Ghost town hunting ethics question

[Libralabsoldier]

I have been doing a lot of research on ghost towns and outlaw gold here in Oklahoma. After reading how territorial some of the THers looking for the James and Dalton gangs loot, I have decided to go a safer route.

After all, MDing with my Smith and Wesson strapped to my leg would get tiring pretty quick!

Now, evidently there are several ghost towns within a short drive of my house. Two are mining company towns (gypsum and limestone, not gold). A few others just dried up during the Dust Bowl years.

Now, if I can locate banks or stores in these areas, what are the ethics and legalities of hunting through them for coins and artifacts?

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[Mackaydon]

You may wish to first consider OWNERSHIP, then PERMISSION, then PERSONAL SAFETY, then ETHICS.
Good Hunting,
Don.....

[Libralabsoldier]

Ownership and permission are not going to be easy to ascertain in the cases of towns that have been gone for 80 years.

Safety: I am an Iraq war veteran, along with a couple of other heres and theres. I am honestly more worried about snakes than people.

Ethics: What is ok to take? What is not?

[Mackaydon]

Ownership is easy to obtain by going to or contacting the county tax collector's office and asking who owns the land (or who pays the property taxes); which will facilitate obtaining permission--or being denied permission. You may even be able to get that info by phone or Email.
BTW, I salute your service to this country; you're all heroes.
Don....... (USAF: 1963-69)

[Libralabsoldier]

I spent my time in the various countries I have been in saving lives. The guys I helped put blood back into (I am a transfusion services and blood banking specialist) are the heroes. I just keep them rolling.

From what I have been reading about some of these ghost towns, the ones that are still sparsely occupied (such as Gotebo, OK) are deteriorating and the towns people treat these old buildings like trash dumps.

As far as the really old ones (I have a lead on an Indian "reform" mission school) I guess I need to find out who bought the land.

I just do not want to feel like a grave robber.

[Libralabsoldier]

I posted this in cache hunting by mistake, and can not move it over.

Evidently, there are quite a few ghost towns close to where I live in Apache, OK.

I want to do some hunting and metal detecting, but do not want to run afoul of the law. Any suggestions, basic rules, etc?

I know the basic rules of MDing....but this is something completely different.

[Mackaydon]

Understood, about the grave robbing situation.

You mentioned Gotebo; that's in Kiowa County.
You may wish to follow up with the county assessor's office:
Kiowa County Assessor
316 South Main St., Hobart, OK 73651
Phone (580)726-2150

[Libralabsoldier]

I am going to start checking out USGS stuff too. Since the weather is about to turn NASTY out here over the weekend, I have plenty of time to research. The little town I live in is filled with abandoned houses and businesses as well. It is really sad. People out there on your cost will pay a half a mil for a one room crack house, while out here in Apache you could have a huge house with a huge yard for a tenth of that.

Know any Californians looking to relocate?

[Mackaydon]

We're down about 25% in home values in the last several years; still have another 25% to go to get it back to 'reasonable'. But if values hit that level, most homeowners would be 'underwater'; sorta a 'no win' situation.
I rent--and wait.
Don.......

[lastleg]

Hey Libra:

Tomorrow and Sunday (after church of course) would be a great time to
hit some of those vacant houses. When it's miserable outside nobody will
notice you detecting around doors, sidewalks, driveways (good silver and
ring areas if it has two strips of concrete), backdoors, clotheslines. Thing
is, if you hunt for a half-hour and get no silver, no wheaties, move on to
another place. You probably know it is very hard to find a yard that hasn't
been hunted. Don't forget the easements by the street. That where I start
to see if anyone runs out screaming. Easements are city property.

Those ghosttowns were all hunted by avid THers long ago so you might
find more quicker in your own town.

[NHBandit]

Every inch of land in this country is owned by someone even if it's the government that owns it. If you want to play completely by the rules you need to start by finding out who owns them. Maybe go to the county records department or whoever keeps track of such things in your area. If you get permission or if you find out it's public land and permission isn't needed I wish you the best of luck and would love to see pics. Ghost towns have always fascinated me. The only one near where I live in NH is under the control of the Army Corps of Engineers and depending on eho you ask detecting is or isn't allowed. It's frustrating because the town was founded in the 1700s and nothing but cellar holes remain.

[Libralabsoldier]

There is one four miles from my house, and was disincorporated back in the 1920s.

I doubt there are many other THers out here that do coin shooting. Most of them are after the big huge mythical outlaw caches.

[Mackaydon]

Are you near Bridgeport?

[Jason in Enid]

You think you are the first to know about ghost towns? Don't think anyone in the last 60 years of detecting that it hasn't been hunted? Not a reason to NOT hunt, but don't think you are going to be the first, anywhere.

Use the old historical plat maps to find the exact locations of the towns.
Use the county tax assessor to find the current owner
Get permission to hunt
Everything else will fall into place.

[lastleg]

Libra:

This "thing" of ours is over 50 years old. You don't see many detectorists
around because the gravy is all gone. But they never got it all. There are
little pockets they missed. One real ghost I used to hunt only twice a year
will never run out of targets but it is on Forest Service and may be off-limits.
Another is on private property and has not produced much lately.

NHBandit is sitting on colonial land but has enviros and govt watching every
move. Oklahoma is not like that. Texas either. We still have individual rights
we cherish. You would have to be down south to know what I mean.

You can bet that back when the detecting rage started teams were going to
all the 'towns' and grabbing up the silver. Maybe they missed the one down
the road. Some groups went for the old bottles. I once found a row of five
choice bottles covered with a few inches of dirt they accidently covered up.

Some mining ghost dumps gave up gold coins when sifted. On my last
trip to the private ghost we made three sifters and when we left we covered
them with tin sheets to use next time. It is fun to get the old marbles with
a sifter. THing is about all kinds of lost or discarded articles from a different
time and place. If it was just about coins a lot of us would sell our detectors
and take up tennis, not really.

[Libralabsoldier]

I see the points that a lot of you are making.....I am not getting discouraged. This is the first time in a year that I have been able to detect at all. I do not care if all I find is old horseshoes and rusty pocket knives....

We have a lot of ghost (or almost ghosts, in the case of Gotebo) right nearby. I am going to do a drive by of Stecker tomorrow. I will snap as many pictures as possible.

There is of course more to it than coins.

[Kentucky Kache]

Safety: I am an Iraq war veteran, along with a couple of other heres and theres. I am honestly more worried about snakes than people.

I would think that even Iraq war veterans, along with a couple of other heres and theres, could be shot, etc. Maybe I'm wrong.

[lastleg]

H U H ?

[Libralabsoldier]

KK, I do not think I am bullet proof. However, I think I have a little more situational awareness than the average Joe Schmoe off the street.

[zerojinx]

Me and a buddy hunted a ghost town that was once a gold mining boom town. We used plats and old photos to pinpoint area's to hunt. Mostly nothing to find, as we weren't the first by far to hit upon that idea. However, we were both able to find a couple of droped gold nuggets. While not all that valuable, we still found something in a picked over area. So don't dismiss a place just cause its been hunted.