Courtesy Photo One of Lowell Miller’s finds while metal detecting.

ALPENA — What started as a small get together between friends and relatives showed one Northeast Michigan resident what would become a lifelong passion.

Lowell Miller has been metal detecting since he was nine years old and he was introduced to it when his uncle and his uncle’s friends used metal detectors in his yard.

“My uncle showed up with some of his friends in my yard when I was a kid when I was about nine years old and I had never even seen a detector before,” Miller said. “And when they started finding all these weird coins and stuff in the yard it just got my interest because most of those coins I’ve never even seen before or knew existed especially as a kid so seeing them pull that stuff out from places where I had been playing just kind of blew my mind.”

Miller said his father bought him a metal detector for Christmas that year. This started his passion for metal detecting.

Miller has been to residences, parks, and his most recent venture, a house from the 19th century. For private residences, it’s as simple as asking for permission from the owner and Miller said he always has to remind himself the worst they can say is no.

News Photo by Alyssa Ochss A close up of the metal detector Lowell Miller uses.

Sometimes the residents, curious about what he is doing, follow him around while he is metal detecting, especially when there are children living at the residence he is metal detecting at.

“Some people are interested in it, especially if they got kids,” Miller said. “A lot of times if they got kids they’re following me around all over which I love because then those kids want to get into it too. This year already I’ve had three different mothers get (ahold of me and tell me) they want to get kids metal detectors for birthdays or Christmas. It just tells me that there’s going to be new people getting into it which is great.”

Miller said he offers the residents his findings if they’re interested because it’s more about the history for him than anything. He also said he’s donated his findings to a couple of museums. Some pieces the museums hadn’t even seen before, Miller said.

He uses a couple of tools besides the metal detector including a small shovel, gloves to protect his hands from glass shards, and a smaller detector called a pinpointer. The pinpointer is able to pinpoint exactly where the metal is at instead of waving the bigger metal detector over the same spot numerous times.

There are also different tones for different types of metal as well as a numbers system. The more you use your machine the more it becomes a part of you, Miller said.

News Photo by Alyssa Ochss Lowell Miller uses his metal detector to scan the ground for any metal.

“You learn all the tones that it has,” Miller said. “They have a numbers system too. I try to dig above 50. Anything above 50 is usually a good metal. 70 to 80 is usually copper which I like digging wheat pennies and they’re usually copper so that’s a good dig. Silver you’re going to get around 80. If you hit that, you’re digging a silver usually.”

Miller was featured in a magazine in 2021 for his findings and started a YouTube channel called LT Outdoors.

He said he was surprised when the magazine reached out to him to do a feature because he thought it wasn’t a legit magazine.

“Online they found me,” Miller said. “I thought it was going to be a fake thing actually because you know how much of that is going around. I didn’t think much of it. They emailed me and they said hey we’d like to cover a story on you could you send me pictures of your favorite finds and what not.”

Miller said when he looked them up, he realized it was a legit thing and he thought it was pretty cool.

News Photo by Alyssa Ochss Miller shows off the pinpointer tool used for more precise findings.

One thing Miller said he wants people new to the metal detecting world to know is to fill in the holes they dig and to clean up the trash they found afterward.

“A lot of times they’re leaving their holes wide open. That’s a no-no,” Miller said. “Like we have to have morals with our detecting is kind of like a code. You’ve got to fill in the holes that way we don’t ever lose permissions on places because just like anything else, the state can take permission anytime for us to be able to dig state parks and stuff like that.”

News Photo Alyssa Ochss Lowell Miller shows off a wheat penny he found last week.

Courtesy Photo A ring found by Lowell Miller while metal detecting.

News Photo by Alyssa Ochss Lowell Miller uses the pinpointer tool to find metal last week.

News Photo by Alyssa Ochss Lowell Miller smiles up at the camera last week while metal detecting.