The year was 1978. My friend, Aldan, and I were about to get off work and could hardly wait to go treasure hunting. The night before Aldan and I were visiting a friend who told us about a small leather suitcase containing an unknown amount of money that had been stashed near where we had been working. It was also close to an old hotel that burned down in the late 1800s.

So we brought our metal detectors thinking we might find some old coins. We soon got to the approximate site, detectors in one hand, a digging rake in the other! We also knew that the old telegraph line ran somewhere close by but couldn't figure out exactly where. 

An oak side pin, square nails and tie wires recovered

We looked around till it was almost dark. There was a creek close by. I started close to the creek and Aldan was about 300 feet from me. Darkness was closing in fast. I saw something aqua on the other side of the creek looking like a pint fruit jar in the mud. I made it across the creek without getting too wet to find an E.C. & M. It was very near mint. At last, I thought to myself, we found where the line came through! (It turned out to be pale blue.)

I soon made it back to where Aldan was. He showed me a tie wire and square nails he had dug up. I showed him my E.C. & M. He said, "Where did you find that?" I said, "The other side of the creek, laying in the mud!" Although we wanted to continue searching, it was too dark. So we reluctantly called it a day.

E.C.& M.s, Tillotsons and Cal. Electric Works -- 
all a part of Insulator Hill findings.

The next day at work time went very slow. 4:00 p.m. finally came and it didn't take long to get back on the line where we left off. About 30 minutes went by and Aldan hollered out, "Glass!" It was pieces of a Tillotson.

The next few spans produced nails, a tie wire, and one weathered side block with nails intact. Every time we found glass, nails, or tie wire we would tie a ribbon on some sage brush. Then when we looked back we could tell where the line went through so we could keep track of the line.

We didn't find anything else until we got to the top of the hill. Then there it was laying between two large rocks. A green Cal Electric in very near mint shape! I believe the way the insulator got there was when they wrecked the line out the lineman threw the insulator at a large rock hoping to break it and fortunately it landed between two large rocks. It was approximately 75 feet from where we thought the line was. Closer examination revealed that one side of the skirt was pushed in when it was taken out of the mold.

It wasn't too much longer after that when I spotted something shiny. A cobalt blue E.C.&M.! I was jumping with joy! This one had a tie wire wrapped around it. I didn't need my metal detector to find this one. It was laying on the surface. It had a chunk the size of a nickel missing on the skirt. I never did find that missing piece.

Two spans down the hill I found another cobalt E.C. & M. This one was broken. Aldan adopted it!

The next two spans we found nothing and darkness was approaching. Aldan wanted to go as far as the field. He was ahead of me. It wasn't long and he hollered out, "Look what I found!" An olive green Tillotson! It was broken but three quarters of it were there! Let me tell you, that was enough excitement for one day! 

The next day was Saturday and we were both out there bright and early. We started looking where Aldan found his olive green Tillotson and proceeded through the field. It had been plowed at one time. The field was thick with bunch grass and we spent quite some time looking through this large area and had no luck.

So we backtracked up the hill and started looking again in the same area we looked through the previous day, on the north side of the hill, for some reason. We never did find much. Almost to the top of the hill I found a piece of a what I believe is a CD 736.4 threadless hat in aqua. Since then I spent several hours over the years in that general area looking for more pieces of that insulator but had no luck to this day.

Before we reached the top of the hill Aldan found another treasure -- a McMicking. As we reached the top close to where I found the Cal Electric, Aldan found a Cal Electric. It was broken but it had amber streaks in it! So we started searching for pieces, uprooting sage brush, moving rocks out of our way to make digging easier with our rakes. We found a few small pieces as well as a tick! Later on that day we found pieces of a CD 133 Brookfield plus pieces of Tillotsons and more pieces of E.C. & Ms.

In 1979 Aldan and I were on the hill again and on the top of the hill in the tall sage brush I found a Tillotson with tie wire still wrapped around it very near mint. Aldan and I periodically returned to the hill in later years without much luck. Now the year was 1990 and I returned to the hill with my brother Wayne. (Wayne started collecting in 1989. He's got the bug bad! Like me!) In the back of my mind I always felt there was more to be found up there. It was a hot spring morning. The ticks were out. We were in heavy sage brush, five feet tall and Wayne hollers, "Yee ha! A Tillotson!" Upon inspection, we found it was very near mint.

We took pictures of the Tilly and spent the better part of the day looking for more treasures with no more luck and to this day that is the last insulator we have found on insulator hill. After we found all of those insulators on the hill, we completely forgot about locating the suitcase!

I brought back some nice insulators and memories, as well exciting moments spent with two of my favorite insulator buddies.