Detecting disappointments

[deepskyal]

Recently I've just had a huge disappointment with a site.

I discovered a ghost town, did some research, found the history of the area went as far back as the mid 1700's.

There were businesses, houses, a railroad, indian villages...you name it...it was a totally awesome site.

I scouted it...took pictures, even weedwacked some brush down to hunt it. Remnants of an old brick road/path, copper grounding rods...all kinds of markers where houses once stood. WOO-HOO...!!!

You know what I found??..........SLAG!!! You want to talk about something to ruin a good place.
Seems the area had been bulldozed by the current railroad and was also used as a slag and mine tailings dump. I'm talking acres here, not just a few square feet.

Places where the houses should have been were piled high with rotted railroad ties.

We found an area that seemed a bit more promising...the soil was mostly sand and couldn't figure out why. (I think now because of flooding as it was a lower elevation and closer to the river)...but under the sand...more slag. This was evidenced by a fallen tree whose roots had lifted from the ground. The slag was probably a foot deep.

I found a couple bullet casings, shotgun shells and a couple chunks of metal that rang up as a nickle...but nothing that would show all the history of the area.

What a shame that such a historic place would be burried under slag.

And a second disappointment was a couple weeks ago. We finally had some rain and the local park was installing a new playground. OPEN, FRESHLY TURNED DIRT...WOOHOO!!!

You know...those idiots worked in the pouring down rain to rush that job. They had it done in less than a week. Never had a chance to detect it. Someone warned me to hit it fast...stupid me!

So what are your biggest disappointments?

Al

 

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[Sandman]

Sometimes these areas just are there to keep us on our toes to enjoy the hunt even more.

One of my disappointments, besides my brother in law as a hunting partner, was one fresh water beach that drove all detectors crazy where you could hardly tell if you had a coin down there or what. The detectors would be unstable no matter what you did. Almost as bad as slag.

 

[pookie-princess of rust]

i guess my biggest disappointment was missed opportunities from construction sites...

 

[deepskyal]

Here's todays disappointment.....

Another park renovation. The backhoes are sitting where the basketball court was and the pic of the lumps of grass is where the playground equipment was.

I stopped by this morning to detect it and found no way in. It's all fenced with the orange fence and the gate is sealed with caution tape.
In the first pic, if you look about the center of it, is a small vial. Maybe an old perfume bottle or something.

Gonna try swinging by after work one day to find out if there's a way to get in that area.

Al

 

[littletwig]

Got permission to hunt an old Honky Tonk north of Houston. The place was Known as Henry's Hideout or the hornest bar in Texas because of all the deer heads inside. It dates from the 1930's. The palce had been closed for about 5 years when I finall tracked down who owned it. Gave me permission to hunt it and only got out to it one time. The trash was terrible, the entire parking are was literally paved with bottle tabs and pull tabs. I made plans to go back and when I did the place was posted NO TRESPESSING. I talked to the care taker and he told me that the place hade been leased by the Mickey Gilley family and was going to reopen as the new Gilley's with the mechanical bull and all. Man I wished I found this place sooner.

 

[mastereagle22]

My hunting buddy and I went to an old neighborhood here in town and got permission to hunt a site that was built late 1890s. We thought we would find at least a few wheat pennies and maybe and IH or silver. But NO way.

We started detecting and two hours later we had like 75 screw off caps to beer containers. Turned out it had been a crack house the last few years before being condemned by the city.

If you see our posts almost every hunt we have is a disappointment.

 

[pookie-princess of rust]

And a second disappointment was a couple weeks ago. We finally had some rain and the local park was installing a new playground. OPEN, FRESHLY TURNED DIRT...WOOHOO!!!

You know...those idiots worked in the pouring down rain to rush that job. They had it done in less than a week. Never had a chance to detect it. Someone warned me to hit it fast...stupid me!

So what are your biggest disappointments?

Al

i didnt even know they were doing that in my town at a elementary school. they had it all done within a couple days. i found out about it when a local free newspaper had pics of it on the front page. grrrrr.

 

[Tubecity]

I missed out on an area of land near the Monongahela River right in the area where Gen. Braddock &
Washington crossed before they were ambushed & defeated enroute to Ft. Duquesne in 1755. They
were also said to have retreated in 'great dis-array' following the battle. Anyhow, a piece of ground
approx. 300 yds. by 100 yds. was cleared & graded & I hoped to get in there when they finished. But
then they surrounded it with portable cyclone fence panels approx. 8 to 10 ft. high. Very probable
some parts of the battle were fought here too, but the main ambush point isn't much more than 1/4
to 1/2 mile away. Still may try to see if I can get in there. I pass 20 ft. from it 5 days a week & always
think of getting in there.

 

[incajoe]

I've found two different old fair grounds (in different towns) by researching old maps, that are now woods or farmers fields and I thought for sure that they would have produced some great old coins. The first one I found an Indian Head penny within minutes of getting there only to find nothing after several days or continued hunting. The second one produced nothing but one old horse tack buckle. How can these sites give up nothing considering the amount of use they got at one time? It still mystifies me. I realize that maybe they have been hunted before but not that thoroughly!

