Yes, the Beach Boys have returned! For those of you who enjoyed the EC&M article in the January, 1986 issue of CROWN JEWELS, we now have another adventure to tell you about. There is a new member in the band this year. I wasn't really sure what to nickname him. At first, I thought about "Dinty Moore," due to his love of the famous Dinty Moore beef stew. But as time went on, something more appropriate would surely come to mind.

At any rate, we met at our destination at 9:20 on a Saturday night. Both of us had a lot of stories to tell of the experiences on our trips there. We must have been up 'till one in the morning or so yakking about what took place "on the way in" and about the events that might take place in the few days ahead of us. After pulling two upside down embossed EC&M's off a line last year, it made one wonder if we could find anything this year that could compare in rarity or value. But, hey, we were here to have fun.

Sunday found us getting our digging tools, food and other gear ready for the big dig. It was into the afternoon before we finally got started working the line. I located a couple of tie wires and paced off the next pole for ole "Dinty." After returning to my pole site I heard him yelling to me. He had located some tie wires, nails, and what appeared to be a deteriorated threadless side bracket. Needless to say he was all wound up, since up to this point he hadn't even found a piece of a threadless on his digs in other areas on later lines. So it was all pretty exciting for him. He decided he wanted to dig this spot all by himself, so I continued digging at my pole. 

Getting my rake back into the ground was a pleasurable experience. The moss and pine needles were damp and the smell of pine trees and all the other scents of the wilderness gave me a good feeling inside. Nearly a year had passed since my rake saw any work on this old line which has been good to me in the past. I've been working it for six years now, and believe me, there are a lot of good experiences that have taken place because of the "digs." The rust had no sooner given way to a shinier surface on the teeth of my rake, when up came the first piece of glass. One could hope for a threadless or even one of those upside down critters. But the variety on this line can make anything possible. There seems to be such a variety due to the first threadless going back to 1865 and then as the years went by, Chesters, Mulford & Biddles, and McMickings being put into service. Then, in the 1870's and 80's both Cal. Electrics and EC&M's being used as replacements. There are also rebuilt sections that used a lot of one or more of the later items. So you can find a Tillotson from the '65 shipment or a Cal. Electric from the 80's.

So now, getting back to my first piece of glass on our hunt this time around, it was something different than any of the items described above. It seems as though a batch of CD 133 dome dated Brookfield signals were also sent here, as there before me was a nice shiny aqua one. It had met the elements there in the ground, for the frost had popped off the top section of the dome. I grabbed my gear and headed on up the line, giving some encouraging words to "Dinty" as I paced the next span from him.

The threadless side bracket (in dark circle) can be seen as it was first spotted on the tree.

Klingensmith on the rise...climbing up for a closer look.

Upon getting to the next digging area, I spotted a real beauty in the tree above me. I had found a real rarity. This time it wasn't a piece of glass that caught my eye, but rather an old wood threadless side bracket that looked like it was put up five years ago! It was in super condition. Within a few seconds there was another pair of eyes looking up at it too! Fortunately there was another smaller pine tree growing close to the old timer that held my bracket. So I was able to climb the smaller one and reach over to inspect my find. A closer view revealed small patches of moss growing on the bracket which gave it real character. We decided to wait until the next day to remove it as the light conditions were deteriorating as far as getting some good photos were concerned. So both of us went back to digging, myself in hopes of finding the insulator that was placed on the bracket over one hundred years ago. Darkness began to set in before I could rake over much of the area. We turned in by nine that night.

The bracket, in remarkable condition for an item over 100 years old, clings to the tree.

Three long cut nails anchored this rare find and made for its difficult removal.

We woke at 7:37 (Lefferts time) on Monday morning. The conversation immediately took the form of our telling each other of our dreams that night. I was humored to hear about how we had been attacked by MIGS during the night. It reminded me of a book I read in my research on this time entitled "Tent Life in Siberia." Enough about our dreams, it was time to get to work! I finished digging around the tree where the bracket was found and failed to find any glass. After taking some pictures I proceeded to try to remove the bracket. Fortunately the bracket was not embedded in the tree. The tree had pushed the bracket outward, rather than growing around it as is sometimes the case. However, the old, square cut nails were really embedded and it took at least fifteen minutes to carefully work it free. I was more pleased with a historical find like this than if I had found a threadless insulator.

