Father's Day Finds - Great Treasures That Have Come Our Way

Not all found on Father's Day, of course, as we have to take a break sometime. But close enough.

You know that feeling you get when you walk in on something nice, perfect color and nicked in a nice way that lets you know it has been around awhile and lived an exciting life - and no one else knows what it is?

For that minute it's yours and you move to it as if you're in a dream, heart pounding, the light glinting off the surfaces in just the right way as the maker's hand begins to reveal more and more of itself the nearer you get.

Here was one of those, a nice plains Indian hatchet pipe, found in a local house one afternoon. We were just taking it easy, moving through the house and having fun, staying away from the shriekers and the shovers looking to shell out fifty cents for something they could sell at the flea market. A man ahead of us picked it up, snorted at it derisively and snorted again when he looked at the price tag.

"Reproduction," he said, moving off to the Depression Glass.

And then it was in our hand, warm and full, the haft just perfect and shaped 150 years ago, rocker engraving on the hatchet blade, everything just the way it should be. Paying at the door and looking up in time to see an Imperial German regimantal banner, hanging in a foyer wall.

"I'll take that, too," you say, heart thumping - and you know it's going to be a great day. Happy Father's Day!

Reconciliation At Mountain Meadows - Mormon Massacre Is History

One of the darkest secrets of the Old West was brought into the light and examined this weekend by descendants of a California-bound wagon train which met its end at the hands of Mormon militia and Paiute Indians at a place called Mountain Meadows in 1857.

Covered up in a conspiracy which put the blame for the deaths of 120 men, women, and children on local Indians and shook the Mormon faith to its very core, the Mountain Meadows Massacre has been the subject of heated debate, accusation, and retribution for 150 years.

Descendants from both sides of the tragedy met some 30 miles north of St. George, Utah to commemorate the incident Saturday. An honor guard in period uniforms fired a salute in tribute of the victims, cut down by bayonets and bowie knives in a dark plot hatched by Mormon extremists against the Fancher Party, by all accounts an innocent band travelling through the territory in violation of martial law imposed by Mormon Leader Brigham Young.

Descendants of those who committed the massacre, only one of whom was ever successfully prosecuted and subsequently shot, also attended, as did historians with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Descendants of massacre victims (seven children from the slaughtered party were taken and "adopted" by Mormon families) were also present.

They heard about efforts to preserve the grave site through a master plan compiled by the descendant groups and LDS Church, which has been acquiring property around the site and plans to buy more.

The LDS Church and descendant groups are meeting to preserve the site for posterity.
In an interesting case of self-analysis the church has expanded its holdings from the mere 2.5 acres where the current memorial is located to 700 acres - including more than 200 acres that would have been subdivided near the meadows.

Sixteen acres recently acquired by the church is believed to be the location where the bones of men killed at the massacre were buried a year later. The church may purchase another site where children and women could be buried, if pending investigations reveal the bodies are there.

The Mormon church has opened up about Mountain Meadows since the archives of the church were opened to scholars. During the 150th anniversary at the site, apostle Henry B. Eyring was the first church leader to acknowledge the massacre was carried out by local church leaders.

A Salty Old Dog Goes Home

I love this antiques game.

Interesting people, interesting objects. Take last night. I get a call from a couple living near us in the San Francisco Bay Area. They're interested in a sterling silver Merchant Marine pin we have from World War II.

We meet on this one 'cause they want to see it and it turns out the pin is for their father, a former merchant mariner who served in the Pacific, was shipwrecked, and passed recently. My buyer is his grandson, himself a just discharged Coast Guard corpsman.


He handled the pin like I'd just dropped a gold nugget in his palm and took it on the spot.

"It's for a shadow box we're doing on his grandfather," his girlfriend explained. "He led a very colorful life."

I'll say. Action in the Pacific, a shipwreck, back home to the East Bay and family who followed in his footsteps and went to sea. It's cool when these things "go home."

To my buyers: enjoyed meeting you very much...

A Day Draped In Black Crepe and Tinged by Mourning

News of President Lincoln's death swept through Washington and touched every resident, every business. The town was draped in black as storefronts turned into impromptu monuments and tributes to the nation's fallen leader.

Someone, possibly a man but no one knows for sure, walked the streets with pen and paper and captured the messages at each address - not to mention the nation's grief.

The age-toned pages, each bearing hand-drawn images of one of the most important days in our national story line, were revealed recently by caretakers at Brown University.

They document the fury of the nation, as well as its sadness.

Da Vinci Emerges from a Collection in Basilicata

Some beautiful things coming out of the weeds these days as historians expand their reach for interesting bits of history.

One such item was a lovingly rendered portrait of Leonardo da Vinci, discovered the in the art collection of a family in Italy's southern Basilicata region. The artist is unknown and there is damage, but the initial consensus among experts is that the wood supporting the canvas dates to the late 15th or early 16th century - when Leonardo was known to be among us.

The newly discovered portrait, partially damaged by scratches and measuring some 60 by 45 centimeters (24 by 18 inches), shows Leonardo wearing dark robes and a black, feathered hat.

Early View of New York Goes Big

An early daguereotype of a country road, fence line and home - along with a telling handwritten note - sold at auction this week for $62,500 in, where else? - New York.

The proud new owners are Billy and Jennifer Frist of Nashville. “It’s a very unique, historically significant daguerreotype,” Mr. Frist, who has been collecting photos since 1993 and is a nephew of Bill Frist, the Tennessee Republican and former Senate majority leader, told the New York Times.

The picture, believed to date from October 1848 or earlier, shows a white house on a hill with a white picket fence, next to what is believed to be the old Bloomingdale Road, the continuation of Broadway, in what is now the Upper West Side.

Ute Wearing Blanket... A Beauty