Found Outdoors

[buckbrush]

Over the years we have found many interesting things in our outdoor travels.
From Old artifacts,fossils,skulls,interesting rocks ect.

Unfortunately we never used to carry camera's and most things weren't interesting enough to pack out.

Recently I was talking to a buddy about going back for a petrified stump we had found years ago but didn't want to pack out at the time.

This got me thinking, I don't recall a thread of things we have found outdoors besides the shed antler thread.

What have you guys found?

Snagged a couple of objects off the shelf that ended up getting brought home, just so I had something to contribute...

This was Part of a buffalo skull I found on the bank of the Battle river while kayaking.

This giant egg I found in the fall right in the middle of a deer trail. Anyone have any idea what it could be? Was sitting on the snow,no tracks around it no nest above it and hadn't cracked from being froze. Had me puzzled.

Hand forged pitchfork i found in a field.

A couple other horns I had found out shed hunting.

[honda450]

Found 2 stone arrowheads. Ear tag from a tracked elk. That's bout it I guess. Less ya count all the dead guys. hehehe

[buckbrush]

Originally Posted by honda450

Found 2 stone arrowheads. Ear tag from a tracked elk. That's bout it I guess. Less ya count all the dead guys. hehehe

Do you have any pictures of the arrow heads? Dead guys?

[honda450]

Originally Posted by buckbrush

Do you have any pictures of the arrow heads? Dead guys?

Looks like both of them got it in the head. Too graphic to post. The local grizz ate most of em.

[35 whelen]

I found an old car off the chinchaga road back near the BC border way back in the bush looked like it'd been there for 50-60 years another time I find a gigantic Burl on a tree still have it marked on my GPS down theFTR.

[fishtank]

Originally Posted by 35 whelen

I found an old car off the chinchaga road back near the BC border way back in the bush looked like it'd been there for 50-60 years another time I find a gigantic Burl on a tree still have it marked on my GPS down theFTR.

wonder how some of those care got there, i found a few old rusted cars in south on nojack fully surrounded by trees probably been there for 50+ years

[bobtodrick]

Most interesting thing I’ve found...about 45 years ago (I was 16) some friends and I were wandering through the river valley (Edmonton) and found a plastic bag with...about 1/2lb or marijuana. We turned it into the police station who confirmed what it was.

[boonedocks]

A few years ago, while shed hunting, I found a sealed pickle jar resting at the base of a tree. Upon opening it I discovered it contained a quarter of a pound of weed! It had been there a long time and had Molded!🙃

[JohninAB]

Originally Posted by fishtank

wonder how some of those care got there, i found a few old rusted cars in south on nojack fully surrounded by trees probably been there for 50+ years

At the ranch?

[buckbrush]

Another 'find' I just remembered. when I was about 12 years old some of us were biking down a cutline and found a box of beer in the middle of a clearing. It was like someone set it there, not a single bottle was broken. The box was a little sunfaded and weathered but that didn't stop us....

That was the day we all learned what skunky beer was.

[SageValleyOutdoors]

When i was 17, i found two bull moose skeletons - they had been fighting, got locked together and died. This was back in the day of film cameras, and i happened to have a camera with me. Took a couple snaps of the scene i found them in, and drug the locked skulls out to my car - hauled them home and then made one of my biggest mistakes ever - sawed one 12’ point off one of the bulls and separated them. I didn’t realize how rare a find that was... when i graduated and we moved away from the farm, i wound up selling the pair to my school bus driver for $50.
I was a pretty stupid kid.

[bat119]

I found a wallet in 1976 while hiking in cypress hills had $2, a pawn ticket dated 1963 and a few other pieces of faded paper I put it in the lost and found at the park office kept the $2 as a finders fee I figured after 13 years he wouldn't care.

[ram crazy]

While we were out canoeing we found a human skull with a small hole in the skull in the river bank. Had it sent away and it was a native lady in her early twenties. They figured the hole was from tomahawk. I’m not sure where the skull is right now. I think my uncle has it. This was in the mid 80’s.

[Red Bullets]

One interesting thing I found in the bush 40 years ago was the full skeleton of a good sized bull moose laying stretched out perfectly on the ground, white and bleached. With his antlers, skull attached, stuck between trees on each side of his skull. Poor guy got stuck and died there. I took the skull but never thought to carry a camera back then. I think I ended up giving the skull to someone to hang on their wall or barn.

This pic isn't mine but is a interesting find.

