Hmmm...well obviously it was just there since 1938 at least...which would narrow things down considerable. If were me I believe I would check back on ownership of the property for the last sixty years...see if anything turned up in that dept. Right odd thing for someone to do though...could have been a kid or could have been an adult who was a wee bit dotterly... who knows? Sure does feed the imagination. You can think of all sorts of wild possibilities here... yup, a modern-day time capsule. Or maybe a house burgularized and this was found in the "stash" and obviously not what the bad guys wanted so they stuffed it down in the soup can they were chowing down from and gave it a pitch. <vbg> Or great aunt Maybelle had these treasures stuffed down in that can. Died without issue. Folks came to clear out her stuff and just saw an old can stuffed with old papers, didn't bother to look. Pitched the can. This kid was mad at his granny for whupping him over splitting his britches. So he proceeded to gather up some of her treasures and stuff em down in his fishin worm can and go put em where she would NEVER find em again. Or maybe there were two sisters, and one was always bragging how she would get the family heirlooms. The other one figured she would too, so in a fit of jealousy she hid them where nobody could find them and professed innocence. Many years later she went back to retrieve this, but could no longer remember where she put them. Or there was no one left in the line of the family to inherit anything. When 95 year old Uncle Henry died (with no children) that was all there was...and he had this stuff. He did not want it thrown out as he knew it would be, his treasures, but he had no one to give it to. So he stuffed it down in a tin can, gave it to Mother Earth and let be what was....the stuff that was the family buried same as the family. I DO have quite an imagination...ROTFLOL!!!!!! The Dennis surname of the finder interested me...as that was my own surname....hmmmmm. At 08:01 PM 7/6/00 -0400, you wrote: >A friend of mine sent me this link: > >http://www.oakridger.com/stories/070600/new_0706000026.html > >Go there and find out what this lady found in her back yard. I'm undecided >myself. On one hand I think finding something like this would be neat, but on >the other the mystery of it would drive me insane. At least more insane than >I already am. > >If the link above don't work go to: > >http://www.oakridger.com > >And click on "A mystery of History". > >What do you all think? Why was this put here? Have any of you ever come >across anything like that? > >Chip >tnchat-l > > >==== TNCHAT Mailing List ==== >To subscribe or unsubscribe to this list please visit: >http://www.rootsweb.com/~tnunion/tnchat >This list is generously donated by Rootsweb for our use. >Complete rules for TnChat may be found at: >http://www.rootsweb.com/~tnunion/tnchat