From there we continued to work the area, and finally at three in the afternoon my digging partner pulled up his first whole insulator of the trip. Of all things, another CD 133 Brookfield. So now he had another nickname - "Brookfield Bernie." That evening I came up with my second insulator of the hunt, none other than another Brookfield.

"Brookfield Bernie" with one of several CD 133 Brookfield signals found.	The bottom edge of Bernie’s Mulford & Biddle can be seen protruding from beneath the moss and pine needles.
Bernie takes a closer look at his prize Mulford & Biddle.	A Brookfield mounted on a "long necked" bracket, most likely supplied by EC&M CO, is shown after the pine needles have been pulled away.

The next morning we were up and at it by 7:35 (Chester time). We put in a pretty hard day, and by that evening some of the excitement, and at least a little of the energy had worn off. But old "Brookfield Bernie" came through with better than half of a threadless CD 735 Mulford & Biddle. He was pretty excited with it, and it gave us hopes of finding more the next day.

Wednesday morning dawned, and rather than discussing our dreams of the night before, Bernie gave me a real serious look as he attempted to convince me that what he was about to say involved something that had really happened the night before and was not a dream. He told me he had heard two mosquitoes talking outside during the night and their topic of conversation was none other than the two of us! The conversation according to Bernie was as follows:

Mosquito #1 - "Hey, do you see those two humans laying there?"
Mosquito #2 - "Yeah, do you think we should eat them here, or take them home and have them for lunch?"
Mosquito #1 - "I think we better eat them here. If we carry them home, the big ones will probably take them away from us."

Bernie's story gave me something to look forward to as I crawled outside for a look. If you've never been attacked by the huge swarms of mosquitoes that can come with these digs, you're missing a real treat! We finally got going that morning, and a couple hours later I was running my detector near a tree when it signaled some metal. I dug down to find an ancient coin. I ran on up to where "ole Brookfield" was working and showed off my find. After getting back to the tree, I decided to make sure there weren't more coins. However, the detector indicated there was still more metal buried there. Up came another coin and then another, and then another, and then....by the time Bernie got there, I had 6 coins, the oldest dating back to the 1850's. 

An hour later Bernie did some yelling of his own. When I asked him if I should bring the camera with me to see his find, his reply was that it would save me a trip back to get it by bringing it now, so I knew he had something good. When I got up to where he had been digging, I realized he had uncovered his first whole threadless -- a CD 735 Mulford & Biddle. It was a real nice one, a small frost crack in it, but no glass missing. Needless to say, Bernie was all smiles. He had progressed from "Brookfield Bernie" to the distinction of being called "Bernie Biddle" from here on. By the way, the Mulford & Biddle was lying in a position where the dome was lower than the skirt, so I told Bernie it was "almost an upside-down one."

We decided to take a day off Thursday and did a little sightseeing. It's hard to take a break after you make a good find, but we needed a rest anyway. Besides we are on vacation and need to relax and enjoy ourselves.

Friday found us back on the line. My first find of the day came on its original threaded bracket. The bracket was the right type. It had a nice long neck on it, probably an EC&M product. It was in pretty fair condition for having been in the ground for several decades. The insulator, unfortunately, was not from San Francisco, but rather a New Yorker -- another Brookfield signal. Bernie then found his first jewel of the day, of all things, another Brookfield!

From there we did more pacing to locate the next couple of poles. I located a tie wire and did a little digging. I paced the next pole for Bernie, after which time he found a couple tie wires. I proceeded at that time to tell him I had managed to develop a bad attitude and things weren't looking too good. Normally, I hang right in there and really go at it, but it was hard work and all there seemed to be was a bunch of Brookfields.

The Brookfield and bracket it was mounted on are shown here with half of a CD 735 Tillotson, which made its arrival in 1865.

The "upside down" Mulford & Biddle which is in almost perfect condition.