[Red Bullets]

Originally Posted by ram crazy

While we were out canoeing we found a human skull with a small hole in the skull in the river bank. Had it sent away and it was a native lady in her early twenties. They figured the hole was from tomahawk. I’m not sure where the skull is right now. I think my uncle has it. This was in the mid 80’s.

I have read a couple stories about skulls found with holes and blunt force fracturing being found on the surface in the parklands of Alberta by the first settlers which makes be think there are more old warclub victim's skulls around than we realize.

One settler in 1893 was walking along the east shoreline of Pine Lake SE of Red Deer and found between 20 and 30 sun bleached skulls of all sizes over a couple acre area. Most of the skulls had holes and fracturing by tomahawk or blunt force. There is a longer story to the skulls that I won't go into.

[Redneck 7]

Yeah it’s cool what you can find in the outdoors. One thing I’ve found while trapping was a bull moose skull. It’s hanging on my cabin, I was jacked about that. Another thing in the bush in the back 40 of the farm while shed hunting a found a Colin’s axe, no one claimed it so I kept it. Been a good axe to leave on the quad.

[grouse_hunter]

Originally Posted by Red Bullets

There is a longer story to the skulls that I won't go into.

That's an anticlimactic conclusion if I have ever read one. I'm sure a lot of people would be interested in that story, if you cared to elaborate.

[buckbrush]

Originally Posted by grouse_hunter

That's an anticlimactic conclusion if I have ever read one. I'm sure a lot of people would be interested in that story, if you cared to elaborate.

X3

[Jamie]

Originally Posted by grouse_hunter

That's an anticlimactic conclusion if I have ever read one. I'm sure a lot of people would be interested in that story, if you cared to elaborate.

x4


Kinda thinking this is the old guy around the fire who needs to be prodded for the BEST story ever.. LOLOLOL

Come on man, dont be a tease!!

[bessiedog]

10 years ago my daughter came elk hunting with me. We got way back in there and found a traditional elk hidey hole.... water, food, shelter. On a bench we discovered a complete skeleton of a big 5x5 elk... everything pretty much attached. It was real real strange that no big critters came and chewed it up. Was very puzzling.

[Red Bullets]

Originally Posted by grouse_hunter

That's an anticlimactic conclusion if I have ever read one. I'm sure a lot of people would be interested in that story, if you cared to elaborate.

Someone messaged me for the story too so I will post the story. I did mention this in my tidbit thread.
~~~~~~~~

In 1893 a new homesteader, Thomas J. Waltin(?) was walking down the east shoreline of Pine Lake SE of Red Deer and he noticed bones. Thomas wrote:
"I Discovered a rather large amount of human bones and skulls..possibly 30 of the latter of all sizes. They were scattered over 3 to 4 acres of land and evidently had been laying there a long time."

He asked two local homesteaders if they knew anything about them. The homesteaders, Page and Brewster, thought they were the remains of FN people that succumbed to an early smallpox epidemic. There had been a large FN village at Quill lake east of Pine lake.

Thomas goes on to say.." I was not satisfied with their answer as I found some of the skulls bore the marks of tomahawks or axes."

Thomas spoke with local FN people and was told this story...East and west of Pine lake was was debatable land as far as hunting rights between the Blackfoot and Cree nations. A Cree group were camped in the Pine Lake area. These bones were the result of a group of the Blackfoot tribe killing everyone in the Cree camp, except one young man. The 50 year old (in 1893) FN person that told the settler this story was told this by his grandfather.

I believe I read that Thomas himself gathered up the bones and skulls and buried them in a mass grave in that immediate area.

So I'm thinking ... eventually some developer is going to be developing that shoreline and they'll find that mass grave.

[Sooner]

River boating the Athabasca on a friends boat. We parked beside a creek and fished the mouth. Then we walked up the creek. There was a petrified chunk of tree in the creek that was just awesome to see. Need a big piece of equipment to remove it.

I have Haley's Comet on video when ice fishing on Slave Lake. That's about the neatest thing I have so far from the outdoors other than sheds.

[gman1978]

Originally Posted by Red Bullets

Someone messaged me for the story too so I will post the story. I did mention this in my tidbit thread.
~~~~~~~~

In 1893 a new homesteader, Thomas J. Waltin(?) was walking down the east shoreline of Pine Lake SE of Red Deer and he noticed bones. Thomas wrote:
"I Discovered a rather large amount of human bones and skulls..possibly 30 of the latter of all sizes. They were scattered over 3 to 4 acres of land and evidently had been laying there a long time."

