Treasures found in gopher mounds

[Crazy Gun Barney, SASS #2428]

I am living next door to the house I grew up in. And as kids we were everywhere when playing (actually outside, with other kids, before computers).  I found this cap in a gopher mound today, and I am pretty sure this came from me around 40 years ago. We all loved capguns. Paper caps were the cheapest, but we liked the plastic caps better. Most everyone had the classic snubnose capgun (they were metal back then) that shot the ring of plastic caps. I mowed lawns to get enough money to feed my cap addiction. At toy r us, they had a new Ertl capgun that used a strip of plastic caps that fed from the magazine. The strip would advance out the top of the gun and a little blade would slam forward with the hammer and snip off the fired caps one at a time ejecting it like a spent cartridge. Very cool and I was the only kid in the neighborhood that had one. This had to be mine. 
I’ve also found GIJoe helmets and a backpack ( from the 3.5” figures from the early 80’s). 
I also a while back found this shotgun shell. It was a paper hull, but that was gone. My grandfather built these two houses in the 50’s, and I have heard stories of him hunting pheasant in the field next door. But if that 1901 is a date, those would have been pretty old by the time he bought this property and decided to build here. 
no real point, just sharing what I have found. 

[Crazy Gun Barney, SASS #2428]

As a side note, I just looked up the 1901 head stamp and looks like they came from 1901 to 1920. 
cool!

[Sedalia Dave]

I have two keepsakes that came from Mole hills.  Found them in the yard of the old farm my Grandparents rented when I was in grade school. No idea how old they are. When my grandma passed they were both in a box with other treasures that she willed to me. So far I have only reloacated one of them. The other is milk white porcelain dog. Its sitting on a shelf here in the house somewhere.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Big Sage, SASS #49891 Life]

Here in SW Colorado we have lots of prairie dogs. They have big "towns" , sometimes there are up to 100 of them and they dig tons of holes. Lots of the farmers want them out of their fields because of the damage they do, so they let us shoot them. Lots of fun too. 

 

Around their holes, I have found lots of pottery shards and a few arrowheads that they have dug up. 

 

 

[Dusty Devil Dale]

Rockhounds will tell you that a lot of valuable gemstones and artifacts have been found on ant, rodent, and jackrabbit or badger mounds.  I've personally found nice tourmalines, garnets, topaz crystals, a couple old coins, and quite a few obsidian and chert arrow points just by walking around kicking at mounds.