Where does all the iron come from?

[Ammoman]

This may be a topic discussed before but i was just curious. It seems like every old house is infested with scrap iron. Big chunks, small chunks and every chunk between! I just don't get it. Why so much iron? Did people carry it in their pockets? Did we have iron deficient people walking around sucking on iron bars as if they were candy? Im perplexed. Any ideas? I would be curious to see what kind of iron other people are finding. If you show me yours i will show you mine!

 

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[Tom_in_CA]

little green gremlins deposit it there . JUST to tick you off

 

[Ammoman]

You may be right. Or its a big government conspiracy.

 

[darktower007]

How old do you mean? I understand what you mean though.

In Virginia I found on a permission property where a house use to be in the 1940's. Torn down long ago, they literally threw everything in the back yard. It was a mine field of crap. Old bottles caps aluminum iron everything.

These places are hard to hunt!


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[Ammoman]

How old do you mean? I understand what you mean though.

In Virginia I found on a permission property where a house use to be in the 1940's. Torn down long ago, they literally threw everything in the back yard. It was a mine field of crap. Old bottles caps aluminum iron everything.

These places are hard to hunt!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

most of the houses date from the early 1900s or before. Lots of flat thick iron with no real use that i know of. some square some long and rectangular and others with odd shapes. Maybe everybody was a black smith?

 

[relic nut]

I think it's because in the 1800s and early 1900s, everything was made with iron. Kind of like plastic today. There where no dumpsters or trash collection so when things broke they just got tossed. Like mentioned above, those sites are hard to hunt but they can hide some great finds.

HH, RN

 

[Rodbuster209]

Seems like the iron I find when detecting old sites here comes from old wood burning stoves, which makes me think what could have broke that stove apart like that? Food for thought.

 

[Beezly]

Seems like the iron I find when detecting old sites here comes from old wood burning stoves, which makes me think what could have broke that stove apart like that? Food for thought.

Kids! They break everything, then they break the broken pieces.

 

[SD51]

I agree with what has been said here about iron in the yards of the older homes. Five of us got permission to hunt a one acre home site dating from 1831. Three guys worked the open back yard and didn't dig a single coin. I worked the front and found 14 coins and did notice an abundance of iron but not as bad as the back yard. I went back and tried the backyard and I got two to three iron hits for every sweep of the coil. Impossible to do anything. These people didn't just throw their trash out into just one area away from the house. They basically threw it out everywhere in the backyard! Most likely they didn't cut the grass back their either so it wasn't an eyesore with all the tall grass.

 

[Dave Rishar]

I have it on good authority that Tom saves his iron scrap and periodically travels the country, seeding old properties with it as he goes.

And those rotted zincolns at your beach? That's also his work.

 

[Ammoman]

I have it on good authority that Tom saves his iron scrap and periodically travels the country, seeding old properties with it as he goes.

And those rotted zincolns at your beach? That's also his work.

LOL...so now we know where to send all that iron.

 

[huntsman53]

Where else, Iron Man!


Frank

 

[TerryC]

I've found 50+ pieces on 15 foot of roadway 150 yards from the house, including 8 (so far) horseshoes. Recent rains have exposed the stuff. A metal detector indicates there are probably 50 more pieces there. We found the location of a farrier shop we were looking for. A couple of you guys and I will soon look for the expected stage stop that it serviced. Have to wait for the saturated soil to dry up a little more. TTC

 

[DigitalDirt]

The Russians did it.

 

[ivan salis]

trashy humans infest every where they live with iron --want to find a homestead / camp site find the iron...

 

[DigitalDirt]

trashy humans infest every where they live with iron --want to find a homestead / camp site find the iron...

Also, in the midwest, find a lilac bush.

 

[Ammoman]

The Russians did it.[/QUOTE

LOL makes perfect sense. Putin the ground!