OPENING ROUND
One day in the 1930s, as Wilbur C. Bedall wandered through the peach orchard on the farm that his father managed in Burkeville, Virginia, he happened on some old lead bullets from the Civil War. From then on he was hooked. Many afternoons Bedall would fill his pockets with so many lead bullets he’d found in the orchard that he’d have to hold up his pants with his hands as he headed home. Bedall soon expanded his territory by seeking permission to search private property, and for more than 60 years he kept hunting relics, continually honing his skills, reading histories, studying maps of Civil War battles, and carefully documenting every find. In the 1980s a friend showed Bedall how to use a metal detector, and his first discovery with it—a…