Profiles

Bookshop Genres Profiles: By Our Metal Detecting Community by Christopher Altmann

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See inside

View Back Cover

See inside

View Back Cover

Profiles

By Our Metal Detecting Community

by Christopher Altmann

Overview

When did your fellow detectorists begin their first forays into the hobby? What motivated them to pull artifacts from beneath the ground? How did metal detecting enrich their lives and why do they enjoy doing it so much today? The idea behind this book was to portray those in my metal detecting community as actual people, to learn more about who they really are. We picked folks with different skill levels and who serve different roles in the hobby. This collection of 43 people represents some of my closest metal detecting friends and it's an honor to include each of them in my book.

Description

Whenever we watch metal detectorists on YouTube or chat with them during weekly livestreams, we recognize their names and faces, but know very little about their backgrounds. It can be easy to forget that each person has another existence off-screen, with jobs, families, goals, challenges and countless other moments and experiences which make up a life. When did your fellow detectorists begin their first forays into the hobby? What motivated them to pull artifacts from beneath the ground? How did metal detecting enrich their lives and why do they enjoy doing it so much today? The idea behind this book was to portray those in our metal detecting community as actual people, to learn more about who they really are. We picked folks with different skill levels and who serve different roles in the hobby, including novice and veteran detectorists, YouTube personalities and others. This collection of 43 people represents some of my closest metal detecting friends and it's an honor to include each of them in my book. I hope that this publication will further strengthen our metal detecting community, so we can better understand the people who play their part in the hobby. I've seen so many detectorists give back to each other and that is the reason why our group flourishes. As the old proverb proclaims, "It takes a village."

About the author

Chris' interest in metal detecting began the day he unearthed an 1817 Large Cent in a forest on his father's property. Since then, he and his wife, Kim, have joined metal detecting clubs in the United States and England. In 2012, Chris first published Volume 1 of his metal detecting book, "From The Ground Up." It has become extremely popular with YouTube metal detecting personalities and others in the hobby. Volume 2 contains additional stories and full color photos. Chris and Kim's participation with metal detecting has grown to include talks and demonstrations to schools, libraries, clubs and other local organizations. They volunteer and donate artifacts to historical societies and museums, so history can be preserved for future generations. Each year the couple travel to England to take part in metal detecting rallies or tours; they have made many lifelong friends in the process. In 2011, Chris donated a rare Roman terret ring to the Wiltshire Museum in Devizes (UK). It is now on display and listed in the Portable Antiquities Scheme. Chris and Kim try to metal detect at least once a week and enjoy interacting with the property owners they meet. They find it gratifying to help residents discover the history of their land and past inhabitants. The Altmanns currently live in the majestic and historic Catskill Mountains of Upstate New York with their Bengal cat, Pixie.