Old Town Maps-Metal detecting

[Larsmed]

Hello again!

Ok, guys here i go on another wild goose chase. I have been looking over the sanborn fire insurance maps of towns in the 1920's...

they have old schools, churches, hotels, banks and moviehouse.....They even have a spring, where people would soak their feet.

If you were to pick a spot from these locations...Which spot would you pick and why?

Also do you think it would be possible for an Ace 150 to find anything here from the 1890's?

I appreciate any help, my brain is numb...heres where i am looking
http://sanborn.umi.com/fl/1275/dateid-000009.htm?CCSI=105n

all the best!
Larry

 

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[Lowbatts]

The least changed area where people gathered at the time. What ever time that was...

 

[rugratt]

I would search all the places, they all sound like prime hunting grounds. I would start with the feet soaking place first. If they had to set their belongings down around where they sat like pants or bagsopped something. Another example is if they were fenced off, I would definitely search the fence line plus 10 or 20 feet. The reason I say this is because I stumbled on to this idea by accident, sort of. We have a pool at or local YMCA with a fence around it. I decided to search around the outside of it. I was surprised on how many coins I had found. Of course as we are detecting, we wonder how they get there. Just as I turned the first corner I saw a kid standing outside the fence looking for someone. Soon I noticed a friend or brother throwing his bag and cloths over the fence. I had my answer. I all these places are prominent hunting then I would research and make a check list to keep track and just go to town. I hope this has been of some help.............

Rugratt

 

[Larsmed]

Rugg rat and low batss

thanks guys

Larry

 

[deepskyal]

I would search all the places, they all sound like prime hunting grounds. I would start with the feet soaking place first. If they had to set their belongings down around where they sat like pants or bagsopped something. Another example is if they were fenced off, I would definitely search the fence line plus 10 or 20 feet. The reason I say this is because I stumbled on to this idea by accident, sort of. We have a pool at or local YMCA with a fence around it. I decided to search around the outside of it. I was surprised on how many coins I had found. Of course as we are detecting, we wonder how they get there. Just as I turned the first corner I saw a kid standing outside the fence looking for someone. Soon I noticed a friend or brother throwing his bag and cloths over the fence. I had my answer. I all these places are prominent hunting then I would research and make a check list to keep track and just go to town. I hope this has been of some help.............

Rugratt

AH HA!!!...I forgot all about that...tossing stuff over the fence...Thank you for that reminder....

Al

 

[davidtn]

Well here's a dumber question...how do you get access to the online maps? I suppose a paid subscription?

 

[SusanMN]

What I've done is match up current maps with Sanborn maps and look for those spots that lots of people frequented or worked in the past and that now are something different, such as a once park that is now an empty lot, or where an old swimming beach once was but now there is just a park. Also, where schools or old streetcar or railroad stations were. Hopefully you can one one of the few people who discovered these forgotten places and can pick up old coins. Found an old beach that way last fall and picked up Barber coins and indian heads barely below the surface that had laid there for more than 100 years.

 

[willie d]

Well here's a dumber question...how do you get access to the online maps? I suppose a paid subscription?

Here ya go. http://sanborn.umi.com/cgi-bin/auth.cgi?command=ShowLogin

Username sanborn
Password welcome

 

[davidtn]

Dude you rock. Thanks so much for getting me the info. I can't wait to print them to check out all the stuff in my town.

 

[willie d]

Dude you rock. Thanks so much for getting me the info. I can't wait to print them to check out all the stuff in my town.

You're welcome. Go find something good.


BTW Larsmed, looking at those maps, it appears that you could throw a dart at anyone of those maps and hunt where the dart hits. If you don't want to go with the random route, you could go to the local library and check the newspapers from that time period. Looks like some good hunting.

 

[rjw4law]

The spring sound tantilyzing.

 

[plainsman]

churches and schools.

 

[Ray S ECenFL]

Nice site. I found that there use to be an old high school near by in 1919, but late maps show that a huge warehouse was built over where the school used to be. Darn. Nice tool. Will come in handy, thanks for sharing.

Ray S