Wimauma is in Hawaii, right? Sounds like it should be. But, no, it’s in Florida — about halfway down on the left-hand side. Suntree; Umatilla; Wadi Tawiyyah; Blood Mountain (Tail of the Dragon); Limaville; Buckhannon; Warm Springs; Black Hawk; Eau Gallie; Key West; Hancock; Immokalee; and Africa Town. What in the world could these and 211 other far-flung places have in common? We found one marble or hundreds in each of these places!
And we have found marbles in 95° heat; with snow both on the ground and falling fast; in a misty rain; and in a downpour. We have found marbles in places where the acorns — which can look remarkably marble-like! — outnumbered the marbles ten to one. And we have found a stone marble lying beside an ancient mossy stone wall; glass marbles of every description and age; a gorgeous like-new variegated jasper (only ever one of these); clay; a buried blue Bennington; a rolled commie; and industrial marbles scattered with glass player marbles.
We have found marbles when we were not really searching for them. And for some odd reason we have visited locations where we know there were children for generations and yet we could find not one solitary marble! Here’s Mia, our service dog, in Mentone, Alabama. She is dog- and people-watching and resting in a small café after a hard day of marbling. Mentone is an example of where we should have found historical marbles but didn’t. The little town is on Lookout Mountain in northeastern Alabama. We have no idea whether or not Prince Madoc[1] camped in the area in 1170, but if he didn’t he should have. It is a gorgeous location with coves, caves, mountain streams, and gorgeous views. We are pretty sure that De Soto did sleep here[2]. And the majestic Mentone Springs Hotel stood proudly on a hill here for over 100 years.
Mia the Marble Finding Dog
While our expedition in Mentone was a wash marble-wise, Mia does find marbles! We have no idea how. In Claxton, Georgia, there is a vacant lot which appears to belong to the City and which is simply a green space for the public to enjoy. It is about two doors down from where they have been cooking world famous fruitcakes since 1948.
Then Jo shopped and Mia and I took a walk and Mia enjoyed the sun while she rolled in the grass. And she put her nose on a marble! Bright glass! We eventually found four 1940s marbles here, and we came to realize that we were next door to the Tos Theater The old Theater has no signage or marquee, and it has not been restored. This was several years ago and we have learned that if we can find a town’s old movie theater then there are likely marbles in the drip lines or nearby, because there was often marble playing going on outside!
Finding Marbles in Places that Don’t Exist Anymore
Some of the places where we found marbles do not exist anymore! Limaville, Ohio, is an example: the citizens dissoved its municipal incorporation in 2018. We visited the village and the site of the Limaville Terra Cotta Marble Company in 2013. Terra Cotta marbles were made in the village in about 1890. When we visited the railroad where the Company was located we found all manner of artifacts, ceramics, and marbles. It was the railroad, in fact, which spelled doom for the Marble Company: it was so close to the tracks that hot ash from the locomotive burned it down — at least twice! Many of the marbles we found there show charring.
We keep looking, but sometimes come up empty handed. Hot, sticky, pooped. Or frozen half stiff. But sometimes we find goodies like those shown at the top of this post, which were found in Mobile, Alabama. On the left side of the photograph is a chunk of sandstone. It is common in South Alabama, and often it will have iron inclusions. Looks like a face, doesn’t it? We believe it is an eolith: something which occurs naturally, but looks like a lithic which was cultured or made by hand. At the top of the photograph is a slice of bone. Historically, people loved to slice bone and suck out the marrow, which is nutritious with collagen.
We find Coins, Glass Stoppers, Ceramics . . .
There are a few coins. We found an 1888 penny in Mobile so fresh you could spend it: if you could find anything to buy for a penny! There is a glass stopper on the bottom that is red: it went in a red poison bottle! Some ceramics; a natural black rubber button; and marbles! Most of these are patches and ribbons from the 1940s, but it looks like one Peltier banana Cat’s Eye in the bunch.
Don’t see any here, but we usually find glass beads: seed beads traded with Native Americans in the early 1800s in Mobile; faceted; and mold-made. These are all surface finds. If were able to dig in neighborhood privies, we might find more treasures.
This lot is not at all unusual for one exploration. And it doesn’t even take into consideration the country sides we explore; the tiny and often lost towns; and the wonderful people we meet! We always say we have found 2,500 marbles in 225 communities and counting. We don’t plan to quit until we just can’t do it anymore.
[1] Check the Prince out at http://encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/h-3033 8/16/2021
[2] http://genealogytrails.com/ala/history_desoto.html 8/16/2021
“The Sixth grade? Oh I loved the sixth grade ‘cause that’s where my Daddy was! ” [The Wild Man]
Want to read more about marbles?
Want to know even more about marbles? Buy our book!
