deepskyal
Bronze Member
- Aug 17, 2007
- 1,926
- 61
- Detector(s) used
- White's Coinmaster 6000 Di Series 3, Minelab Eq 600
- Primary Interest:
- Metal Detecting
I've been scoping out, and detecting, a couple of sites recently that should have kicked out some goodies. Unfortunately, over time, the sites have become trashed. Not by individuals' trash, but with dumping from steel mills and careless bulldozing by the railroads and developers.
It's impossible to find anything pre1900's under several feet of slag and just as impossible to detect the areas bulldozed by the railroads into heaps of ties and slag.
But all kinds of evidence of past activity is still around and old maps were pointing the way.
I'll look at the composition of the remnants of the building, whether they were newer brick, a block foundation? old sandstone ?..what other building materials may lay around. Is there simply a pile of bricks in the middle of nowhere?
I also look for plants out of place if I find it hard to figure where a house may have been. An odd ball tree, a couple large trees spaced 20 or 30 feet apart...
I also look at weed clumps and open spaces. Those are good markers of some quick growth that filled in where something else stood.
Distinct paths...maybe a road once went through or maybe train tracks...a possible canal if its along a waterway.
Key elements of places where early settlers were...near water......conflunces, the old indian trails.
When you're looking for that really old place to do some hunting...what signs are you looking for? What gives you certainty that you're in the right place? What tells you deep down you found a great spot? Do you find what you were expecting?
Al
It's impossible to find anything pre1900's under several feet of slag and just as impossible to detect the areas bulldozed by the railroads into heaps of ties and slag.
But all kinds of evidence of past activity is still around and old maps were pointing the way.
I'll look at the composition of the remnants of the building, whether they were newer brick, a block foundation? old sandstone ?..what other building materials may lay around. Is there simply a pile of bricks in the middle of nowhere?
I also look for plants out of place if I find it hard to figure where a house may have been. An odd ball tree, a couple large trees spaced 20 or 30 feet apart...
I also look at weed clumps and open spaces. Those are good markers of some quick growth that filled in where something else stood.
Distinct paths...maybe a road once went through or maybe train tracks...a possible canal if its along a waterway.
Key elements of places where early settlers were...near water......conflunces, the old indian trails.
When you're looking for that really old place to do some hunting...what signs are you looking for? What gives you certainty that you're in the right place? What tells you deep down you found a great spot? Do you find what you were expecting?
Al
