Joe Arsenault on the prowl. Joe Arsenault photo

Some of the bling Joe Arsenault has found in 15 years of metal detecting. Joe Arsenault photo

It was the middle of summer in 2017 when Dan Cunliffe got a frantic note from a couple in Waterford. They had lost some cherished rings in the water at Papoose Campground, the couple reported, and they were desperate to find them. 

The couple, Connie and Phil Mower, had already paid a scuba driver several hundred dollars to search for the rings. No luck. So in their desperation, they contacted Cunliffe, who sells and rents metal detectors out of his Republic Jewelry and Collectibles in Auburn. 

Did Cunliffe know anybody who was good enough with a metal detector that they could search the murky waters of Papoose Pond for the rings? 

Turns out Cunliffe did know such a person: Joe Arsenault, of Livermore, who, along with his wife, Donna, was already renowned for finding lost items with their metal detectors. 

When Joe got out to Papoose Pond, the scuba diver was still there, all decked out in full gear including scuba tanks. All Joe had was a humble snorkel and his not-so-humble metal detector, a Fisher CZ-21 specially designed for water use. 

Want to guess which of them found the rings? 

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Cunliffe got the following message a short time later from the Mowers: “Thank you soooo much for referring Joe and Donna Arsenault to us,” they wrote. “I still can’t believe they really found my rings! They are such nice people. They didn’t want a reward but we insisted on giving them one anyway. It meant so much to me to have my rings back! I would refer them to anyone who has lost jewelry or any other metal.” 

An 1876 coin Steve Dayton found with his Minelab detector. Steve Dayton photo

All in a day’s work for Joe Arsenault, a construction man who, 16 years ago, got himself a metal detector from Cunliffe’s store and started hunting for buried treasure. The result is a vast collection of stuff pulled out of the earth, some of it valuable, some just plain interesting.  

And Joe’s skills with the detector has been a boon for a variety of strangers — men and women who have lost jewelry, military insignia or class rings. 

Whenever he’s able, Joe likes to return this lost loot to the original owners. 

“A lot of these things, they don’t mean anything to me,” he says, “but they mean the world to the people who lost them.” 

When he finds a class ring — and it happens a lot — Joe first looks for initials carved inside the band. When he finds them, he’ll go track down a yearbook for the school the ring is from and he’ll sleuth until he narrows in on the likely owner. 

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“I must have returned a good dozen class rings,” Joe says. 

Janet Malia Descoteaux out hunting treasure with her metal detector near her home in Peru. Janet Malia Descoteaux photo

A few years ago, he found a Maine Game Warden’s badge in the dirt near his Livermore home. Another man might have added it to the collection and called it good, but Joe posted information about his find in places where its owner might happen upon it — which is exactly what happened when a warden in the Bangor area recognized the badge as his own.  

When the man came to claim the badge, Joe didn’t ask him for anything in return, but the fellow insisted that Joe take a reward. 

Of course, not everything he finds has someone out there looking for it, which explains Joe’s eclectic collection of items pulled from the ground or from beneath the water.  

He currently has the Fisher for underwater searching and two detectors made for land, including the Minelab E-trac named Tracie. The devices aren’t cheap: Some of the better metal detectors these days cost from several hundred dollars to a couple thousand.  

But Joe doesn’t sweat the cost. 

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“The machines have paid for themselves 10 times over,” he said, “with all the gold and silver I’ve found.” 

He finds enough of the valuable stuff to make it worth his while, in other words, and to support the habit while he searches for more interesting treasure. 

A brass angel frame Janet Malia Descoteaux found with her metal detector. Janet Malia Descoteaux photo

Joe and Donna use to run an online metal detection forum, Metal Detecting Maine. These days, Joe tends to report his latest findings on Facebook, where several people follow him. You can understand why: Even on an average day, his reports from the ground are riveting. 

“Got out in my backyard with ‘Tracie’ to look for the machete that I made in ‘Nam and lost,” Joe reported on May 6. “Didn’t find it, but it wasn’t a complete loss. Found a 114-year-old coin . . . a 1906 Barber! Yee-haw!” 

Other days, he just posts images of the random loot he found that day: Screws, hair pins, can tabs, bottle caps, Matchbox cars, spoons, toy guns, real guns, watches, tools, jackknives, shell casings, medallions, keys, toy soldiers, padlocks… 

One day it’s an old drum key. Another day it’s the handle from a strop sharpener that was once attached to a barber chair, who knows where. One day, he found an old lion-faced door knocker. Then there are items so twisted and faded by so many years in the ground, one can only guess at what they had once been. 

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“You never know what you’re going to find,” Joe says. 

