i need some advice.

[neu]

hey everybody, im new to this forum but would like to share something with you. ive been in and out of the metal detecting scene for about 8 years now, usually into when i have the time and or money to spend. but anyways, i grew up in middle tennessee on a farm that my family had owned for years. there are many great spots out here, but i came back to visit yesterday and found something that was both amazing and terrible. i was walking thru the woods when i came apon an area with a rock fence around it, and what appeared to be an old wagon road, of which there are many out in these parts. i started poking around, looking for any old building and found the remains of an old house, all of it was gone but the chimney revealed it to me, i used that as a searching point and looked around more, i found an old well, several outbuilding all in about a 3 or 4 acre rock wall. this was amazing to me, just thinking about the possibilities of what i can find there, as the farm i lived on was used by both union and confederate soldiers to camp and the wagon road was used to travel for centuries. but what was terrible, is that i did a little asking around, and the property that the house was on was recently sold to a company planning to make it a rock quarry.... any advice on what i should do hunt it regardless and hope not to get caught is what im leaning towards, this is something that i cant just stand by and see it destroyed, all the history that is burried in this place is too much to think about losing.
what would you guys do
thanks - alan -

 

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[neu]

i just found this out

i just found out that the ruins i came upon yesterday date back to the 1700's. the family that owned the place told my mother that the place was abbondoned pre civil war, when his family moved to this area the place was already in ruins, and his family has lived here in this area for over 160 years. so what should i do, i cant just sit by and let them ruin it. can I?

 

[bakergeol]

Our code of ethics(responsible detectoristics) requires us to obtain permission before we detect on private property. Contact the company and obtain permission. In some cases if they are clearing land it can open up better or deeper sites to detect. In the past irresponsible people have closed a lot of land for future detectorists.
Let's be honest you are worried about losing a great detecting site not about the historical significance of the site. No we are not going to give you permission to trespass in order to "save the relics". It sounds like you have already made up your mind about what you plan to do and would like an OK from us.


George

 

[neu]

meh

to me its not really about what i might find, its more of that i lived near it this whole time wondering what all history was out here, even when i was a little kid and i had a little radio shack build your own metal detector kit, i always wondered what all went on out here, its full of history. and i love history and archeology, just so u know.

 

[lab rat]

Got a camera? Take lots of pictures of the site as it is, and take them to a historical society, or better yet the archaeology department of the nearest State University. You might be able to preserve the site as Historic.

Of course that means you might not get to detect there, but it sounds like a valuable site. The University should know what to do as far as developing a plan of excavation, and you might be able to get in as a volunteer. Offer your services with a metal detector. Who knows where that could lead you... a degree in Pre-Civil War Archaeological Prospecting?

I'd get those pictures right away, and if the University can act before the quarrying company begins developing, you might be instrumental in preserving something really special. And ask the company for permission to explore there once you've got the photos in. Good luck!

 

[neu]

good advice, im trying to find out the owner of the property, and im planning to write them and ask if i can hunt it.
hopefully i will be able to, and hopefully it will be preserved.

 

[neu]

well i found out a little more about the place i have been talking about. the place was owned by a family that owned over 500 acres out here, they settled here in the late 1700's and moved all their relatives to the area, i was told that their are 4 houses out here of the same age, along with a cemetary, with graves both marked and unmarked, my father was friends with the man that till recently owned the land i mentioned, the man died 4 years ago and sold 60 acres of land to various people, he did not sell the land with the house on it. which is some good news, its still in his family. the family showed me some old pictures of the land out here, and told me about several things that interested me, they told me that union troops after the battle of stones river, camped in my back yard, 5 of them died and were buried in the woods near my home. ofcourse this is all family stories past down over generations, but there are some things that make it seem realistic, ive found relics from the civil war era in my yard on many occasions. so now im thinking that the property i live on, that i have been detecting on for years, and always thought it had little to offer, may actually have something to offer. i also got the families permission to hunt on any of their land, as long as i show them what i find. they said i can keep anything that's not relitive to their family's history.

 

[diggummup]

Why would you think your land would have little to offer if, by your own admission,you said you've found civil war relics many times before?Your in an area that is rich with history,i'd concentrate on my own land more thoroughly if I were you.What kind of machine you using?The deeper the better in this instance.Good luck and HH.

 

[neu]

im using a coin master classic II (which is not working now) and a whites spectrum xlt

 

[Lowbatts]

Gotta go with Bakergeol here. If you can't find out a way to get permission, stay off the grounds. It's almost impossible to get a large company to give you an okay to hunt anymore. I've worked the grounds at a large company I worked for in the past, while I worked there with no problems, would not go back now however even to ask.

That said, I hunt a lot of demo and construction sites. If the site boss gives an okay, then you're good to go so long as you don't make hey if you get hit by a backhoe or something else. Are you responsible for your own actions? Yes and that includes getting hurt on someone else's time and property if you get in the way. The last two days I've been working some new sidewalk cuts in yards dating back to the 1860's. Not much to speak of in finds, but great potential.

