1776 Homestead + 2 Other Early American Homesteads = 2006 Farm Field

[Colonial Zoyboy]

Ever since I bought my first detector last May, I have always had the passion to find "old" coins, and in order to find them, I knew that I had to conduct extensive research. So, after finding many later American coins such as Mercury dimes, Rosies, and Wheats, doyboy and I decided to "step our game up." Just about one year later, we decided to center our detecting goals on finding some spanish silver, early American silver, post-colonial coins, etc. This leads me to present to you guys our newest research project. The atlas map that we have attached is from 1873, and the aerial photo is from a recent time period. As one can see, there are three homesteads in 1873 that are situated along the river; JV Crane's was built in 1776, and the other two were erected sometime after that. The aerial photo depicts these former homesteads as one large farm field; in the photo, I circled where we believe the homesteads once stood. We are going to seek permission to metal detect after the end of their farming season. If we are granted permission, what words of advice could you guys offer to locate the productive spots? Lastly, could you name a few of your finds from detecting a farm field?

[killerwine]

That's cool! Where did you get the old map? Been looking for one for my area...Visalia, CA. Good luck! HH

[southbound]

Congrats on the research and good luck with the hunt! Vern

[trk5capt]

ZOYBOY, When You Start Your Hunt Dig All Signals, To See Whats There, Nails, Hardware, Bullets, Buttons, etc. When You Have Located a Site, Slow Down, Work A Grid Pattern And Listen For Those Deep Signals They Could Be Coins. Best Of Luck & Good Hunting. Keep Us Posted. trk5capt...

[Bavaria Mike]

Great research and it will lead to great finds! Gridding an area produces better than just walking around, like Tr5capt said, dig all signals on a farm field, it's just to easy to do and the deeper signals will sound like crap anyway. Some of my best finds have been iffy signals. One small tip I can give about farm fields is, if you have a crap signal, just scrape off an inch or so off the top with your foot if you can and rescan, a good target should get better, a bad target should get worse or stay the same. Anything can come off a farm field, the manure piles on farms used to be the trash can as well and were spread onto the fields. HH and good luck, Mike

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

Trust your own head you seem smart!

Keep @ it and HH!!

[hollowpointred]

zoyboy, i recently did the same thing you are doing now just a few weeks ago to find two old homesteads that are no longer there. just like your site, all that is there now is cornfields. what i did to locate the sites of the buildings was just walk around the field and look for signs of the houses on the surface. bricks,china and pottery shards, little metal bits, oyster or clam shells, stuff like that. then i would grid it off as was already suggested and hit it hard! you should come away with something good. it looks like that is the right place based on the island in the river on the map and in the photo. i cant wait to hear what you find!.........btw, at the site that i located we found 2 large cents and some whatsits.

[comfyinvermont]

Hey Zoyboy, Your going to have a great time in a field. I do lots of them here in Vermont and find great things in all of them. There has been a lot of good info here, particularly gridding it off and take your time. Another hint is to look for the highest place in the field if there is one. People would often picnic in such places or just sit around and admire the view. Field were also used to burn trash and old clothes. I find tons of nice old buttons in fields all the time. Like they have said...dig every signal. Your going to have a blast. Enjoy...Lance

[TimmyNY]

I notice some small brushy areas that are near where the houses should be. You might want to check them out as they might be where the foundations are. look for bits of pottery or brick or bits of rusty metal to mark the houses. look for a low spot in the field possible cellar hole. start in all metal till you start hitting iron, then switch especially look for square nails. they use to burn the house and rake out the nails to reuse on their new house. Go slow and dig every signal. house from 1776 you might find colonial coppers. dig big holes so as to not scratch them. remember coins are not the only thing you will be finding. some iron items can be nice too. I found a colonial 2 prong iron fork at a 1790s site. along with lots of colonial coppers and early large cents. buttons are nice too and often hit at the foil range. be sure to check the back marks as some of the early presidential campaign buttons were blank on the front. be careful of buttons too. you may be finding rev war or war of 1812 military buttons ( colonial or British). Take a small bottle of olive oil with you and put any coppers you find in it. the oil bath seems to harden the corrosion . if you let them dry out they will start to disintigrate. you can loose all the detail on a nice piece if you don't take care of it right away. I keep an altoids can filled with oil soaked paper towels in my pocket. Any coppers go into it right away. I know this is a bit rambling but I hope it helps.



good luck and have fun

[jeff of pa]

That's cool! Where did you get the old map? Been looking for one for my area...Visalia, CA. Good luck! HH

Looks like a BEERS County Atlas Map Page.

http://search.msn.com/results.asp?FO...county%20atlas

Also watch EBay.

[The Seeker]

Doing research sure does payoff! Good luck when you guys start detecting those old homesites.....Here in New york we have plenty of old home sites and villages that are now past and long forgotton! one site that we will be hunting in the near future was settled in 1780's and is now gone ,it was an area where Sullivan's campaign was camped and battled Indians back in the 1700's ...in 1818 the village was abandoned and only a couple of the home sites lasted into the civil war timeperiod....Now only small stone piles and the locations of the old roads can still be seen....cow pastures and wheat fields are their now. Like the other members of this forum suggested ...those deep faint signals will definitely surprise you....Colonial coppers and Spanish silver are great.....But the real prize ....are those early old U.S. Silver coins.....Those are the ones to find!!!! Good luck and Keep on digging! Seeker

[newtocoinhunting]

That's cool! Where did you get the old map? Been looking for one for my area...Visalia, CA. Good luck! HH

If you check Ebay you probably will find repro scans of some atlas pages such as these from MOTP:
http://stores.ebay.com/Maps-of-the-Past_County-Maps-T-Z

If you have the cash you can purchase a bound reprint of the 1892 Tulare Co. Atlas:
http://www.rootsweb.com/~casgs/ThompsAtlasOrdForm.htm

At $125 it's not cheap but it's likely a bargain in comparison to what an actual copy of the atlas in good condition would cost if you could find one.

For a less expensive option you might check out:

TULARE COUNTY LIBRARY
Visalia Branch Library - Main Library
Annie Mitchell History Room:
200 West Oak Avenue
Visalia, CA 93291-4993
Phone : (559) 733-6954

Tulare County Museum, Mooney Grove Park
Tulare County Historical Society
27000 S. Mooney Blvd.
Visalia, CA (559-733-6616)

If you would like to see the current Assessor maps for Tulare Co.:
http://www.co.tulare.ca.us/governmen...ok%20Index.pdf

The Assessor might have an old atlas or two in their archives:
Assessor Division of Tulare County Assessor/Clerk-Recorder Department
221 South Mooney Boulevard - Room 102-E
Visalia, California 93291
Phone (559) 733-6361 FAX (559) 737-4468

Hope that helps.