Nevada Nugget Hunters

rehab · Joined: 15 Aug 2006 Posts: 939 Location: NEVADA

Vermont dowsing roots
Third draft
Ian Pegler
5.5.03

Imagine yourself back in time to 1826, walking through the lush countryside of Vermont USA and coming across an 8½ ounce nugget of gold just lying there on the ground. No need for a hazel twig or even a spade. There it is right in front of you, glinting in the New England Sun! Believe it or not, something like this actually happened.

The discovery of this one nugget of gold was enough to jump-start the Vermont "gold-rush" and the hunt for gold continued until the end of the 19th century when interest fizzled out. Nobody struck it rich, and it turned out that the gold nugget - known as the "Newfane lump" had been dropped accidentally by counterfeiters.

This is one story that I came across when I set out to research this article. My original purpose was to try and find a link between Vermont and my native Wales in terms of historical dowsing activities. We'll come back to the Wales-Vermont link later, but it needs to be examined within a wider historical context. Whilst engaged in this research, ensconced in the reading-room at the National Library of Wales, I uncovered a bizarre mix of "money-diggers", Mormons, mystics and mineral springs which is worthy of discussion.

What triggered all this was seeing a rather cynical book-review on the web which wasn't really a book-review at all. It did, however, point out the popularity of dowsing in Vermont. Sig Lonegren as you probably know is originally from Vermont, and this state was also the birthplace of the American Society of Dowsers back in 1960. What triggered the popularity of dowsing in Vermont? Was it due to the birth of the ASD, or was the birth of the ASD something that came about because of a strong "dowsing culture" in Vermont? I've already mentioned the gold-rush, and even today treasure-hunting is popular in Vermont as a quick surf of the web will confirm, but the founders of the ASD were far more interested in water-divining than the quest for buried treasure. Before I try to resolve this last point, let's look at some more diviners in Vermont.

The "rodsmen" of Middletown

In 1799 a stranger by the name of Winchell arrived in Middletown near Poultney. This somewhat dubious character was wanted for counterfeiting in Orange County to the north. He was, unfortunately, both a con-man and a dowser and duped people into funding his treasure-hunting activities. Not the sort of person you would want to meet at a conference! Winchell met a man named Nathaniel Wood who had started his own religious cult. Influenced by Winchell, Wood adopted the divining rod and made it a part of his religion. Very soon Wood and his followers, nick-named "rodsmen", were using the twig for "money-digging" (seeking treasure buried by pirates, Spaniards or native Americans), fortune-telling and divine revelation.

The Mormon connection

One resident of Poultney at the time was a man named Joseph Smith, father of the Joseph Smith who founded the "Latter Day Saint" movement, commonly known as the Mormons.

Winchell introduced Joe Smith Senior to the divining rod, either whilst he was still in Poultney or after he went to Palmyra, New York. It seems that Joseph Smith Junior later used a slightly different form of divination - a "peepstone", which was used in a manner similar to scrying. To quote David Persuitte:

"By placing the peepstone in his hat and gazing at it much like a fortune teller would gaze into a crystal ball, he would "locate" the treasure and direct the diggers where to dig. Mormons have usually denied that Joseph ever searched for buried treasures in such a manner ... Nevertheless, the evidence shows overwhelmingly [my emphasis] that Joseph did use a peepstone to search for buried treasures."

A letter purporting to be from Joseph Smith Junior to one Josiah Stowel was leaked to academics. If genuine it contains a method of dowsing used by Smith:

"...Take a stick one yard long, being new cut, cleave it just in the middle and lay it asunder on the mine so that both inner parts of the stick hang up one right against the other one inch distant. If there is a treasure, after a while it will draw them both together unto themselves..."

Mineral springs and the tourist trade

While all this is very intriguing it doesn't address the problem mentioned earlier, namely that it was water-divining, not gold-seeking or money-digging that was the impetus behind the ASD's formation. There is, however, still a demand for water-divining in Vermont and historically there may have been a commercial demand which went beyond domestic or rural needs.

Back in 1776, a mystic called Asa Smith dreamt that a spring in a forest would heal his skin-disease. The following day he went to the nearby forest, found the spring that he saw in his dream, drank from it and was cured. Some years later George Round, a neighbour of Smith's, built a log cabin by the spa and started receiving money from guests. He was so successful that he later built a hotel. This started a trend as luxurious spa hotels opened up elsewhere, including Sheldon, Highgate, Newbury, Brunswick, Middletown, Brattleboro and Manchester.

By the 1860's there were about 20 spas in the state of Vermont. The trade was boosted by the coming of the railway. By about 1900 there were more than 130 springs in Vermont and more than 30 of these had hotels.

These mineral springs were accredited with curative properties that were nothing short of miraculous. The spa at Clarendon was said to be able to cure just about anything from cataracts to cancer.

These spa hotels were large and luxurious. Franklin House in Highgate could take 125 guests. Missisquoi Springs Hotel at Sheldon was similar in size. Many of these luxurious hotels, including Franklin House eventually burned to the ground.