 

[MUD(S.W.A.T)]

Every darn 50c - $1 signal for the last 4 years is a piece of steel.

Keep @ it and HH!!

 

[tford62]

I've found two different old fair grounds (in different towns) by researching old maps, that are now woods or farmers fields and I thought for sure that they would have produced some great old coins. The first one I found an Indian Head penny within minutes of getting there only to find nothing after several days or continued hunting. The second one produced nothing but one old horse tack buckle. How can these sites give up nothing considering the amount of use they got at one time? It still mystifies me. I realize that maybe they have been hunted before but not that thoroughly!

I have also hunted a fairgrounds this summer, twice in fact, that has been in use for over 50 yrs. I think I got about a buck and a quarter total and only one wheat penny. I developed a theory besides it having been hunted in the past. I am thinking that the ground has been trod on, packed down and compressed so much that dropped coins sit on top for eyeball finds and are seldom given the chance or time to work themselves into the ground. Does that sound reasonable? T.

 

[Ramapirate]

I got a phone call a little over a month ago that they'd torn up Tryon St. in Charlotte, N.C. all the way down to below the trolley tracks that had been covered up since I guess maybe the late 40's. This was maybe a half mile from the square and history up a storm. I went the weekend after I got the call, and the trolley tracks had been dug up and hauled off. The old dirt had been hauled off to who knows where and new dirt brought in and compacted down. Nothing there to detect or find. I was bummed out pretty bad

HH,
Ramapirate

 

[nhbenz]

A friend of mine has property where the NH militia had an encampment while preparing to join in the Civil War (with documented proof). When he bought it a few years back I told him I'd love to detect the field that fall, when the grass and such died off. I even told him he could keep my finds, as they were part of his property's history. But then over that summer he sold about a foot of topsoil from the field. (and he didn't specifically know where it was sent). I detected the property anyway, which was now easier to do with all growth now out of the way, but the finds were very meager... some horse related items, but not a single piece of militaria in the lot.

 

[mpostma]

The main road through town was torn up and re-paved. It was torn up all last summer.
I planned ahead to take lots of time to hunt it. I live half a block from it.
It was the first complete tear up - sidewalks and all- in 90 years.

I only got a couple of times to go down and work it. It was full of junk, and had been filled with slag.
Anyone ever heard of East Jordan Iron Works? I live in East Jordan.

I still plan to hunt much of the earth that was removed. It was used to fill lots around town. I even got permission, but so far all I have found was clad and slag.

 

[mastereagle22]

They are tearing up the street that runs through the OLDEST part of town and one with lots of CW history.

On the way back from Caldwell Ks this Sunday I got a call from a guy I know who was hunting the place and found 2 buttons, 3 or 4 bullets and some other stuff. So I went last night hoping to find something and all I dug was square nails and aluminum cans.....

 

[deepskyal]

You gotta love them old ironworks. Besides that, I live by a pretty large steel mill....they were dumping slag for many years. They burried a lot of history in the process.

There's an old ironworks I was at last weekend. Found their tailings site...the ironworks and rolling mill are long gone.

But...I got my fingers crossed on this site. There are signs of where the old houses were and a pretty cool cave. I detected it for about 3 hours this past weekend and was very happily suprised how little slag i encountered for the area. And I did find some pretty cool, odd-ball stuff I haven't sorted through.

One was an old toothpaste cap and top portion. I think it's made of copper! Anyhow...I think it's a neat find...and in very good condition.

So,...thru the letdowns.....there is always hope.

HH
Al

 

[roswellborn]

I have a theory as to why they fence off empty playgrounds or parks or whatever. Sure, they'll tell you it's so you won't get hurt and sue the heck out of 'em, but...

I once worked with the parks dept in an unnamed city (protecting the guilty here, ok?). A new building was being built in one of the local parks. The honchos at City Hall told the uh... "historian" at that park that if he set one little toe beyond that orange plastic "fence," he'd be fired. They weren't kidding.

If he had spotted even one little artifact, he'd have insisted on an archaeological survey (which is the law). And he loved history - and that site - that much. Anyway, in this particular case, the fence was there not so much to keep the public out, as it was to keep HIM out!

With that in mind, I wonder how much of the fencing we see is for liability, and how much is to keep people from finding *something* that could hold up their plans.

 

[SWEATYSOCK]

I live in a rural location and back in 1976 we had a bit of a drought. A microlight pilot who was also an historian was flying over my village when he noticed some markings in the field behind my house.Long story short,it's the remains of a very large Roman Turf/Wood Fort (I live about 2.5 miles from Hadrian's Wall).
A dig was organised and some Italian students came over during the summer to help out but found practicaly zilch. The site has never been scheduled so I got permission off the farmer to detect it. Finds to date:- NOTHING !!
I have found some Georgian grots,buttons etc but its been so intensively farmed with tons of nitrates applied that anything bronze or copper is badly corroded,the farmer has also over the years imported lots of topsoil so good finds may be too deep.
I have found one badly damaged sestertious on the line of a footpath in a neighbouring field.
Will just have to keep plodding away at it !