And for some, that precisely describes the allure of metal detecting. One never knows what he might unearth, so every trip out to the beach, farm or forest is a journey into the unknown with potential riches at the end. 

DREAMING OF THE BIG ONE 

Some of the bling Joe Arsenault has found in 15 years of metal detecting. Joe Arsenault photo

“I used to keep a flask of Islay Scotch for The Big Find,” says Janet Malia Descoteaux, of Peru, “the one you can retire on, ha ha. I’m getting older, so now it’s a little box of white wine and I drink it when I find something nice.” 

But of course, few people are really in it for monetary gain alone. For people like Arsenault and Descoteaux, it’s more about the thrill of the hunt. 

“I’ve always been drawn to ‘digging up’ the unknown,” says Descoteaux. “I love mystery and history . . .  it’s like fishing, Bingo and time travel.” 

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Mystery and history. Over the years, she has dug up a little of both. 

“My first big, cool find was the brass angel frame,” she says. “My weirdest find was a cabinet door to a Hoosier in the middle of my lawn over a foot deep — I initially thought I had a coffin, so that was exciting for a bit. 

What Matt Prince thought was a bar of silver turned out to be just plain old lead. Matt Prince photo

“My favorite finds are silver,” Descoteaux says. “It doesn’t corrode like most metals, so it comes out of the ground with that snow-white gleam. Mercury dimes, Buffalo nickels . . .” 

She also found a second-place ski-jumping medal that she believes must have belonged to a family that lived in the area generations ago. 

Like other metal detectorists (yes, it’s a real word), Descoteaux’s work with detectors evolved over the years, beginning as just a mild hobby with a cheap device before transforming into something more serious, more committed and more expensive. 

“I received my first Radio Shack brand detector the summer of 1990,” she says. “I was always a treasure hunter and had pined for one since childhood. The first thing I did was go out to the yard where I grew up (and where I live presently) and pulled up lost Matchbox cars , Tootsie toys, a cap gun, a brass maple spile, horseshoes and a boatload of square nails. 

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“Later I upgraded to White’s Bounty Hunter and presently have a Garrett 400,” Descoteaux says, “so I guess an upgrade every 10 years.” 

You can also learn a lot about these people by considering their level of preparedness when they go out on a hunt. Descoteaux has a dedicated kit so that she’ll have everything she needs whether that day’s find is just more nails and bottle caps or THE BIG ONE that all of these folks dream of. 

“Items I carry: a few trowels, flashlight, pocket knife, a towel to put the pile of dirt on (much neater when you need to fill back the hole), bug stuff, water to drink and clean finds, a fanny pack for good finds and my cell and a side pouch for trash,” Descoteaux says. “The most important item for me is my pinpointer, brand name Vibra-Probe: Insert all the jokes I’ve already heard here. The pointer reduces search and dig time so well, it is ALWAYS worth the extra $100.” 

A shipbuilder medallion Steve Dayton found with his Minelab detector in Brunswick. The medal was awarded to shipbuilders in 1917, around the time the United States entered World War I. Steve Dayton photo

During the winter, when all those buried treasures are locked away by frozen earth, Descoteaux still stays on the hunt. She reviews maps, historical sites, satellite photos in preparation for spring. She talks with older folks to learn more about local history and where treasures are likely to be found. 

And Descoteaux has an advantage: although she uses her Garrett 400 all over the place, she doesn’t really need to leave her property to get out on a proper hunt. 

“It’s a 200-year-old farmhouse,” Descoteaux says. “My family has been here for 49 years — I still find something every time I search the property. I am best friends with the descendants of the family that lived here before me, and I have returned several pieces back to them: ID bracelet from the ’40s, rings, etc.” 

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Like Arsenault, part of the thrill for Descoteaux is the altruistic side of the hobby: the discovery of once-cherished items that the original owners thought were lost forever.  

I love finding and returning things for people,” she says. 

ON THE HEELS OF CAPTAIN KIDD 

Janet Malia Descoteaux, of Peru, thought maybe she had unearthed a coffin while she was out treasure hunting with her metal detector. Instead, it was the metal door of a Hoosier cabinet. Janet Malia Descoteaux photo

Meanwhile, in Lewiston, Steve Dayton, working with a Minelab Equinox, is on the hunt for a bona fide pirate’s treasure. Picture a chest overflowing with plunder: gold, silver, diamonds, expensive jewelry of all varieties. It’s the stuff of legend and Dayton is convinced it’s out there just waiting to be found. 

“I have found Spanish silver on the coast of Maine,” Dayton says. “I am a treasure hunter and I take it seriously. On my next quest I am in search of Captain Kidd’s treasure — he buried 40 treasure chests in Maine and I want to find one.” 

