Anyone ever tried detecting along stone walls in New England?

[treasurekidd]

Hello! I am a newbie MD'r in Rhode Island. In just the last few days, my daughter and I have combed local school yards, and came away with a pile of change, all clad. My question is about old stone walls. The woods of New England are loaded with old stone walls, about 1-2 feet high, that seem to go on forever. Is anyone familiar with the history behind these old walls, and has anyone every tried or had luck MDing them? A friend told me these walls are 100's of years old, and used to be route markers and/or property boundy markers. Any ideas?

 

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[Zeke]

I would definately give it a shot. I have watched Gods and Generals...and Gettysburg this past week and the soldiers were using the stone walls as shooting positions. You never know.......maybe us or the Redcoats used them back in the Revolutionary War.

 

[treasurekidd]

I am planning on going out a few times this weekend (4 day weekends make for more treasure hunting!) and am planning to make one trip to a wall nearby! I'll let you know what turns up!

 

[True_Metal]

Quite a bit Treasurekidd. we have those walls all over the place here in NY. Have hunted them, but only found Relics. Old farm equipment, pieces of iron, stuff like that, but no coins. Recently i found a Horsebit in a portion of collpased wall from a Rev War encampment site. Best find from the walls so far. No one really knows who built these walls, but i feel they were from the Colonial days and were used as property boundries and to keep in livestock. I'm going to keep at them cause i know eventually it will pay off.

 

[michinkae]

i live in Vermont. Stone wall central. I can tell you that a stone wall will tell you many secrets if you know how to read them. First ?of all, a stone wall is a boundary between fields, properties and pastures.
You want to look look for the stone walls that have large stones and not piles of little tiny stone, the tiny stones mean that the field it separates was plowed, the large stones in a stone wall tell you that these walls were built for boundary purposes(i.e; people's yards or picnic sights. Second the field on the side of the stone wall that is bumpy or not smooth was usually the plowed field. Always detect on the side were the ground is flat. If your in the middle of the woods look for the large trees that look out of place, this means that this was the side that was grassy and open, good picnic sights, I have found a lot of silver plated spoons under these trees ?along stone walls. Above all, always remember that stone walls are historic treasures in New England, never tear them apart to look for treasure. With that said, Keep your sensitivity high and your eyes sharp, caches are commonly buried along stone walls.

 

[treasurekidd]

Thats was I was thinking, caches! Thank to all for the great input, I LOVE this forum! It's a wealth of information for a newbie like me! I'm going to hit one Friday, and I'll post the results, if any! Thanks again, you guys (and gals) are awesome!

 

[True_Metal]

Thanks for the advice Michinkae. 8)

I can really utilize that info on some of the walls i hunt. Many of these are in woods and the lands are totally undeveloped and are the same as they were in the colonial days.

Any tips for locating long defunct homesites by using the configurations of the walls? These are large stone walls, so i suspect the presence of homesites, though i have not located any as of yet.

I run in all metal mode along the walls/ woods and really punching the signals deep so any stashed cache or lost colonial coinage should easily be found

 

[True_Metal]

California Seeker:

Many of the Stonewalls i speak of are near the CT border here in NY. The British ripped holy hell around here in the Colonial days, even burning Danbury CT to the ground and caused other mayhem during their marches thru the area.
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I believe that many caches were buried near the walls and properties by the fearful residents and some of them probably never lived to recover them.

The parks are good ideas, but when you are after colonial coppers, golds, and silvers like i am, those old stonewalls are hard to ignore.?

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Heres something neat that i just remembered about these walls.
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My THing buddy, Bergie who posts here
discovered a large rock along a creek that is part of an old wall that has collapsed and appears to have been used by the Continental Army for target practice. This is the same place i found the horsebit and is a documented encampment site for Washingtons troops.

You can see on the rock face where the balls struck and at the base of the rock he has dug at least 20 flattened musket ball shots.

Neat stuff, so dont overlook those old walls as you never know what you will find 8)

 

[michinkae]

one more helpful hint about figuring out a plot of land inside a stone wall. Walk along the walls and try to figure out where the main course of traffic would have been. most of my find have been along breaks in the walls where driveways would have run. or dirt roads that ran through the fields. once you get an idea of the traffic flow you can then look for other signs of past development. above all, stay one one side of the wall. thoroughly search each field before moving on to the next.

 

[treasurekidd]

I am going to start my wall hunting next weekend at a friends house. His property contains a wooded area behind his back yard, and there is a nice, long wall section about 100 yards into the woods. The wall is located in the woods, with a small clearing on the far side of the wall. Behind the clearing is another thin treeline leading to the base of a good size hill. Also, the section of the wall in front of the clearing has an opening, almost like an entrance to the clearing. This sounds like a good spot to hunt, and I was planning on centering the search around the opening in the wall and into the clearing. What do you guys think??

 

[michinkae]

just remember that the overly large trees are a main target. I just did some stone wall hunting this last week and came up with a king george penny about the size of a half dollar. Id say go right to the large trees and then fan out from there. the only thing that you should discriminate is iron. DIG EVERYTHING even if it comes across as a pull tab. and most of all have fun, and dont get discouraged.

 

[coinshooter]

Ever see "The Shawshank Redemption"? 8) Might look for a different type of rock in the walls also.