The date is the 30th of March, 2007, and my father & I have decided to take a long trip to a far away line with the intent of bringing home some styles we hadn't encountered before in our trek about the area surrounding our home. After arriving at the site, we noticed that quite a large portion of the area beside the tracks had been plowed under by a farmer attempting to reclaim some additional field from the railroad.

Chunks of sod, roots jutting forth from the ground, and even the fallen remains of badly decayed poles diced into pieces were all that were required to show that this spot had never been plowed - and when several DWIGHT 143s began to appear in the troughs and peaks of the plowing, we knew some glass could be found.

After about 20 minutes of hiking and watching the ground, I spotted what appeared to be a 143 laying in the dirt just off the edge of the field in an (as of then) unplowed area. Carefully picking my way through some brambles to get a look at the piece, I found it broken, but surrounded by several shards which obviously came from the piece. "Obviously unsalvageable." I thought, as the first half of DWIGHT had been broken off. But, as most Canadian collectors know, one must always check for the G.N.W. embossing these pieces are renowned to have on occasion. I hadn't found any shards of any such G.N.W. DWIGHTS to date, but as usual, I took the plunge. Digging through the dirt to retrieve some of the shards, my heart nearly stopped when I held these two together. My first G.N.W.DWIGHT CD 143!

I recovered most of the front skirt that day, and successive returns to the spot have revealed further shards of the front, though a large portion is still missing from the rear of the piece. Look at that original tie wire!

And [id=203700871;something good] was still to come!