He asked two local homesteaders if they knew anything about them. The homesteaders, Page and Brewster, thought they were the remains of FN people that succumbed to an early smallpox epidemic. There had been a large FN village at Quill lake east of Pine lake.

Thomas goes on to say.." I was not satisfied with their answer as I found some of the skulls bore the marks of tomahawks or axes."

Thomas spoke with local FN people and was told this story...East and west of Pine lake was was debatable land as far as hunting rights between the Blackfoot and Cree nations. A Cree group were camped in the Pine Lake area. These bones were the result of a group of the Blackfoot tribe killing everyone in the Cree camp, except one young man. The 50 year old (in 1893) FN person that told the settler this story was told this by his grandfather.

I believe I read that Thomas himself gathered up the bones and skulls and buried them in a mass grave in that immediate area.

So I'm thinking ... eventually some developer is going to be developing that shoreline and they'll find that mass grave.

I had a older gentleman tell me story's about some of the very first pioneers in this neck of the woods. They would go out and collect buffalo bones and haul them to the rail at Wetaskiwin in their wagons. They were used for fertilizer I guess. The time frame on this would have been the late 1890's I believe. They would come across human remains from time to time and being Christians they would gather them up and bury them and follow up with a few words of respect. The early to late 1800's where some turbulent times on the prairies. More warfare going on that one would have thought.

[ÜberFly]

I’m sure everyone is aware, but I’ll reiterate just in case... objects of historical and anthropological significance cannot be removed from public land ( I would presume private land, as well). And of course all of us being ethical outdoors people would respect that!!

[bessiedog]

........ u just wanna suck the joy outta everything........

[Red Bullets]

Originally Posted by gman1978

I had a older gentleman tell me story's about some of the very first pioneers in this neck of the woods. They would go out and collect buffalo bones and haul them to the rail at Wetaskiwin in their wagons. They were used for fertilizer I guess. The time frame on this would have been the late 1890's I believe. They would come across human remains from time to time and being Christians they would gather them up and bury them and follow up with a few words of respect. The early to late 1800's where some turbulent times on the prairies. More warfare going on that one would have thought.

The bones were send east by rail and ground for bone meal fertilizer. The last pic from the Archives is what parts of Alberta would have looked like before the bone gathering.

Sorry for the derail.

One other thing I found outdoors was carved into a cutbank, in a remote part of a river valley ravine, about 25 feet down the 70 foot slope was a square hole. Inside someone had dug out this room. It was about a 8'deep x 7' wide x 7 foot height room. There was a very old coal oil lamp covered in dust and cobwebs sitting on the hand dug shelf. and an ancient old shotgun in the corner. Nothing else. No door, no framing inside. Just this room.

Where the room was a person couldn't see the entrance from above the cutbank or see it from below looking up. There was a very faint narrow trail angling down the slope of the cutbank that I noticed, followed and encountering the room. No old farmyards near so it wasn't a root cellar.

[The moose]

I found a full intact bison skeleton buried in a bank on the bow river that had been exposed in the flood of 2013. Dated back to greater then 2000yrs old. Was pretty cool. Also have found 2 bodies on the bow as well, Less cool.

[Red Bullets]

Originally Posted by ÜberFly

I’m sure everyone is aware, but I’ll reiterate just in case... objects of historical and anthropological significance cannot be removed from public land ( I would presume private land, as well). And of course all of us being ethical outdoors people would respect that!!

Good point to raise.

http://www.qp.alberta.ca/documents/Acts/h09.pdf

Alberta Historical Resources Act.
32(1) Subject to subsections (2) and (3), the property in all
archaeological resources and palaeontological resources within
Alberta is vested in the Crown in right of Alberta.

I know where some dinosaur foot prints were discovered and my thought was they should have been left in place and noted. But Tyrell museum decided they needed them and came and removed them using a helicopter lift. Those prints and the area should have been left intact and local school kids should have had field trips there instead of being bused 3 hours to go see dinosaur prints.

[Fish along]

Another great thread very interesting.

[HunterDave]

I grew up in a place called Chateauguay, Quebec. It was pretty much smack dab in the middle of numerous battles between the English and French Forces when what is now Canada was being colonized. One day my friend and I found a great big long bayonet out in the field. My Uncle gave us $5 for it and we were in our glory.....lol.