So are ploughed fields really as advertised or is it mostly hype? Anyone have better than average results from these fields? Got a couple permissions to hunt right after they turn these fields over. Both spots are 1800's farms.
Hey Tom! The USA is relatively new but let's not forget that the western USA was also inhabited by the French (trappers), English (northwest), and Mexicans (Tejas-Texas, NM, AZ, and CA for hundreds of years). Many Towns and camps sprung up virtually overnight in CA then abandoned after the "strike" played out. As for me, the excitement of the chase (research) can be more fulfilling than the find. The obvious places have been picked over many times. It is now time for the less obvious! TTCThere's a spot here in CA where a little village of sorts existed from the late 1790s to the 1820's. Then abandoned. It was just cattle land till the 1910's or so. And has been row crops ever since. We go there to hunt, looking, obviously for the reales and buttons of the 1790s to 1820s era.
But sure, now and then a clad coin, a few wheat pennies, and one time a silver washington quarter pop up (nuisance finds that get in the way of our real objectives, haha). Hence, sure, there are random field-worker losses. But it occurred to me one day, as i reflected back on years of hunting this field, and countless hours spent: If our objective had been for those "random fieldworker losses", it would never have been worth it. Just too few and far between.
I suppose on the east coast where there's 200 more years of history (all of which was during the manual cultivation, pre-mechanization era), then the odds would go up. But I'd still venture that you're better off finding spots where actual commercial activity took place, or a habitation or gathering spot was. Not just random ag. land.
Hey Tom! The USA is relatively new but let's not forget that the western USA was also inhabited by the French (trappers), English (northwest), and Mexicans (Tejas-Texas, NM, AZ, and CA for hundreds of years). Many Towns and camps sprung up virtually overnight in CA then abandoned after the "strike" played out. As for me, the excitement of the chase (research) can be more fulfilling than the find. The obvious places have been picked over many times. It is now time for the less obvious! TTC
If given the chance, I will dig EVERY tree that has branches low enough for kids to climb on. They have done it for millennium! Also, although I cannot remember the term, many a frontier church service was held under large trees. Check out to 50 or 60 feet from the trunk. TTCI've had more luck so far by checking big old trees in the wood line around farm fields. I assume that would be a shady place to eat lunch back in the day.
So true, so true. Actually, the farm field find was the results of pure research. It was not random. Using old platt maps and Google Earth, I deduced that the active town (I don't remember the name) I was researching should be larger than its present (then) size. I went to the site for a look-see. I found the bricks in an area I EXPECTED to find something. Searching random sites surely is a waste of time. Below Stone Mountain (Ga) is evidence of an old indian village that is thousands of years old. From the top, I was shown (by tourist guide) several fertile "rings" made by the tree trunks that formed the old dwellings. They were not noticed until relatively new residents climbed the rock and saw them. An extreme example for sure, but such gems are still waiting for those that know how and where to look. TTCTerry, thanx for the 2 inputs here. In the cases you describe where cultivated ag. fields porked up productive spots, those are cases where something had been there. Sure, if someone sees crockery, brick, etc.... in furroughs, then sure, something was there. Or like as you say, if camps or traveler spots (stage stops, etc...) existed in/on what is now just ag. row crops, then sure, by all means.
But in cases like that, you're no longer talking about just "random fields". In cases like those, it's when something specific was known (or visually evident) to have gone on there.
Contrast to British hunters (and other European countries), where they really don't even need to know whether or not a villa, or trading post, or habitations, etc... were . They can simply, eventually, find random coins in ANY field. Even if it was never a market or village or post, etc..... Simply because of the 1000 to 2000 yrs. more history. Not so in the USA.
May have been called a brush arbor (meeting). TTCIf given the chance, I will dig EVERY tree that has branches low enough for kids to climb on. They have done it for millennium! Also, although I cannot remember the term, many a frontier church service was held under large trees. Check out to 50 or 60 feet from the trunk. TTC
Well let me tell you, I grew up on a farm, still own it today. Every Spring after the fields were plowed my cousins and I would have the fun job of picking rocks.
In PA at least I guess the rocks get pushed upwards by the freeze thaw cycles. Rocks that were not there last year suddenly appear this year. I used to swear that rocks were PA's winter crop.
So I would think anything buried might eventually work it's way towards the surface, and like has been said plowed earth is easier to search then hard packed earth.