Detecting in Eastern Virginia...

[slipscomb]

Hi All,
I recently posted in a Thread in this Forum about detecting in Virginia and noted that I was interested in Hosting people here on my Farm which is part of "Ancestral Patent Lands" my family has had since 1679. Well, as it turns out I was contacted by a member of this Forum from Ohio about possibly a day visit during their trek of the Eastern states culminating in a visit to the Nations Capitol. Dennis (not sure of his screen name) and his companion will be arriving later this week (March 23rd) and bringing a PILE of equipment. My only stipulation with this visit of course, is to reserve the right to keep any artifacts that belonged to the family. I promise to be very fair in this. The previous Plantation house burned down around 1900 and contained gold and silver coins that were never recovered. The debris lies just beneath the surface adjacent to the current house. Civil War artifacts have been found on the property by my Uncle with a metal detector years ago but the property hasnt been searched for years. Here are a few pics of the property and I will post more during the visit as well of any finds if any. If everthing works out well and there are thing to find on this trip, I will concider Hosting a larger or possibly a Club group visit in the future.

Sean Lipscomb

 

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[Frankn]

Sean, nice looking place and that deuce and a half looks like what I drove in the army at Fort Lee And Pickett.
Is your place in the Ne or Se of VA.? I am in Maryland at the head of the bay. I have an XLT, PI, and a 2Box.
Is that a 50/50 split on the finds? Looks like there is plenty of room to park my 22' MH. When is your next gathering? Frank

 

[slipscomb]

Sean, nice looking place and that deuce and a half looks like what I drove in the army at Fort Lee And Pickett.
Is your place in the Ne or Se of VA.? I am in Maryland at the head of the bay. I have an XLT, PI, and a 2Box.
Is that a 50/50 split on the finds? Looks like there is plenty of room to park my 22' MH. When is your next gathering? Frank

Thanks Frank! My property is located near the confluences of the York River which comes out into the Bay in the Middle Peninsula area (mid-Bay). For this visit as I do not know how much they will find, all finds not related to my immediate family will be kept by the finders. This is more of a "feeler" visit to gauge how much may be here. It is not a Battlefield nor an encampment but there were troop movements throughout the area during the Civil War and there has been a pistol, buckle, bayonets, buttons and many bullets found over the years by my Uncle who lives next door. Some objects were found off our property on adjacent lots but I feel there is planty to find here perhaps. I hope to secure permission to dig other sites in the area for those that would like to visit the area but for now, this will be a Trial run for these chaps that will be passing through from Ohio. No other dates will be set until after this upcoming visit.

Sean

 

[bobthomas]

Hi Sean,
I live in Delaware and would love the chance to MD in a great looking area like yours. I hope everything goes well for your first group. If you decide to have another couple of guys to MD on your land I would to love to have that chance. Thanks Sean.
Bob Thomas

 

[cntrydncr1]

me too! can't wait to hear what you find!

 

[slipscomb]

Well, the guys should be enroute by now. We have numerous storms in the area with storms predicted for up to 8 am tomorrow morning. I'm hoping for light showers as we are planning to get started around 9 am tomorrow.

Sean

 

[slipscomb]

Well, what a day it was! The guys got here right on time for an early start at 9 a.m. despite this fine mist and a sprinkle of rain. Heavy storms had moved through the area the night before. First off, the equipment was top notch! Quite a bit has changed since the old Nautilus I used to own many years ago. After giving a brief tour of my house and surrounding property we started looking around the old house site and immediately the detectors starting buzzing! Pretty soon I began to realize that hunting this site wasn't going to be easy! With the debris from a two story house and 400 years of farming on this site, there is a TON of general unrecognizeable metal objects and a TON of square nails in the ground!

We did manage to find a few things of notable value. Not much from the Civi War but there were alot of items from the period between the Civil War and Worl War I. There were 8 wheat penies, a silver 1942 nickle, a buffalo nickle, a 1967 quarter, a unrecognizeable Token, a stirup, brackets from a wagon, parts of a clock, top to a Mason Jar with the porcelan insert, a faucet, peices of a Harmonica from the 1800's and a bullet or two including a 3-ringer mini-ball...

Not as much Civil War items were found a I would have liked but there is definitely alot of history in this ground! I also remember one of the guys found a shoe buckle from Colonial period as well as a pewter button. A buckle from a rifle strap was found too. I look forward to inviting these guys back and hope to Host others that perhaps are willing to come out and hunt. There is no telling what might be found next!

Sean Lipscomb

 

[Woodland Detectors]

After the junk is removed, you will start recovering some history. Just be selective about who comes to your property.

 

[slipscomb]

More of the "junk" found.... the stirrup and wagon brackets will be preserved but the rest I'm not sure what I'll do with yet.

Can anyone identify what these brackets were used for?

Any ideas on what these two items might be?

Sean

 

[Frankn]

Looks like you guys had a good time, but it looks like you just skimmed the serface. What was the deepest find? Were there any 2 box detectors used?
Frank

 

[slipscomb]

Looks like you guys had a good time, but it looks like you just skimmed the serface. What was the deepest find? Were there any 2 box detectors used?
Frank

Not sure. I I'll let one of the guys answer that one.

Sean

 

[ringfinder]

Sorry I haven't gotten back to posting on this page. I had knee surgery and am just now getting back to looking at all the pictures we took on our trip to Ole Virginia. Our first stop was Williamsburg and then we visited Sean at his home for a day of hunting this old site.

Although we didn't find the relic of a lifetime, we did dig some interesting relics. I think the Stirrup is by far the best find of the Day. From what I am told, it was made in Colonial times, so it is period to the land we hunted. It should be electoluxed and put into a case.

I didn't find that much, but was well pleased with a .58 Caliber 3 ringer I found and a few flat pewter buttons. My buddies are the ones who found the better finds, with Earl Hix, from Nashville Tenn. finding the most.

We had a good time at Sean's and hope we will be invited back to hunt another time.
After we left Sean's we hunted in the Culpeper area at DIV XVI. If you are interested in seeing some of that hunt, I made a YouTube video of it. Just let me know and I will post the location.

I am including some pictures that I took while we were at Sean's place.

HH, Dennis Morrison (Ringfinder)

 

[ringfinder]

Sean, I was just wondering if anyone else has hunted your site since we hit it
this Spring?

I still think of the great sites that abound around your area. There has to be more on your property and beyond.

Let me know my friend. Hope we are able to come back and try our luck again.

By the way, the detectors the 3 of us used to hunt your site included, a Explorer II,
a Fisher F-75, a Whites TDI, a Garrett Infinium and a Minelab X-terra 70 and we all used a Garrett Pro Pointer.

Keep in touch my friend and HH, Denny Morrison ( Ringfinder )