Coin and relic hunting on abandoned WWII Army Air Fields

[smittyw]

Has anyone tried hunting items on such places? I know of one in my area which has been divided up into private hands for many years and used mainly for agriculture. Was wondering if such places had proved worthwhile in the past and if anyone else had tried them. Unfortunately, I do not have an aerial photo of this place when it was active. The earliest photo I found was from 1951 after all the buildings had been removed. The photo was from the Army Corp of Engineers. Thanks for any responses.

 

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[Tom_in_CA]

Yes they can be good, IF they had appreciable use, and IF no one else has beat you to it, and IF there is no other developmental reasons why it's messed up somehow (ie.: fill dirt added, or flood silts covering it, or it's under a shopping mall now, or the top 2 ft. were scraped away, etc.. blah blah).

The military guys often had canteen money (change) and the BTUs they wore had those silly sideways pockets, which ...... when sitting wrong, coins fell out easily.

However, bear in mind that some of these temporary bases were shortlived (even if multiple buildings sprung up). There was a building boom of many such bases, and little anciliary locations, facilities, etc... during the war. Many conceivably didn't get built and moved into, until the very end of the war (because .... go figure ..... at the time, no one knew how much longer it was going to go on for). For example, an army air base in my city, was completed at the end of 1944, so saw only 8 months or so of usage. I don't think it even lasted till the Korean war era, as they just disasembled the bungalos and such. It became a city airport thereafter, but the portions that had been military barracks, offices, and such, were very shortlived. So...... if you went and looked at it today, you might be fooled into thinking it was some big affair, because you'd see old concrete foundations, sidewalks, etc.... But all we managed was just a few wheaties, coin-wise, because it was so short-lived.

However, other bases, that had big tent cities, induction centers, and served for a longer terms, especially into the Korean and cold war era, are good for silver. It all just depends.

 

[smittyw]

Thank you very much for the information. The one I am looking at was probably a late arrival and was cleaned out and tore down completely by 1951. May try to get permission to try one spot that remains about as it was at the time. Looks like it was an air plane parking area off the main fighter runway under some shade trees. The other spots on the ring road around the field that looked the same have had houses planted on them since '51. Again thanks for the info.

 

[boogeyman]

There's numerous web sites that have aviation charts and maps that will give you some ideas of use etc. along runways = not much activity = support buildings = activity. The old maps will give you an idea of where buildings were that might not even show a foundation today. You may find that there are several Auxillary landing fields close to where you're looking. If you get stuck go to some of the wreck chaser sites. Check their links. You can usually find some good info that way. Seems both interests go hand in hand.

Grab a copy of:
World War II Sites in the United States
a Tour Guide & Directory
By Richard E. Osborne.

Excellent wealth of research info. You'll be amazed how much activity there was in your area. For $19.95 it is well worth three times the money.

 

[NHBandit]

You could also find way more than you bargained for. When I was a kid growing up I lived near Westover AFB in western Mass. It's closed now except for a reserve capacity and alot of the land has been sold back to the public. There was an area near one of the lesser used runways where huge amounts of surplus tools & equipment were buried when they were phased out. Kind of like the stories you hear about jeeps, tanks, planes, etc being pushed off the side of ships returning from the war in 1945. Not everything ends up at surplus auctions. Many tons of stuff gets destroyed & buried.

 

[smittyw]

Wow. Thanks all.

 

[aa battery]

guess i got lucky at Hammer field in Fresno Ca. Not much history about it but we found hundreds of coins and some relics between 4 of us.