Butler Treasure Hunting Club finds untold value in camaraderie, friendship

There’s a place where rings of gold and silver line dining room tables, jewels sparkle under the lights and historic coins of every size are within reach.

Where is this modern day El Dorado? It’s on Main Street in Butler County.

Brotherhood of the hunt

The Butler Treasure Hunting Club has met in the Sons of Italy No. 1664 social hall since 1976.

Club members use metal detectors to find different treasures specific to their interests. On the third Thursday of each month, they gather to show each other things they’ve found and to trade stories.

Resident Civil War buff Larry Swank, 66, of Allegheny Township is serving his second year as club president. He has been metal detecting since 1997 and a member since 1998. He has found bullets, belt buckles, buttons and more from the Civil War era.

“I always liked the Civil War,” Swank said. “I always wanted to hunt Civil War-wise.”

He also has found coins, including a Roman coin in Culpeper, Va., that dated to 37 A.D., a silver dollar in South Carolina and a 1778 Mexican 4 pence. He’s traveled throughout the country to get to different hunting grounds to build up his collection.

Joe Guerre, 74, of West Deer has served as vice president of the club for the past three years and has been a member since 2005. He began investing in the hobby after he retired.

“A friend of mine was in the club a long time ago,” Guerre said. “He said, ‘Why don’t you come up to the club and see what it’s all about?’ So I did, and I joined right there and then and been here ever since.”

He’s found relics, jewelry and more than 28,000 coins in his hunting career.

Gary Waddell, 75, of Rochester has been hunting since 1990. He’s found a variety of things, including figurines, coins and historic cutlery.

One of his proudest finds is a 1904-s Barber Half Dollar, a coin that was valued at $7,000 in 2023. The coin was voted as the 2012 best find by Western and Eastern Magazine. In 2023, he found an 1861 half-dime that was named “find of the year” by the Butler club.

Most of his finds hold a special place in his heart.

“Some of my newer silver I’ll sell, but I like to keep all my old stuff,” Waddell said.

He is a member of four treasure hunting clubs: Butler, North Pittsburgh, Tri-county in Ohio and the Beaver club that he helped found.

Marilyn Pitkivitch, 72, of Saxonburg is the secretary of Butler Treasure Hunting Club and has been hunting since the ’80s.

She’s found everything from locks and fishing lures to a .22 caliber pistol.

“Police cleared it,” Pitkivitch said. “They said it wasn’t stolen, so I got to keep it. That’s a good find.”

When hunters find guns and jewelry, they go to get them checked by the appropriate parties. This is recommended so hunters don’t get in trouble for possessing stolen property.

Police will check if a gun is stolen or if it was used in a crime before hunters are allowed to keep it. Some jewelry have serial numbers that can be traced by appraisers. If the piece has been reported missing or stolen, hunters return it to their rightful owner. If nothing gets flagged, the finds are theirs to keep.

Jim Onuska, 60, of Beaver got into treasure hunting a few years ago to spend more time with his son.

“My son asked me to get a metal detector, and I thought, ‘What better idea for my 20-something son to hang out with me,’ ” Onuska said. “Metal detecting has branched into a lot of quality time with my family. My grandchildren, my wife, my son, my daughter all do it. For me, the most valuable find is all the extra time I get to spend with my family.”

His wife picked up the hobby as well. They usually try to find natural places to hunt like the woods, beaches or water, and have planned trips to attend different competition hunts with their family over the years.

Larry Miller, 80, of Templeton is another hunter who began the hobby because his son asked him to. He’s found sleigh bells, rings, coins and a Civil War belt buckle that was almost unrecognizable when he dug it up.

“My boy and I were hunting together when we found this,” Miller said. “I thought it was just a dented tube and we were going to scrap it.”

He sent it to a place in Virginia to straighten it out.

The club helps members form friendships with people. Each year the members go on a seasonal hunt. Participants chip in $40 each, and travel to member Terry Taylor’s home. Different finds are bought with the money and planted in the ground for participants to find.

The day turns into a friendly competition hunt that lasts 30 and 45 minute hunts and ends with a group dinner.

“We usually have about 20 to 30 people there, and we’re all hunting at once,” Swank said.

Some members travel together to different towns and states to compete in large competition hunts.

Different landscapes

Treasure hunting can take place on multiple terrains. Taylor, 75, of Butler began hunting in 1974 and has had some of his best finds while being neck deep in water. Taylor usually wades into the water with his detector in one hand and a long handled basket in the other.

“I go in (the water) up to my chin and pray that I don’t step in a hole while I’m down there,” Taylor said.

While he’s in the water, he listens through his headphones to hear the detector’s beep. If something hits, he digs into the mud with the basket and pulls up his find. More often than not, Taylor isn’t able to see anything through the water, and it’s too deep to be able to bend down and get a closer look at what his detector picked up. Using this method, he’s collected multiple trays of gold and silver jewelry, historic bullets and a switchblade.

He said that he’s found Ohio state parks to be the best place to use his detector because the hunting time limits and fees are more lax than in Pennsylvania.

Keith Heckman, 56, of Gibsonia joined the club less than a year ago but has been hunting since he was little.

“I had a little RadioShack detector that I would use to go out with my dad,” Heckman said.

He strayed away from the hobby until about five years ago. Now he does most of his hunting at different beaches including Delaware, Ocean City and Rehoboth. He’s found trays full of jewelry that was lost in the sand and waves.

Guerre said he prefers door knocking. He asks homeowners if he can use his metal detector on their property. Sometimes he gets a yes and other times he gets a no.

“It’s nothing for me to knock on a stranger’s door,” Guerre said. “I love it. I’ve met a lot of great people. I’ve been pretty successful with it.”

Helping others

Taylor has used his treasure hunting skills to help his loved ones. When his son got engaged, he didn’t have enough money for a big ring. Taylor took two engagement rings that he had found and appraised, and combined the diamonds with his wife’s engagement ring. He gifted it to the new couple.

“Somebody will lose a coin or a piece of jewelry,” Swank said. “I’ve helped people find their wells, their septic tanks– even their property stakes.”

He once helped a woman in Somerset find $10,000 earrings she lost while riding quads.

Other hunters in the club will often get calls from neighbors, friends or people who have heard of the club for help finding items.

Equipment is key

Success with hunting is heavily dependent on the quality of equipment that people use. Swank and Guerre warned against using a “RadioShack detector.” These are detectors in the $100 range that either only pick up a few inches under the ground and sometimes can’t detect anything underground.

“The cheap ones will frustrate you more and you’re wasting your money,” Swank said. “You want to buy something either mid range or better.”

Guerre reminisced about the days of being a new hunter.

“I had a cheap (detector),” Guerre said. “I bought it so I could find a part for my tractor that I lost. With this detector I wouldn’t have even been able to find my tractor. I brought it to the club and they told me in a nice way what a piece of junk it was.”

He ended up investing in a $600 one that he used for nine years until he bought a second one. He said the money he’s spent on the equipment has been returned multiple times in the things he’s found while using it.

The men said the best way to learn about the best detectors is to speak with experienced users.

Whether or not the hunters are new or seasoned veterans, the club welcomes new members with open arms from all over Pennsylvania. Swank said he hopes to usher in a new generation of hunters to keep the almost 50-year-old club alive. He has the goal of sharing how satisfying discovering the treasures and history of the land can be.

“The Monroeville club just had to shut down because they didn’t have enough members,” Swank said. “I don’t want to see that happen here.”