A local U.S. Army veteran uncovered a priceless piece of American history while metal detecting in the Vernal area recently and the story was shared over the weekend on the TreasureNet.com online forum.
Author Terry Soloman started by sharing a lesser known piece of history: that in 1929, Congress authorized government funded pilgrimages for mothers and widows of American soldiers killed in World War One to sail to France and visit American military cemeteries in Europe. During one of these trips, a Utah woman received a special ‘Gold Star Pilgrimage’ medallion made by Tiffany & Company to commemorate the special journey to honor her lost loved one.
The story then jumps 94 years to present day Vernal and an occasion when local Army veteran Louis Haynes was metal detecting with a machine presented to him by Metal Detectors 4 Veterans. “As Louis slowly moved his coil across the ground carefully listening to the machine, he had no idea he was about to find a real treasure, an actual piece of American history,” shares Solomon. “The detector came alive, telling him some type of non-ferrous metal was below his search coil. The target was deep, and it took some work to get down to it through the hard soil. At the bottom of the hole was a 1930 Gold Star Mothers and Widows Pilgrimage Medallion!”
Haynes had found the treasure of that Utah woman. He now hopes to use the medallion’s serial number to return it to the family it belongs to. Link to the full original account of this special story through this news story on BasinNow.com and for more information on Metal Detectors 4 Veterans, visit www.MD4V.org.
