Mark Twain famously observed that, 鈥淭here comes a time in every rightly constructed boy's life when he has a raging desire to go somewhere and dig for hidden treasure.鈥�
Sooke resident Bryan Turnbull was hit with that raging desire a long time ago when, as a young man living in Ontario, he would go out mudlarking and discovered that hidden treasures were all around us, if one only looks in the right places.
When Turnbull moved to Vancouver Island, he discovered that the Island鈥檚 beaches were a treasure trove of interesting, collectible stuff.
鈥淚n Ontario, we didn鈥檛 have beaches like we have here. When I moved here in 2007 I learned that there was all sorts of treasure to be found. I found sea glass, pottery, marbles and bottles ... I鈥檝e always loved old bottles,鈥� said Turnbull. 鈥淚 once found a Japanese sake bottle on a beach here and I can only imagine the journey it had before it washed up here.
鈥淵ou also find some amazing driftwood, old toys and fishing floats ... all kinds of weird old things.鈥�
Recently Turnbull turned his attention to using a metal detector to search through old properties. In a small flyer that he鈥檚 distributed around Sooke, he is soliciting folks who own a home or farm built before 1960 (he鈥檇 prefer even older properties) to allow him to use his metal detector on their land so that he can search for relics of the past.
鈥淧rivate residences are a great place to search for bits of history,鈥� said Turnbull. 鈥淧art of the adventure is in finding stuff, but then you find something, and you can learn about the history of a community in a way that you鈥檒l never be able to do just by reading books or looking through archives. These things are real, and you can hold them in your hand and get a sense of the way things used to be.鈥�
Turnbull鈥檚 form of amateur archeology is actually hugely popular right around the world and Vancouver Island is no exception. A variety of metal detecting or just plain treasure-hunting groups exist on the Island, and they are more than willing to help new treasure hunters with advice on how and where to best pursue the activity.
Rob Zeiler, one of the folks behind the Vancouver Island Treasure Hunting group, was surprised when his group hosted a few treasure-hunting outings and found that scores of people would attend the group鈥檚 events.
鈥淧eople need an adventure,鈥� said Zeiler. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a chance to get out with friends and family and they discover that, as much as they might have thought that they knew the Island, they would learn new things all the time.鈥�
Of course, there are issues regarding where and how to pursue the activity as well as some sound advice on what not to do.
鈥淭here are legal issues, for sure,鈥� said Turnbull. 鈥淎lthough the excavations on new construction sites can reveal a lot of hidden treasure, you can鈥檛 just go there and start exploring. You should never enter a private site without the permission of the owners.鈥�
One of Turnbull鈥檚 prize discoveries came recently when he unearthed a turn-of-the-(20th)-century ginger beer bottle.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a stoneware bottle for the Chris Morely company here in Victoria. These bottles are highly collectible and quite valuable to collectors. But the neatest part is that this bottle was discarded over a hundred years ago, and you know that, at the time, no one was thinking that a century later someone would dig it up and give it a new life.鈥�
Turnbull is always on the lookout for the next find and invites anyone with some property that has been occupied for the last hundred years or more to call him at 778-677-4183 or email him at turnbull1138@gmail.com.
鈥淗istory is right there, right under our feet,鈥� said Turnbull.
