By Sophia Bates and Wesley Harris
Baltimore Watchdog Staff
Writers
George Day didn’t know exactly what he was looking at that morning in May 2014 when he ran into a rusty metal object protruding from the ground in a wooded area off Tufton Avenue in Hunt Valley.
The retired Howard County school teacher and Towson University alum kicked and prodded at the ground, thinking he had come across an old sewer pipe. But as the dirt gave way and more of the object became visible, Day realized he had made a potentially important find.
What he first described as a “28-ounce can of baked beans” turned out to be an 18th century cannon – what his history-buff brother said was likely a Confederate Mountain Howitzer from the American Civil War.
“All of my life I grew up around history and had family members who were veterans and we would spend time out in the Harper’s Ferry area,” said Day, who made the discovery while taking a walk in the woods next to the farm where his daughter used to care for her horses. “The graveyards out there were full of cannons. I always had a childhood dream of finding one – and it actually happened. That’s why I was so excited about it.”
What followed for Day was a five-year “treasure hunt” in which he called experts throughout the United States, Canada and England to find out more about the cannon. Each person he spoke with was able to give him more details based on his descriptions of the cannon as well as its location.
From what he could piece together through his observations and his conversations with experts, the Howitzer is made of iron, has a gun that is slightly smaller than four feet long, weighs several hundred pounds, and was made more than 200 years ago in England.
Experts told him the cannon was likely being brought to a nearby furnace to be melted down when something happened that left it abandoned in the dirt. It would cost between $30,000 and $50,000 to excavate, Day said he has been told.
“I was really trying to find out about the object and find out what it really was,” Day said. “It was like a treasure hunt. One expert would only know so much and kick you to another person who had more of the story.”
Day said his search for the cannon’s story was always about his love of history.
He calls the cannon “a survivor,” adding that he does not want to see it “exploited” by those who might have a monetary interest. Instead, he said he hopes that if the cannon is ever excavated, it would be used to help shed more insight into Maryland history.
“For me, it was the value to the history of the state of Maryland, not the monetary value,” Day said.
It’s now up to the state of Maryland to decide whether the cannon will ever be removed from its current location in Hunt Valley. Day said the last he heard state officials were trying to contact the property owner where the cannon is located to see if they can get permission to excavate it.
“I’m done,” Day said. “I’ve turned it over to the state.”
It’s unclear from interviews whether the state is interested in the cannon.
Maria Day, the director of special collections at the Maryland State Archives, told the Baltimore Watchdog that George Day’s find is not an archives matter and so they have no interest in trying to excavate it.
“It’s an interesting find,” said Maria Day, who is not related to George. “You don’t see a cannon every day. But there are several ways it could have ended up there.”
According to Matt Knight, the chief archeologist at the Maryland Historical Trust, there’s not much information that can be found regarding how the cannon got to the farm near Hunt Valley.
“How it came to be at that location is uncertain,” McKnight said. “I suspect that it may have, at one time, been considered scrap and was destined to be melted down at the nearby Oregon furnace that was up and running in the 19th century along Shawan Road.”
McKnight added that the extraction of the cannon would be up to the property owner.
“He [George Day] reported the cannon to us in July, but it is on private property and its final disposition is really up to its owner,” McKnight said.
Barbara Taylor, who works at the Maryland History Museum, agreed that the cannon would belong to the property owner because it is not a U.S. cannon.
Taylor added that “finding a cannon is rare because most are accounted for.” But she said due to the cannon being buried and made of iron, it would “cost more to conserve than it’s worth.”
According to real-estate records, Renaldy Gutierrez owns the property, but he could not be reached for comment.
Day still remembers the moment he found the piece. He had been forced into retirement after an accident at school and was spending time with his daughter on a farm. He was taking a walk in the woods when he noticed the tip of the cannon’s gun sticking out of the dirt.
“It was made of heavily rusting iron,” Day said. “I kicked it to see if it would move. Solid. I brushed the leaves away and there was an anomaly, dipping down exposed more metal.”
“I stepped back and took in the entire object and thought it to be a discarded sewer pipe, but the metal protruding out at a 90-degree angle didn’t make sense,” Day continued. “About two thirds of the object was covered by soil. The front and back ends were obstructed by vines and undergrowth. I realized what I had found after seeing a ball at one end and an open mouth or bore at the other.”
Excited, Day called his brother – “the king of useless facts,” he jokes – who confirmed that the object was probably a cannon. He spent the next five years calling experts at West Point, the Maryland State Archives, the Maryland Historical Trust, and dozens of other experts and curators at history preserving institutions in the United States, Canada and England.
Day said the cannon has played a major part of his life for the past five years but it’s now time to walk away.
“My wife is going to kill me because it’s all I talk about,” he said.
1 Comment
Well done.