Wilson County Sand Pit

[dogteam]

Whoops!
Just found this!

Boycott the TAAA!

Haven't read much of it yet, but it looks like I know now what happened to the dig...and the TAAA...
!!!!

[lillyput]

I still have some of his signs removed from Bandera county. Too much negative happenings Sooo we decided to stop his actions. Lots of elderly ranchers thought it was the state. Quickly found out they had signed a contract without any limits.

I'll still check on the sand pit. Doubt he still has anything to do with it now

[MidlandMan]

I got an add in the Wilson County News. See if it goes any where. Starts running next week.

[lillyput]

Oh good Midland, it got put on the back burner of my to do list.

[MidlandMan]

I know something about these DirtBrothers. Seems they reportedly started out as poachers and then found "religion". Saw their controlled dig at Randy's Pecan Springs Site in Kerr Co. and they did a good job. I like Randy and I have some exceptional material from there but it was awfully expensive and I heard two things that I'm not sure how to access the validity of. First a person I know was participating in a sift dig, the kind the DirtBrothers rail about, and on the screen comes a field grade Pedernales with a price tag on it! He photographed it and posted it on AustinDiggers. Next is Randy was accused of buying buckets of so called 'dirty flint' at a show. When someone running a commercial dig/sift is buying 'dirty flint' it can mean only one thing. Now I hand dug plenty of good points at Randy's and he always treated me well but accusations like these kill many good sites. Now I hear that TJ is running a sift dig at Pecan Springs Site and wont let anyone within a couple hundred yards of where the dirt is coming from. Can't even look at the hole!! Sounds pretty fishy to me. Anyone with information out there? I would like to hear first hand whats creally going on!

[Bobby]

I would say something here and usually do but I always seem to get some peoples panties in a wad every time I do.
There are people out there that pretty much only screen for points and they don't like having any doubts in their minds about the stuff they are paying big money to pick up off of a table that someone else really dug with machinery. You know those well deserved points they put all that effort to get with the crooks, damit I just opened my
mouth again. Oh well I have already typed it out so there is nothing I can do now
except sit back and wait for the angry mobs and death threats again.
The truth hurts people!!!!!

[MidlandMan]

I'm with you Bobby. When I was hand digging Lot 18 at Rolands in Uvalde Nacho started up his sifting a couple of lots down. It went from being a nice large midden to being a giant hole in the ground in less than one week! An area that would have required many years to hand dig. And then he started the Church next door which was richer and abandoned Lot 16. I later hand dug the peripheral areas of Lot 16 and found some beautiful points and other artifacts. I did participate on a couple of sift digs at the Church and did find some incredable points but the overwhelming and wholesale destruction of the site was sad to see. I did re-evaluate my perspective on the commercialization of this hobby as a result. Should sifting be banned? Not without eroding Texas land owners rights and any governmental interfearence in our lives is counter to our way of life. Also the fact remains that these sift digs are postage stamps compared to what is being lost through development and highways. But I'm content these days to hand dig and see the flint come from the ground with my own eyes. At many archaeological sites, and I know this is a fact, The top Archaic layers are simply bulldozed off the top to get at the Paleo layers below. This is theoreticly justified by limited resources and the fact that the professional community believes they already know enough about the Archaic period and the information, expense, and time invested is not worth the effort!! Where does the truth lay in all of this I simply dont know any more, I just do my own thing and try to be content with that.

[dogteam]

My 2 cents...from the perspective of a newbie...
I applaud the property rights held by Texans and would hate to see them eroded. At the same time, it seems that a sift dig has not much more attraction that a carnival sideshow grift that may or may not be rigged....you pays your money and takes your chances. It's gambling, not hunting.
Given the choice, I would rather dig and see the points come out of the ground...that's the fun part, after all.
I have to assume that sift digs and hand digs will attract different clientelle...I guess all that reasonable people can do is support the hand digs and hope that they win the day. Banning an activity related to artifact hunting is a slippery slope that would ultimately be a negative for the hobby.

I think?? Tough problem.