To many it’s just a piece of worthless scrap metal, and I get that. In fact, it was my first thoughts too when I unearthed it in one of my local parks. But, despite my reservations, I cleaned off the dirt that had encased it for who knows how many years. In a instant, this non-descript piece of junk changed my mind as to its historical value. As you can see in the picture, it bares the inscription ELIZ. N. Obviously there were letter(s) to follow, but they had long been removed by design and/or time. However, there was just enough information to warrant researching this artifact. Despite feeling that the purpose of this piece of angle bar may never be known, for sure, I was determined to find out what I could about it, even if that was only where it came from.
Little did I know that this path would connect me with a person I have long respected and admired.
Having reached out to the members of a metal detecting forum, it didn’t take long to find out that the inscription referred to Elizabeth New Jersey. Furthermore, it was suggested that it may have been a part of a Well Monitoring Observation cover. Having no idea what that was I checked it out and discovered that a Well Monitoring Observation System is a well fitted with various sensors and data loggers to record groundwater levels. I was also given this link to a picture of such a cover.
In my opinion it is highly likely that the artifact did come from a well monitoring system, or a drain cover, but I’ll never know for sure. However, I am sure that whatever it is, it was manufactured in the city of Elizabeth, New Jersey.
Elizabeth New Jersey,
was founded in 1664 by English settlers, and originally called Elizabethtown. That being said, the town was named after the wife of Sir George Carteret, and not that of Queen Elizabeth I. Elizabeth is the fourth largest city in New Jersey and boasts a population of 130,450 (2021). The first major industry to set up shop in Elizabeth was the Singer Sewing Machine Company in 1873. Coincidentally, I had at least two aunts that worked for the Singer Sewing Machine Company in Clydebank, Scotland. Today, the largest industries in Elizabeth is Transportation and Warehousing.
For more information on Elizabeth, please follow this link.
Stanton Friedman,
was a nuclear physicist and ufologist, whom I have long respected and admired, and whose writings I have heavily relied on in my own study of UFOs. He was born in Elizabeth N.J. in 1934 and died in Toronto Airport in 2019. To learn more about Stanton please visit this link.
So there you have it. Like the ugly duckling, this piece of junk transformed into a wonderful artifact that held more than a coincidence or two for me. Have I told you how much I love metal detecting?