The Welsh Connection

As mentioned by Christopher Bird, dowsing crossed the English channel in the 1500s from Germany. The German metals specialist Christopher Schutz and his compatriot were granted the authority to mine in a number of areas of England, including Cumberland and Cornwall, and also within Wales . According to historian John Davies, one of the first Welsh ventures was a smelting works in Neath, set up to smelt ore from Cornwall, which dates back to 1584 . Mining in Wales goes back much further of course, but the important thing to note here is the Cornish (and German) connection. John Davies also says:

"... the link with Cornwall was later to be a key factor in the industrial development of West Glamorgan. At the same time the lead mines of Cardiganshire were more significant."

Cornish miners later emigrated to Cardiganshire (now Ceredigion) to work in the silver and lead mines there. The 18th Century Welsh surveyor and mine-owner Lewis Morris mentions their presence in a letter dating to 1742, in which he brags about having learnt everything the Cornish immigrants knew about mining .

So the labourers moved around, taking their skills, including dowsing with them. At some point (possibly due to a miner changing professions?) dowsing crossed over into farming which is one of those trades which in times past (and to some extent even today) was kept "in the family" and so skills were past down from father to son.

I didn't have to look very far for an example. My grandfather and great grandfather were both farmers and both tried their hand at water-divining. My great grandfather also worked as a miner, which proves my earlier point.

All this is very intriguing but what does any of this have to do with Vermont?

One of the things that triggered this research was the accidental discovery of academic links between Green Mountain College, Vermont and the University of Wales in my native Aberystwyth . It turns out that during the latter half of the 19th century, thousands of slate workers from North Wales emigrated to the USA, especially to the states of Pennsylvania, New York and also Vermont, including the Poultney area. This is the historical basis for the current academic links.

My theory - and it is still just a theory - is that when these slate workers came to Vermont they brought their dowsing rods with them, metaphorically speaking. This only added to what must have already been a thriving dowsing culture.

A Native American connection

To try and establish the Welsh connection on more solid ground I decided to contact Janice Edwards , a Poultney native descendant of both early 1800s Welsh farmers and late 1800s Welsh slate workers. As things transpired, I discovered that her father’s heritage includes Native American ancestry through the Abenaki nation that has been documented in Vermont’s history for over 10,000 years, and that he has used dowsing techniques to help residents find water; skills he learned from his Abenaki grandmother.

Conclusion

The Western dowsing culture of Vermont goes back to the early settlers who doubtless employed the divining rod in their quest for gold. The hazel stick was employed by the money-diggers, including Joseph Smith and his father. The lucrative tourist trade brought about by the mineral spas surely must have prompted some to try their hand at water divining. The need for wells for out-of-town properties continues to this day and has helped maintain the status of water-divining in Vermont. It surely must be the case that many Vermont dowsers have not only Welsh ancestry, but also Welsh "dowsing roots" too. I would be pleased to hear from any Vermont dowsers who think they might be able to help further this line of research, especially with regards to the link with Wales (my e-mail is ianto@ukonline.co.uk). Asside from Western Man's dowsing, there is also the influence of the Native American tradition, which I think has been amply demonstrated.

The first ASD members were interested primarily in the quest for underground water, but the whole subject of dowsing has been completely transformed in the relatively short space of time since the ASD came into being.

We are no longer confined to the quest for water or minerals. Like the early pioneers who settled in Vermont we are claiming new ground as our own. There's gold in them there hills...

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Patrick MacManaway, Sig Lonegren and Janice Edwards for their help researching this article.

http://web.ukonline.co.uk/ianto/Vermont%20dowsing%20roots.rtf
http://olivercowdery.com/gathering/Newisrael.htm#part2

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rehab · Joined: 15 Aug 2006 Posts: 939 Location: NEVADA

Ants As Prospectors

IN THE course of the field investigation of a number of fluorspar deposits in New Mexico, occasional information of value was obtained from ant hills. A single instance will serve to illustrate their value. In the Little Florida Mountains, near Deming, Luna County, a number of fluorspar veins in volcanic agglomerate have been exposed for a short distance. The veins carry iron and manganese oxides, and the outcrop is often concealed. An attempt to follow one of the larger veins beyond the portion exposed by prospect pits failed, until the writer resorted to the examination of the materials of the ant hills along the general projection of the vein. This method was found to be successful in tracing veins concealed by surface material. A mineral analysis of one ant hill on a concealed fiuorspar vein, by the use of Thoulet’s solution, gave the following results:

Lights: rhyoiite, quartz, feldspars; 55.2 Percent
Fluorite; 22.5 Percent
Iron and manganese oxides; 22.0 Percent

Another case in which the materials of ant hills was of geological use, was related to the writer, by Mr. W B Lang. In an areal field investigation in Idaho, in a region of much weathered igneous rock, the presence of quartz crystals in the material of the ant hills was found to be a satisfactory criterion for the identification and mapping of rhyolite.—

William Drumm Johnston, Jr., in Science.

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STUDY, And be FREE from the BONDS of IGNORANCE!