The work crews and bosses there are great, I'm within a few feet of the gradall doing the digging most of the time as the forming and tamping crews are moving very quickly. They're a good bunch, but on another job the guy using the gradall took a swing at me with the bucket on one occassion and I moved off and gave them a little more room. If or when they start doing demo work there see if you can find out where the best dirt is being trucked to and follow it to see if you can hunt there if necessary, but don't break the rules for an old dime and give the rest of us a black eye.

 

[neu]

yeah, i wouldnt hunt with out permission, but if u read my last post i got permission. thanks for the input everybody

 

[Kent in AL]

Alan,

Glad the home site is still privately owned and you will get to hunt it! A few years ago I hunted around an old abandoned house across a gravel road from a rock quarry. A year or so later the quarry company bought the land the house was on and tore it down. However, last time I drove by the land was otherwise untouched. It could be that the company you speak of bought the land looking years down the road and even if they had bought the property with the home site, it would still be around for years. Who knows? But, the point is moot since it's still privately owned.

Since you mentioned Stones River I'm guessing you're in the Murfreesboro area? I'm not too far away in Northern Alabama.

Good luck and happy hunting!

Kent

 

[neu]

yes i live close to murfreesboro, and lebanon, in between the two, very historic place.

 

[coinshooter]

neu,
A word of advice. I don't live near the area you speak of, but good sites are still hard to find. Don't give out too much info or you will find when you go to do your hunting, someone who does not have as much scruples about hunting with permission will have beat you to your own spot by using the info YOU provided.
I would not listen to the guy above who said hunt your own property first because since it is your own, you can hunt it at your leisure. Too many times I have thought, "one day, I'll get around to that old property down the block" and then a week later when I drive by they are already building something new on it. You got permission, don't waste another day sitting around!!! Get to hunting and post some coool pics here for us all to drool over! You have the oportunity of a lifetime at your fingertips! Don't hesitate, becuase situations can change in an instant. I went to ask permission to hunt an old house in my neighborhood a while back. The husband said, "cool, no problem", then he mentioned to his B***h of a wife. She saw me there and snaps back at him while looking at me, "NO! Whats out there in that yard is OURS!, not HIS!! I don't want him going back there". That was the end of that!! One relative may give you permission and then a brother from a distant county or town may show up and shut you down. Don't hesitate, GO BOY!!!! and dig like the wind!!!!

 

[neu]

good advice.. i've been hitting the site for about 2-3 hours a day, hopefully i will end up with something good, keep finding horse/ox shoes, and other livestock related items, but im not gonna give up till i dig everything that gives a tone =]. and yes i will dig like the wiind!!!! thanks coinshooter!

 

[neu]

and also, ive met a few people like that, where one person will tell you its ok, and then some random person comes along and ends it. like today for instance, i called a park in my area, talked to the ranger, and he said 'yeah you can metal detect here' but when i got there, another ranger driving around in a little golf cart stops runs over to me and starts yelling about how its illegal to metal detect here, there grounds are kept in pristine condition... all the while im trying to point out that i havent left a noticable hole in the whole hour ive been there... but she was having none of it, so it came down to leave now or be arrested.... (ranger on a power trip?!!?) hah.

 

[Pitch]

Just an observation on the Park Ranger thing that you raninto. Now I am going to hang myself very high and by a very tender area of the body here,but I have noticed that people in authority tend to rank in order of prickiness Women on top young go getter guys in the middle and the middleage to older man on the bottom. It just seems that whenever there is a disagreement with a woman in charge she automatically is right and there is no dicourse allowed. Generaly I find that an older man can be talked to and will listen to your argument. Even if you end up out of there at least with him you don't feel like comitting homocide.

 

[neu]

amen pitch, right on the money there 100%

 

[coinshooter]

Pitch, was that homo cide or homi cide? In the park I hunt it might be the first! Hah! 8) Yes, I had a women ranger on the beach tell me that if I found anything, I was supposed to turn it in to the Park service headquarters and then they would decide if I got it back or not. Riiiiiiiiiiiiight! I said, "well sure, maam!" My friend would get names of the rangers and talk with the most friendly ones. He would just drop the name of the senior supervisor who said he could hunt there and the other one would say""well, I guess if it's ok with so and so then I'll allow it". What a bunch of jerks on a power trip!! After all the park is supposed to be a multiple use area. As long as the weeds grow back, whats the big deal? This is why, if you want to hunt the parks either do it after 5 pm when the rangers go home or go to the canyons or hills where they won't get out of their trucks and spill their coffee and doughnuts! Here's an instance right here where if you filled your holes, were polite to people by not bothering them and generally had respect for the land you were digging in, the gov't still thinks that "for the people" means "for the park service". First thing you should have done with that ranger was ask her very politely ' "Um, I'm not familair with that passage in the laws of the state, can you show me a copy? Uh, by the way, what's your name and badge number"? "I just want to refer to it when I write my state senator about this incident".

 

[neu]

yeah i think im gonna go back tomorrow and press the issue, after all, since bush took funding from national parks, and we all pay taxes to preserve them, and they are essentially for us to use, why cant i use it as i see fit, what i deam recreation. i think it was just a confused female on a power trip cause she's wearing a patch on her sleeve and a shinny badge