You'd be surprised what's still out there though - part of the reason why ARPA is so important. The archeological survey we did came up with a treasure trove of artifacts. A local farmer used to pay kids a nickel for a bucket of artillery fragments bullets and such. He had a fairly substantial private museum, but it was lost after his death.

The survey was run by Dr Doug Scott of the Midwest Archeological Center. Dr Scott is the gentleman who ran the dig out at the Little Bighorn. If you ever get a chance to hear a presentation by him, go. He's a great person to work with. He took the time to explain the artifacts, what their significance was and how to interpret them to all of us Junior Archeologists. We found several nice artillery rounds - a fused James shell that was found to have not been filled with powder, 2 unexploded spherical case rounds (at the time we thought that the fuses were snuffed out when they impacted),a nice "I" eagle button (very nice button), a couple of Sharps rounds, a LeFaucheux pin-fire catridge casing, the hammer from a '42 Springfield, bullets, shell fragments, plus the usual nails, wire and fence staples.

A month or so before we began our dig, some jerk (now a resident of the Federal corrections system) did his own archeological dig out in the Clemmens field near the Elkhorn Tavern. He found some wonderful pieces, many related to the Missouri State Guard, including some flintlock parts. Since he removed them from their original locations, we couldn't use them to add to the historical record. After the dig, someone else got busted with a plow blade. Several years back, someone got caught digging for artifacts in the Atietam National Cemetery. People like this ruin it for everyone.