Of course, while dreaming of pirate’s treasure, there are lesser, but still interesting finds to be made. Dayton, a deejay and bass guitar player, runs his Minelab all over the place and reports most of his findings on his YouTube page. 

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Dayton, like the others, has unearthed a healthy quantity of rings, coins, old bottles and a number of things that defy description. Recently, in Brunswick, he unearthed a badge awarded to a shipbuilder around the time that the United States entered World War I. 

The badge had clearly legible markings on its face, so it didn’t take Dayton long to zero in on exactly what he had found. Not all finds are like that. Sometimes what one pulls out of the earth is not what it appears to be. 

A display of metal detectors and gear at Republic Jewelry and Collectibles in Auburn. Dan Cunliffe II photo

“I found an ingot bar of silver metal on the beach,” says Matt Prince, of Sabattus. “I got all excited only to find it was lead. Still cool — had the mark of an English silversmith.” 

It’s hard to say how many people are out there with metal detectors these days, but it’s clear the hobby has taken off in recent decades as the technology keeps getting better and better. All across the internet, there seems to be no end of metal detecting pages and forums. Several Facebook pages are dedicated to detecting in Maine specifically. 

Cunliffe, of Republic Jewelry and Collectibles, sells White’s metal detectors out of his store. Sales and rentals of the devices are brisk, he says. Sometimes it’s parents looking to buy a lower end model for their kids. Other times, it’s people of retired age going all in on the hobby. 

Then there are those who need a metal detector only for a short time because something important has been misplaced. 

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“We rent them out to a lot of people who are looking for rings they lost in their garden or in snowbanks or losing keys somehow,” Cunliffe says. “Or sometimes people are looking for property pins or septic tanks. We’ve also let police departments use them for looking for bullet shells.” 

Want to try it out for yourself? Cunliffe advises that you should first think about what you’re hoping to find. What kind of metal detecting adventures you’re after will dictate what kind of gadget you need, because these days, the options are dizzying. 

“Some are designed for land and some are mainly for water,” Cunliffe explains on his metal detector webpage. “There are many different models to choose from. All models come with a 2-year warranty. All of our land models are waterproof from the control box down to the loop, so you can search in water up to your waist. They all can discriminate against junk objects. The lower models will search to a depth of about 8 inches while the upper models (ones with the bigger loops) will search to approximately 12 inches. These depths will vary depending on the type of object, the size of the object, and the material you are searching through (i.e. sand, rock etc.). 

More of the treasures Joe Arsenault has found in 15 years of metal detecting. Joe Arsenault photo

“As the price of detectors increase,” Cunliffe continues, “they come with several more options for control buttons. The additional options, among other things, allow you to search for items more precisely. For example, one of the upper models has the ability to learn an object. It can then either search for that object only or reject that object. If you’re searching near an old farm and the same type of nail keeps showing up, you could set the detector to learn that object then choose to reject that object. The detector knows that specific item should be rejected each time. You can also program some of the upper models so that every time you use the detector it will remember the specific settings you like to use. The upper models also come with readout screens which tell you the depth of the object and what type of object it is.” 

The Republic Jewelry page also includes several anecdotal reports from customers who got into the metal detecting game. 

There’s Gerry Leger, of Litchfield, who bought a Coinmaster detector in the summer of 2011. Among Leger’s finds was one gold ring that was worth so much, it paid for the cost of the detector he’d just bought. 

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An Auburn man who set off on a metal detecting excursion a few days before Christmas unearthed a platinum diamond ring with a value estimated at $4,000. Based on the cut and style of the ring, Cunliffe estimated it had been in the ground for more than 50 years. 

A ring Janet Malia Descoteaux, of Peru, found with her metal detector. As it turned out, the ring belonged to a person who had previously lived on the land. Janet returned it to them. Janet Malia Descoteaux photo

A Bridgton man with a White’s metal detector found a George Washington inauguration button worth thousands of dollars, but valued even more for its historical significance. 

Harold Gary Sr. bought a metal detector from Cunliffe, took it on a trip to Arizona and discovered more than 28 ounces of gold. 

“I had to put my hand over my mouth,” Gary said of his find, “because I thought my heart was gonna jump out of my stomach. After I picked up a reading on the detector I dug down about a foot and discovered the gold, which was laid out like spreading a row coins across a table. The gold sparkled and shined incredibly. The biggest nugget I found was about the size of a silver dollar. It was three-and-a-quarter ounces.” 

The total value of his find was estimated at more than $11,000. 

Which validates Arsenault’s declaration: When one sets off to dig up secrets from the past, one never knows what might come out of the ground. 

“Every item,” says Descoteaux, “has a story to tell.” 

Joe Arsenault and his wife, Donna, out searching for treasure. Joe Arsenault photo

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