. Around 1800 lives were lost, and thousands were maimed or blinded by flying glass. Large sections of the city were destroyed.

I was there Saturday, digging a hole for a rose bush when I dug into a layer of glass and china. My shovel came up with a piece of a teapot with the same pattern my grandmother's had. As a person who studies history for fun, and who figures things that happened 300 years ago are still in play in our daily lives, this stopped me for a personal moment of silence. In North America, we don't often stumble across the kinds of things that the old British TV show Time Team shows.

So what kinds of things have people here found around where they live? What stories do they tell? After all, history is always just under the surface of our lives.

 

[connorlindeman]

I once found a full t rex skeleton in my backyard

 

[Back in the fold]

I once found a full t rex skeleton in my backyard

In your dreams .

 

[Colin_T]

So what kinds of things have people here found around where they live? What stories do they tell? After all, history is always just under the surface of our lives.

I once found a full t rex skeleton in my backyard

I found a partially decomposing human skull with a bit of hair and puffy white flesh lifting off the skull, in a plastic shopping bag in a pool of water I was catching fish in down south near Walpole.

I found a clean human skull and leg bone in a creek down south near Albany. A couple of years later I found the remains of a dead cow in the same creek but it was missing its back leg. Someone poached it, killed it and took its leg, leaving the rest to rot in the creek.

I found what appeared to be a child's skeleton, missing the legs and skull, in the bush a few meters in from a rest area on the side of the road on the outskirts of Armadale near the Glen Eagle rifle range. There was also a suitcase with women's and child's clothing in. And a small teddy bear. That still fuplies me up seeing that little bear.

Different time but same rest area and there was a car parked in the bush with fogged up windows. It was an older car and had the little triangle window in the front window. That was open a bit and flies were going in and out and you could smell the rotten body in it.

This tells me there are lots of sickos in my country and lots of bushland to dump bodies in and very few people will ever find them.

 

[connorlindeman]

I found a partially decomposing human skull with a bit of hair and puffy white flesh lifting off the skull, in a plastic shopping bag in a pool of water I was catching fish in down south near Walpole.

I found a clean human skull and leg bone in a creek down south near Albany. A couple of years later I found the remains of a dead cow in the same creek but it was missing its back leg. Someone poached it, killed it and took its leg, leaving the rest to rot in the creek.

I found what appeared to be a child's skeleton, missing the legs and skull, in the bush a few meters in from a rest area on the side of the road on the outskirts of Armadale near the Glen Eagle rifle range. There was also a suitcase with women's and child's clothing in. And a small teddy bear. That still fuplies me up seeing that little bear.

Different time but same rest area and there was a car parked in the bush with fogged up windows. It was an older car and had the little triangle window in the front window. That was open a bit and flies were going in and out and you could smell the rotten body in it.

This tells me there are lots of sickos in my country and lots of bushland to dump bodies in and very few people will ever find them.

DId you tell the police about any of those instances?

 

[DoubleDutch]

Just skipped Australia from my bucketlist.

 

[Colin_T]

DId you tell the police about any of those instances?

Yeah all but the dead cow. There was a ranger there giving me a hard time for allegedly catching marron (freshwater crayfish) out of season. I let him search my car and he didn't find anything. I was actually surveying the waterway for ANGFA and the WA museum.
We have fish, fish, plants, tadpoles, cow.

Kind of reminds me when I was down that way and we were driving along a country road. My friend was in the passenger seat calling out things on the road. Tree, tree, tree branches, hundreds of honkey nuts (seed pods from Eucalypt trees), rock, brick, pothole, wood, cow, more cows, s&it loads of cows. STOPPPPPP.

There was a mob of cattle on the road going for a walk.

 

[GaryE]

I was thinking more about archaeology than forensics, or Connor's Barney discoveries...

 

[connorlindeman]

I was thinking more about archaeology than forensics, or Connor's Barney discoveries...

Did I ever tell you about the time I found king Tut's sarcophagus under my basement?

 

[GaryE]

Tut Tut Tut....

 

[FranciscoB]

Not archaeological and very disturbing... but FWIW.
My daughter and I, while walking our dog, found a hand gun concealed among bushes in front of a house in our neighborhood. We reported it to the police, who said they will come and requested that I remained available for further info, despite my saying there was none. Since we could see the place from our house, we witnessed a car come by (partially missing tag) and a guy got out and took the gun; the police arrived about an hour later...way too late.

 

[Back in the fold]

OK @Colin_T You have officially completely weirded me out.

 

[Colin_T]

OK @Colin_T You have officially completely weirded me out.

I could have said

Did you tell the police about any of those instances?

Of course not. I'm not telling the cops where I dump my bodies.

 

[davros]

I stopped once and picked up a hitchhiker. He said " thanks for stopping and not assuming I'm a serial killer or something"
I replied "Well, the odds of there being two serial killers on this road are very very slim"

 

[Oblio]

When I was young, we used to routinely find arrowheads in the woods behind our suburban home.
This being West St. Louis County, I assume they were Mound Builder artifacts.