ezatlas
Member
Howdy fellow diggers,
My father was digging here in central New York back in the 1960's at the foundation of John Rockerfellow, father of Nelson Rockerfellow. He told me he didn't find much. One thing he did turn up was an old axe head. To quote him directly "That guy was so cheap. He sharpened that axe so many times the edge was but three quarters of an inch from the eye for the handle. I said to myself that thing ain't worth nuthin. So I reached back and heaved it as far as I could." My father told me this story in the spring of 1983. He was a very powerful man. I went back to that sight. Figuring at best he could have thrown the axe head a maximum of 400 feet. I paced off 500 feet from the foundation and placed stakes fabricated from tree branches about every 50 feet so they were stiil high enough to be visible while I stood. Armed with my metal detector I began covering every inch of ground within the perimeter. Everyday for the next 17 days I searched feverishly for that piece of evident history. Much to my dismay it never turned up. Damn, why couldn't that axe have been made of glass. Then he would have kept it. Moral, think before you decide something isn't worth carrying home. Just how much do you suppose that axe head might have been worth, today ? "What fools we mortals be."
My father was digging here in central New York back in the 1960's at the foundation of John Rockerfellow, father of Nelson Rockerfellow. He told me he didn't find much. One thing he did turn up was an old axe head. To quote him directly "That guy was so cheap. He sharpened that axe so many times the edge was but three quarters of an inch from the eye for the handle. I said to myself that thing ain't worth nuthin. So I reached back and heaved it as far as I could." My father told me this story in the spring of 1983. He was a very powerful man. I went back to that sight. Figuring at best he could have thrown the axe head a maximum of 400 feet. I paced off 500 feet from the foundation and placed stakes fabricated from tree branches about every 50 feet so they were stiil high enough to be visible while I stood. Armed with my metal detector I began covering every inch of ground within the perimeter. Everyday for the next 17 days I searched feverishly for that piece of evident history. Much to my dismay it never turned up. Damn, why couldn't that axe have been made of glass. Then he would have kept it. Moral, think before you decide something isn't worth carrying home. Just how much do you suppose that axe head might have been worth, today ? "What fools we mortals be."