Only half interested in digging I went back to work digging where I had found the tie wire. After about a half hour, I was digging right up to a tree that must have been a couple hundred years old. Much to my amazement there was a upside down insulator setting right against the base of the tree. Now what kind of upside down insulator do you think I'm talking about? You know about the EC&Ms, but then it could also be a Brookfield standing on its head, right?

Things were looking good that day because what was standing perfectly upside down was a Mulford & Biddle with a real nice bubbly-milky swirl in it. I couldn't believe it had laid there for umpteen years with its base in the air and yet it hadn't filled with water and frozen. Apparently resting against the tree had prevented any water from getting inside. And to top off a great find, in looking up the side of that tall tree I noticed a dark spot over twenty feet up. Could it be a bracket? It's hard to climb a tree with no lower limbs, so fortunately once again a small tree growing next to it allowed for a closer inspection.

There aren't many threadless in collections today which are accompanied by their original bracket and tie wire as this one pictured.	It's "easy find in'" when your metal detector locates insulators with tie wires still attached!
A broken Tillotson, almost mint Mulford & Biddle and a McMicking. Not bad for three days of digging.

Sure enough, I had in fact located another threadless bracket. Once again the condition of the wood was incredible. This one had the old "gable" type cutout on the backside. An animal, most likely a squirrel, had gnawed away the upper portion of the round, pin part of the bracket after the insulator had been removed, but it was still a great find.

Saturday morning gave better lighting conditions for taking pictures, so we waited until then to remove the bracket. A measurement of the distance from the ground before it was removed revealed it to be 22-1/2 feet up. That's a little too far off the ground for me when dangling from small branches, but the bracket came off pretty easy this time. The remainder of the day brought none other than two more Brookfields for Bernie.

The next three days didn't reveal very much. Bernie managed to find a partially decomposed threadless bracket, and I found another on a tree that was lying on the ground. It was in fairly nice shape, but not as nice as the other two I had found. The weather really wasn't holding out too well for us by this point, so we finished off this stretch of the line just in time.

The last day of digging, Bernie mentioned he would only get wet one more time here and that was on the way to the truck. His famous last words were "I'm sure glad I brought my raincoat. It saved me from getting pneumonia. What happened to the nice days when we first came here?" It made me stop and think of the grinding torture I put the rest of the Beach Boys through on these famous digs. But Bernie put up with the elements quite well. The only complaint I had of him was that he refused to go to the beach with me so we could get our picture taken together!

Our big dig was pretty successful in my opinion. Our total haul was several CD 133 Brookfields, two good Mulford & Biddles, four threadless brackets, a McMicking and a couple of broken threadless. The abundance of the Brookfields really amazed me. When one considers the rebuilds that took place on this line over the years and, more importantly, the relocation of the line in places sometimes as many as three times, it begins to explain a few things. Another surprise was that we only found one of the "old timers," an aqua CD 735 Tillotson that was about one half complete. Once again, the line relocation factor involved here probably eliminated some of the early items. This is unfortunate in some respects, since in the past I have located a couple of really nice Tillotsons in both directions from where we were now digging. But, we must be happy with what we find as far as the threadless go. I've also found some McMickings on this stretch of line.

Part of the "finds." Threadless bracket found on a fallen tree, the first threadless bracket found, a McMicking, broken Tillotson, Mulford & Biddle on original "gable type" threadless bracket, Brookfield signal and the bracket it was found on -- probably the bracket was supplied by EC&M CO.

In fact, I was so excited about the Biddles and brackets found on this trip, that I forgot to mention the broken and whole McMicking I found on this dig. After all, it was those McMickings that got me started here years ago, so we can't forget them! As for the upside down EC&M that may still be out there, I haven't totally given up on the possibility of another one eventually turning up. After all, there are still 400 plus miles of line to cover, but, unfortunately, the elusive upside down section has now been pretty well raked over. Who knows, maybe next January there might just be another article by the Beach Boys. We'll have to see what next summer holds. Perhaps there are more California Girls out there! And we can't forget the New York Girls on (16) Broadway either!