Virgin site 1860 plantation- how to proceed

[Uaagr]

Just got permission from the owner of an 1860's plantation property. The house is still there, no one lives there, been in the same family since built. Made friends with the owner, they knew nothing about metal detecting but after a few conversations they are exited about letting me search. The property is still a section or better but the only structure still standing is the house. The owner said she would show me around next week, she knows where some of the old buildings used to be. She said she could get me close to where the old slave quarters used to be. The house was built in 1860 but the property was in use long before, not too far from 1500-1600 Spanish fort and trading post.




sailed sailed up the riverhhhhhhhhhhh

 

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[Uaagr]

My iPad wouldn't let me type anymore, had to start new reply... Sorry.

White men have inhabited the area since the Spanish sailed up the river. Lots of history here, that's what I'm interested in, that and relics and coins and caches. I'm not new to history and research but I'm new to metal detecting. The house is surrounded by old growth trees and then surrounded by ag fields. What are your thoughts on the best way to approach this property? I'm not in any hurry, I want to do this right and help the owner uncover the history of her ancestors. Any and all advise will be helpful, going there in the morning as a preliminary expedition.

 

[Lafitte Deux]

If it's been in use that long, you might start by looking for a prominent geographic point that would have attracted people from the river. (hill, open areas in the old growth, etc.) That could help in searching for the early items.
And, of course, learn all you can from the owner about the previous dwellings in the area.
A good sweep around the 1860 house should start to point to where people moved around the dwellings, horses hitched, etc.
Other than that, I'd start at one end and swing until my arm fell off!
Good luck, it sounds like a great place to spend time and dig.

 

[WVPapaw]

My iPad wouldn't let me type anymore, had to start new reply... Sorry. White men have inhabited the area since the Spanish sailed up the river. Lots of history here, that's what I'm interested in, that and relics and coins and caches. I'm not new to history and research but I'm new to metal detecting. The house is surrounded by old growth trees and then surrounded by ag fields. What are your thoughts on the best way to approach this property? I'm not in any hurry, I want to do this right and help the owner uncover the history of her ancestors. Any and all advise will be helpful, going there in the morning as a preliminary expedition.

If you can send me a aerial pic from google earth, I would dowse it for you to locate potential targets and mark their location and return it by email. My only request is for you to provide feedback on what you find at each marked target.

 

[Uaagr]

Thank you for the offer! I'm out of pocket till Monday or Tuesday, I'll send you some stuff then. Thanks again

 

[WVPapaw]

My iPad wouldn't let me type anymore, had to start new reply... Sorry. White men have inhabited the area since the Spanish sailed up the river. Lots of history here, that's what I'm interested in, that and relics and coins and caches. I'm not new to history and research but I'm new to metal detecting. The house is surrounded by old growth trees and then surrounded by ag fields. What are your thoughts on the best way to approach this property? I'm not in any hurry, I want to do this right and help the owner uncover the history of her ancestors. Any and all advise will be helpful, going there in the morning as a preliminary expedition.

If you look at it on google earth, sometimes you can see impressions in fields and clearings where buildings used to be. I would also look around house for evidence of outhouses...since people used to throw old bottles and trash in the outhouse hole. Look for evidence of foundations...old barnstone, foundation holes, cellars. depressions, etc.

 

[rovnrbl53]

You should use Google Earth to also determine if you can see old roads/trails. Sounds like property is on a river so the river landing area could be productive. Go to maptech.com click on Online Maps under Land Software then click on Map Server. You can type in a location near to where you're hunting and pull up a topographic map of the area. That will give you water sources, high ground, trails/roads, possible areas of interest. On the left are the latitude/longitude co-ordinates - your cursor should turn into cross hairs. You can record/enter co-ordinates into a GPS and go right to location of interest. I'd suggest breaking the property into some kind of grid and work one gridded area at a time. Good luck. Have fun and be careful!!

 

[smokeythecat]

Remember, in the 18th century and earlier, the trash generally went out the back window, if they were lucky enough to have windows. Sometimes the early windows were made of muscovite "sheets", aka mica. The best way to handle your site is, sorry, for the simplicity, but a little at a time. I'd do a general "survey" with the machine and then grid off the whole place, for you to maximize it will take a long time. Probably most weekends for a couple years. If you find something old, I'd mentally mark a 50' x 50' area around it and search very carefully. I did this to two sites and it worked great.

 

[KONO]

I can give you some tips, we dig an 19th Century Louisiana Plantation (Private, virgin ground) ourselves.

At the plantation where we dig, we look for old building sites and foundations (though we know were most of the things were)...

We've got several plantations on the property, each with there sub structures (slave huts, etc.), even an abandoned railroad track that passes through. (look out for those ghost trains )

Here is a link to some of our finds... and the back story. http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/relic-hunting/366228-official-louisiana-plantation-dig.html

 

[lastleg]

Detecting a "virgin" is sometimes harder than one which has been cleaned of surface trash. Now you
will have to do that yourself.

 

[smokeythecat]

Yeah, just tell me about surface trash. Dug 10 pounds this week.

 

[KONO]

Most our surface trash we find is old iron from the buildings. Place has been under lock and key, and many parts have not been wondered apon since the Ol' days.

 

[Rob in KS]

Use Google Earth as a basis for a map
Try to find old maps, then you can overlay them on Google
Use your GPS when the owner shows you where buildings used to be.
Mark things with the GPS when you find them, ie. cellar hole, trash dump,etc
Plot all this in Google
After a while the finds will tell you a lot about the land use.
You might want to do the same on the Spanish site
You might want to broach the subject of what happens to the finds with the owner
This will keep you busy for years.

Take lots of picture of your cool finds...we want to see

 

[Uaagr]

Thanks for all the post and advice. I'm meeting the owner this week at the site, she is going to give me the grand tour and show me where old buildings used to be. I hope to get started soon, but this is a busy time of year for me. I'll post updates and pics of finds as often as time allows. Thanks again and keep the advice coming!

 

[Uaagr]

Update:

Finally got out to the site for a couple hours this evening. Found tons of iron and aluminum, targets everywhere. I'll post some pics soon of what I've found. I do not know my machine well yet, I have a hard time distinguishing which tones mean what. I'm scared to use discriminate at this site, don't want to miss anything neat, or a cache in some iron container. Also I think if I dig everything my learning curve will be faster (but I'm worn out from two hours of digging.) A pic of the site has been dowsed by wvpapaw (standup guy, and much appreciated), did a prelim on his hits tonight and intend to really search a few in the morning. Tele_prospector also offered to dowse and I sent him a pic, waiting on his assessment and can't wait to see what he found (hint, hint tele .
I'm having trouble overlaying WVpawpa's dowse pic with google earth so i can have coords......so i'm just winging his marks based on pics. I searched what I think was close to one of his marks tonight right before dark. Got targets everywhere around it, dug a hole, deep. Roughly a foot of loose soil, then a couple inches of loose gravel (which I found strange as in unnatural) then more loose soil and the lip of a iron pot or bucket! Not so lucky, it was just a 12 inch metal ring.........did find some stiff wire, like a bucket handle? Just to the side of the ring was the end of a half inch metal rod, pointed on the end pointing where the ring was. It was dark and I didn't get it out, left the hole for in the morning. Just can't stop thinking about it, seems odd. I'll update on what happens tomorrow as soon as I can. In the meantime, any thoughts on this post are welcome, this is so fascinating!
Also, I need some advice on cleaning up finds, especially rusty iron etc........this will aid me in posting pics of my finds quicker.
Again big thanks to WVpawpa and a preemptive thank you to tele_prospector!