His father, Pat Newton, was one of the White Oak neighborhood's old-time relic hunters, a group that also included the late Fred Stevens, Lou Curtis, Cliff English, Fred Bullock and George Sullivan. The private museum is dedicated to them and to honor the memory of Union and Confederates from private to general, who suffered both in battle and in the area's camps the largest encampments of the war. Other life-long relic hunters marvel at the collection of buckles, weapons, bullets and other items assembled inside the former White Oak Elementary School, and historians for the National Park Service have praised the professional caliber of the museum, calling it one of the finest of its kind in the nation. Not all relic hunters have a good reputation. They are viewed by some people as insensitive buzzards who dig because money can be made by selling Civil War artifacts.
Critics say they plunder places of archaeological value.
I asked Newton if he had sold items during his more than 30 years of relic hunting. No, not a single buckle or button. Everything you see here, every little button, represents a soldier. We might not know his name, but it was something that belonged to somebody. Actually, it might be all that's left of what he had in this world.