Ghost Town?

[PAmike]

I went to www.ghosttowns.com and was looking a PA. I found that they consider Helvetia to be a ghost town. Well the point is I live maybe 3 miles from Helvetia and I was wondering if it is wort detecting there? It is an old coal mining town that was pretty busy for years then all of a sudden all of the houses either were deseerted or demolished, mostly demolished. If I look at the usgs topo it will show some of the houses at least because it was done in 1977 before alot of the homes disappeared.

mike

[jeff of pa]

Every town in the U.S. is worth searching. Any place People Lived, Play'd , Worked, Etc. Has Posabilities.

[SASQUASH]

DIG,DIG,DIG,DIG,DIG,DIG,DIG,DIG,DIG O sorry just got back from M.D.ing. yes if you can get in ther do it. Make shuer that you post us some pic's of what you find. SASQUASH

[rgb4]

does any1 have any ideas just how many ghost towns there are across the country?
i mean do all states have some? this is very interesting subject.

[Wild Boulder Bill]

There Are Ghost towns in Every state the u.s post office will have a record of thte post offices in your state. That'll keep you busy for a long time

[Free2Dtect]

I read there are about 50,000 ghost towns in the U S A. There are ratings for them. It can range from nothing visible to foundations visible, to near ghost statis. Near ghost is where the population has fallen by quite a bit such as 2000 in 1910 to 57 present. My personal thought is there are ghost sites in my home town of 52,000. By that I mean the spots people do not think of, from under the walks to house demo sites where the one removed is actually the 2nd or 3rd house in the location.

[dano91]

Ghost towns are the best! I always try to find where the store or saloon was. I had an old man tell me about putting gum on sticks and trying to fish out the $5 gold pieces people had dropped between the boards of the porch

[surfrat96]

Does anyone know if you're allowed to MD a ghost town, and who would you have to contact to find out? I would think most are some sort of a historical site and would be protected.

[dano91]

most ghost towns arent protected but there are on land owned by someone. So you should check on it.

[nutso]

I've researched some of the ghost towns mentioned on the net. What I see is that anywhere where there used to be a group of 2 or more houses is now called a ghost town. It may not really be a ghost town but it is worth searching. Calling it a ghost town is probably just to sell a book. You can find those sites by comparing old topo maps to new ones and looking for the houses that arent there on the new maps. It's all on the net and it's free.

[LONE GUNMAN]

we do alot of ghostin in nevada, and it has been my experiance that they range from nothing to towns with people still living in them...as far as searchin them if there is anyone living there ask permission the worst they can say is no, but they could say yes....and then the possibilitys are endless....buy the way you will dig alot of junk....but you will also find alot of goodie....if there is no one living in or around then the town is truely deserted try detecting it just cover you holes and dig with a little respect.
just my two cents
lone gunman

[Wild Boulder Bill]

Anything over fifty to a hundred years in most states is considered antiquitys A lot of times it is not enforced but it can be. If you ask permission from a historical society it is unlikely you'll get it. This is a shame because if I was detecting a ghost town with an spanish arrasta in it I would call them and tell them, because none of us wants to detsroy a states heritage. I had a friend call them up one time to tell them about a find he had. The guy started screaming "you can't do that. who are you?  where are you at? He hung up on them. That was before caller I.D. I will not detect on private property. I wll not detect something of extreme historical importance. I don't even detect city parks. I have information that i think they should Know, but I'll not tell them. They marked the territory not me. In Colorado it is fifty years. That's rigth Technically that sixty year old school is technically an antiquity site. Fortuanetly a lot of people enforcing those rules have some comon sense, but not all of them. Because of the ones that don't NInja suits and flashlights. I did dig with the top archeologists in the nation their consensus was generally f the artifact was on top of the ground or moved they didn't care but if it was in situ, (in the ground) they wanted your hind end. (generally). Whats funny is most of them are just degreed treasure hunters and if you pin them on it, they will admit it. A treasure hunter is not defined by what he finds but rather he is defined by what is in his heart. There are organizations trying to change things. Support them. I for one look forward to that day when there is more cooperation between us. Because of the sites they dig were found by people like you and I. Most professionals find very little themselves. They have to get up off their fat behinds and start walking.

                                                                                                                                                     Wild Boulder



 

[Free2Dtect]

I agree with WILD BOULDER BILL! In my home town the care taker for a historical site wanted me to detect it. The director told me no way when I called him for permission. But they forgot about the year before when they want me to provide items that were detected and dug up in the city, for a display at their tourist center. Now isn't that quite a twist, want to use me, then such a tune change. Glad i did not provide said items!

[nutso]

I wonder what might have happened though if you had loaned the finds to them. Do you think they might have let you detect the site or maybe confiscated your loaned items?

[Free2Dtect]

They rely on donations, so they really wanted to have me loan the items for display. They never followed up, probably due to got the job, good pay, just sit in my office chair mentality. After all how many people just give away good stuff.

[lonewolfe]

I agree with WILD BOULDER BILL! In my home town the care taker for a historical site wanted me to detect it. The director told me no way when I called him for permission. But they forgot about the year before when they want me to provide items that were detected and dug up in the city, for a display at their tourist center. Now isn't that quite a twist, want to use me, then such a tune change. Glad i did not provide said items!

Good deal Pete,

I wouldn't have loaned them crap either!

I have some really nice finds that could easily be displayed in a museum, and that any museum would LOVE to have as displays but,

when you want something from them!?  "Good luck"!

so I just keep all my stuff here with me!

[pir81]

they( the public office holders are mostly people who sit on their rumps & get paid have you called 1 lately im not at my desk right now leave a #&name if thats what you get you probaly calling someone that is most likely sitttting at the desk doing abbbbbsolutely nothing and getting paid money   that was taken out of my hard earned check and if your waiting on a return call forget it you might as well be waiting 4 the beale treasure to fall from the sky to get anything done you have to go to the right offices and talk 2 whos in charge thats your best chance of finding out what is possible &what is not >:(detectdetectdetect ;Dnow i feel better

[stoney56]

There Are Ghost towns in Every state the u.s post office will have a record of thte post offices in your state. That'll keep you busy for a long time

My understanding of a true ghost town is one where there was at one time a post office. Once the P.O. is gone it is no longer an official town but a community. For Oklahoma there is a book called "Oklahoma Place Names" that list all the old towns and town name changes.

[rgb4]

thks for the infor wild bill.

[Tags:]

Treasure > Metal Detecting > Relic Hunting (Moderators: Marc, jeff of pa) > Topic: Ghost Town?