Missing pages from Booth's diary?

[historybuff22]

I see in the listings for tonight (3/25/2014) that the National Geographic channel is arring an episode of Diggers that is about the search for the 18 missing pages from John Wilkes Booth's diary.

A couple of problems here:

1) Diggers is about two guys that use metal detectors to search for items at historical sites. Since when would a metal detector be able to find buried pages of a diary?

2) Didn't the FBI determine in the 1970s that there was something like 56 actual pages missing from Booth's diary?

Curious to see how this turns out. I just hope its not just another one of those hyped TV shows that turns nothing up.

Rick Brown
HistoryBuff.com
A Nonprofit Organizatoin

[BettyO]

Such as Lew Powell sitting in a tool shed writing a letter when captured....! Pardon my "dig" at the Travel Channel's account of the Seward stabbing a few weeks ago.....

Agreed. Since when does 149 year old paper get "picked up" by metal detectors?

[L Verge]

I saw the same advertisement mentioning the missing pages and had to chuckle, Rick. And yes, as mentioned elsewhere, there are many more pages missing than the "historical" figure of 18.

And, as I posted several months ago (after refusing to let the Diggers dig at Surratt House), such "expeditions" as these are thorns in the sides of professional archaeologists. The county archaeologist assigned to Surratt House practically kissed me for turning down the opportunity to get a little press time. The show's producer tried to do an end run around me by going to my superiors -- it didn't work.

[Susan Higginbotham]

Maybe the missing pages will turn out to have been held together by a metal paper clip.

[L Verge]

Great reply, Susan!

[Gene C]

Here is an interesting article about Booth's diary by William Hanchett

http://www.heritech.com/pridger/lincoln/..._diary.pdf

[brtmchl]

Reminds me a little of Al Capone's vault. Did Geraldo Rivera sign on?

[Gene C]

anyone watch Diggers last night? How was it?

[BettyO]

I fell asleep watching it. Nothing spectacular.

Another long time Boothie friend emailed me last night and told me that he didn't even finish watching it - that it was totally useless and one of the silliest things he had ever seen - looking for the missing pages in a hole in the ground.....

[J. Beckert]

I didn't watch it, but from what Betty said, it wasn't much. I found this interesting clip where these two corndogs found a large cent from the era on the grounds of Huckleberry.

http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/ch...hain-cent/

[Susan Higginbotham]

I watched it. It won't go down as one of the more productive half hours in my life. Besides the cent, they came up with a fancy coat button, a shaving kit (IIRC), and an old lock, among other sundry objects.

[L Verge]

I did not watch it, but I sure have gotten a lot of emails this morning complaining about it. As an aside, I wonder if the large cent piece is the one that was stolen off the shelves at Surratt Tavern back in the 1970s. We used to keep a few "curious" pieces like that and a half-cent piece to show people how things have changed.

[Dave Taylor]

I enjoyed the Diggers episode. Since the show is supposed to be silly and centered on metal detecting and looking for "nectar" (i.e. treasure), I did not expect it to get all the facts straight. Still its nice to see places like Tudor Hall, Bryantown Tavern, and Huckleberry get some press time. The two diggers are putting on a show and their nimrod personas are part of that. I had the chance to talk with both gentlemen and they were the nicest couple of guys you could meet. They had professional archaeologist on staff who cataloged, analysed and wrote a report about all the objects they found (and they found much more than what they showed) and then they donated the finds to the property owners. The show was silly but harmless.

[L Verge]

Dave - I have to disagree that it is harmless. That may be their intent, but the fear that professionals have is that it encourages anyone and everyone to grab their metal detectors and shovels and head to any old spot they think might be filled with "nectar." Places like Surratt House grounds that are wide open during nighttime hours can become targets, for example.

They may have a professional archaeologist on staff, but the average hunters don't and just pocket their finds to display on a book shelf some place at home. I would be guilty of that also. My family had hundreds of arrowheads and shards that were turned up by tenants on one of the farms we owned. They were just thrown into shoe boxes - never taken to anyone for cataloguing, analyzing, and display.

I guess it's my age showing here, but I'm tired of serious matters being turned into something silly for people's entertainment instead of education. Reality shows are the pits, as far as I'm concerned. I don't want to see the bad side of people and families aired in public. The National Geographic Society has always been known for its educational value. To me, they are now stooping to the dumbing down of America.

IMO, there is a big difference between having a sense of humor about history and related subjects and just acting silly to the point where the average person gains nothing from the experience. End of sermon.

[Wild Bill]

If you want to see how this is not harmless, go to Vicksburg. Everything worth seeing has been fenced off with no trespassing signs because of relic hunters overwhelming the place. And the landowners are not nice about violations either.