The magnetic achievements of Clay Soliday

REARDAN-Local resident Clay Soliday is historian, detective and treasure hunter. Armed with his metal detector, he finds vintage baubles, rare coins and everything in between.

Soliday started collecting coins in Kettle Falls when he was in fifth grade. He and a buddy discovered an abandoned car while playing "cops and robbers." He found an old coin under the backseat and was hooked.

In 1982 he won $1,500 in a bowling league, which he spent on his first metal detector. By then the government had stopped making silver currency, so digging coins from the ground "was the only way to find coins for my collection."

One of Soliday's early forays was exploring under Reardan's community hall. On his knees, he searched in the dirt looking for treasures from The Eagle Bar, a late 1800s watering hole run by its 7-foot-tall proprietor, Tiny Schultz.

Among his finds was an August Busch beer keg tap, along with hundreds of bottle openers, bottle caps, Buffalo nickels and Canadian silver coins.

"I'm proud of Reardan's history and this is part of it," Soliday said, holding the tap.

Since then, Soliday has traveled around the U.S., Canada, Mexico, England and Saint Lucia.

On a trip to Colchester, England, he found a coin "encased in a black mineral cocoon." It was a Roman Denarius with Emperor Nero's image, dating to 42 B.C. The coin spent three years in a London Museum before being returned to Soliday.

During another trip, he found a coin struck with the image of Saxon King Coenwulf, who reigned from 796 A.D. until his death in 821 A.D. The image "looked like it was drawn by a grade school kid."

An expert told Soliday, "I've never seen one like this."

A museum in Norway purchased it for $8,500.

"I enjoy going to England," he said. "There is so much history there."

Another prized possession is a World War I era Negro Battalion coin he found in Cambridge, Maryland. It is one of approximately 2,000 coins minted by France in 1918 to commemorate an all-black battalion that was loaned to the country by the U.S. government.

"That was one of my favorite finds," he said. "It has as much history as anything else I have found."

His most rewarding discovery was a 1952 U.S. Naval Academy class ring he found in Lake Pend Oreille. Soliday located the ring's owner, who told him he also wore it as his wedding ring, as was the duplicate worn by his wife.

"His wife had cancer and was in a coma for three days," Soliday said. "Before she died, she sat up and said, 'You're going to get your ring back.' Those were her last words."

Less than two months later, Soliday found and returned the ring.

He has returned 13 lost rings to their owners.

Soliday has found dog tags, Civil War memorabilia, cast iron toys, tax tokens and lots of jewelry.

"It is a way of preserving history," he said. "Each time I find something big, it's like making a hole-in-one."

Clay is the eldest of the Soliday Boys, Reardan's basketball royalty, who led the Indians to glory in the 1960s. Not only did Clay play basketball, but he also played quarterback on Reardan's 1964 state championship football team. As if scripted, he married his high school sweetheart, Patsy, a cheerleader.

He has served on town council and in the Lions Club for fifty years and has been chairman of the annual Lions Club Christmas Tournament for over twenty. Yet, he still has time to pursue his passion, searching for buried artifacts.

Soliday co-owns Inland Empire Metal Detectors in Spokane Valley and encourages anyone who enjoys history to give metal detecting a try.

The best part of his hobby, according to Patsy, is that "it pays for itself and the gas."

"It's the only hobby that gives back," he said. "But you don't do it because of that. I've made friends all over the world because of metal detectors. It's like a fraternity."