BY WENDI REARDON PRICE
Clarkston News Staff Writer
Buried in the dirt, treasure and pieces of history can be found, and James Stottlemyer has found many while digging.
Stottlemyer, a 2016 Clarkston High School graduate, has turned his hobby of metal detecting and digging up relics into a passion, especially after he digs up item from the 1700s or the 1800s.
“To hold something that’s 200-plus years old is amazing, and to be the first one to see it in 250-plus years,” he shared.
He was featured in American Diggers magazine three times this year.
“It’s a pretty big deal,” he said. “It’s hard to be featured in there. You really have to have something special because you are competing against people from around the country. You have a lot of people digging in the south who find Civil War relics. You have people digging in other spots they are find stuff from the Revolutionary War.”
Stottlemyer explained finds must be within the last few months; he has at least 25 which deserve to be in there but they exceed the time limit.

He was featured for a rattlesnake buckle from the 1800’s which was from a miner’s belt. Another featured find included buttons he found, ranging from the 1700s from London, and 1800s from the Civil War.
The third time was for a pin he found with the name N.H. Briggs engraved on it. Stottlemyer and other people researched the name and found out Briggs was a well known lawyer in the late 1800s.
“He died in 1914. He had a heart attack in the middle of the road,” Stottlemyer said. “He willed everything he had to his maid and not his son. The fun part of this hobby is researching the stuff you find. I do a lot of internet research and I have a lot of friends who have been in this hobby from 40-50 years. They will help me identify some of the stuff that I have if I can’t figure it out.
He added he is getting to the point he can dig something up and tell what it is made out of and what era it’s from.
Stottlemyer begins his process by looking at old maps and figuring out where houses used to be in the 1800s. He has found some locations through friends, family and also getting permission from posting Facebook requests for spots.
When he is at the location, he searches in a grid pattern with his metal detector.
“I pretty much go back and forth in lines to the point I have gone over every single spot in the whole yard,” he explained. “I dig anything that could potentially be good because my metal detector dings the metal. I can tell if it’s copper, brass, nickel or whatever before I dig it up. I can tell if it’s going to be a rusty nail or a coin.”
He added some days he will find a lot of items and some days he won’t find anything.
“It’s the luck of the draw,” Stottlemyer said. “I had one day where I found a ton of antique bottles and coins and artifacts. If I got it appraised it probably would be around $500. It’s really hit or miss with the hobby.”
He began when he was around 11-years-old when his uncle lent him a metal detector one day.
“We were just going around in my backyard and I started to find all kinds of old coins and stuff like that,” Stottlemyer said. “I was pretty excited.”
One of his finds during the first time out was a ring from the Civilian Conservation Corps from the 1930s.
“My interest really peaked because I just learned about the CCC in school,” he shared.
After sending out a few emails, he found out the ring was rare and there wasn’t a lot out there especially since different companies made rings for the CCC.
“After that I got super interested. Then, I went out every weekend,” he said, adding he would go out every week before he started working in the summer. “I would go seven days a week because I was so addicted.”
Most of the items he finds he will display.
“Some of the stuff I sell if it’s really common. If I dig a ton of it, I will sell it,” he said. “If it’s stuff that’s unique I put in my collection. The stuff I don’t want, I usually give to people to get them interested into the hobby.”
With all the coins he found, he started coin collecting. Then, he started collecting antique bottles and World War II items.
“I found a bottle called Baby & Hanrahan, from Windsor Ontario,” he said, adding it is a liquor bottle from the 1890s. “I got that looked at by a bunch of experts. They think it’s the only one to exist. I think that’s my most unique find because that’s the only one known to exist right now. It’s a pretty rare company to find bottles from to begin with.”
Stottlemyer added what is neat about metal detecting and digging is it has led to much more. He has also learned about different eras in history. This includes learning history through houses and their foundations, designs and shape of the windows. He has also learned from researching companies he has found stamped on found items.
“You can learn how life was like back in the day,” Stottlemyer said. “A lot of times you can find pictures from the companies to tie in to what you just found. If you find a hubcap, you can look at pictures and find the same hubcap on a car in an advertisement. It’s cool to learn the history of everything you find.”
He digs in Clarkston but also travels all around Michigan especially to Ypsilanti and Detroit because there are a lot of old sites and houses.
He added it is exciting but can also be dangerous.
“I was out in Detroit about a month ago and somebody shot a hand gun 100 feet away from us,” he explained. “You really have to be careful when you are in bad areas. I do good in rundown areas because not many people are willing to go there because they are such old towns.”
Stottlemyer said he might be heading to Virginia in the future because one of his friends has access to a 1,000-acre battlefield.
For those looking to get into the hobby, he said you have to be very patient.
“Everyone thinks they are going to go out and find gold and silver but it takes a ton of time,” he said. “You have to put a lot of time and effort into it. You really have to be good at research – research the area thoroughly and try to figure out every single thing you can about it. When I do privy digging, I have to look at maps, called Sanborn maps, that show you were all the outhouses are because that’s what we look for when we did. Back in the day before they had trash pick up, they would just dump them all in the back yard in the outhouses. If you look at the maps, they will show you where those are. It’s mostly about research, be patient and love to do it.”
Stottlemyer added anyone who is interested in him checking their backyard or property can contact him on Facebook.