How would you choose a type of site to hunt?

[A#1]

I have a map of my county. I did all my homework, and I ended up with quite a few sites of various types I could hunt.

There are farms/homesteads, seasonal homes, fishing cabins, hunting cabins, schools, railroad sites, logging camps.....lots of stuff. Most of the sites would have popped up around 1880, the hunting and fishing would have been 1910? And most sites abandoned between 1925 and 1940.

I'm mainly a coin shooter, but interesting relics are fun too.

The logging camps and railroad, I would think are mostly relic.

A farmer was probably poor, and not have much change to drop.

The schools were one room schoolhouses, not exactly "lunch money" kind of schools.

The hunting/fishing cabins, the people had some sort of loot, but weren't there a lot to drop things.

What would you choose?

 

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[Mikebk03]

I would hunt all of them, lol!

 

[A#1]

I hope to, in time......

 

[RTR]

I'd look for any remains of pre 1790( pre US banks) homes/farms etc.

 

[A#1]

I'd look for any remains of pre 1790( pre US banks) homes/farms etc.

Wont be anything like that here. White folk didnt really start coming here till the 1860's.

You had lumber 1860-1920, then car's/tourism 1915-1950. Then a decline to the late 1970's it all just started to die.

 

[RTR]

Wont be anything like that here. White folk didnt really start coming here till the 1860's.

You had lumber 1860-1920, then car's/tourism 1915-1950. Then a decline to the late 1970's it all just started to die.

How about an old train station in the area?

 

[Mackaydon]

"None of the above'.
Instead, I research: Where did people gather?
Where were the parks 50+ years ago?
Where did the churches, etc. have their outdoor gatherings--like for picnics.
Where were the bleacher sections for ball games, horse races, etc.
Don......

 

[A#1]

There are two i know of, but not the precise location like all the others. They were more like shack type stops, not really much of a station. It would have been mostly loggers gettin on and off for work, and a mail delivery, not like real traffic. I know they were there, but they didn't even rate the map. The towns went away with the lumber after 5-10 years, then the rails got rolled up by the 30's.

 

[A#1]

"None of the above'.
Instead, I research: Where did people gather?
Where were the parks 50+ years ago?
Where did the churches, etc. have their outdoor gatherings--like for picnics.
Where were the bleacher sections for ball games, horse races, etc.
Don......

I've been trying to get a grip on that, but i think the truth is that the area was just too sparse. Nothing noteable was ever really built.

I have one chirch on the map, the rest still have sunday meetings.

I was thinking about old bridge crossings over water. I found a few spots where the road or rails had a bridge at one point, then all was moved or abandoned. Thinkin kinda of like swimming holes maybe. But I can't detect in the water at all.

Would the locals have used the schools as a gathering point?.....seems logical

 

[digger460]

Have you tried https://www.netronline.com/. Click on Historical Aerials and go back in time to see what's been around in your area. Helpful research tool.

 

[RTR]

How about an OLD ferry crossing .Got to be some crossing streams/rivers.

 

[Mackaydon]

You have a local Historical Society (https://traversehistory.wordpress.com/about/).
Ask them where did people gather 50+ years ago.

Those people and/or your local library's Reference Desk can give you the name of your county's Historian.

Talking to the Historical Society and the Historian should give you locations of where people used to gather.
Don....

 

[A#1]

Have you tried https://www.netronline.com/. Click on Historical Aerials and go back in time to see what's been around in your area. Helpful research tool.

Don't mean to sound short, or like a know-it-all, but I already have every aerial, or map that I know of, read most written history, and know a good deal of the oral....

And actually, the oldest they got there is about 1950.

Not much is hidden anymore, this is what I got.

 

[Tpmetal]

So look for places with most traffic. Meeting places were often sites like grain mills, school houses, churches, general stores, and so on.

 

[A#1]

You have a local Historical Society (https://traversehistory.wordpress.com/about/).
Ask them where did people gather 50+ years ago.

Those people and/or your local library's Reference Desk can give you the name of your county's Historian.

Talking to the Historical Society and the Historian should give you locations of where people used to gather.
Don....

Damn, your on top of it. That is local to me, but I'm speaking of another county.

The area i'm speaking of is mostly east of here, and their historical society doesn't open till memorial day.

I'm already buddies with the local archivist at the library, and geneology club. Unfortunately it was me giving them information, lol

 

[A#1]

Sounds like the schools might be the best to start with. I know the area of one just burned in a forest fire, so maybe I can get in there.

ETA:

Honestly, I blame The Goonies and Raiders. I wanted to be a treasure hunter. A couple years later my dad bought a Garrett, and it was GAME ON!!!!

A buddy got the interest, and we got all over, but the area my family had hunting property in was remote, woodsy, historical, ghost town, abandoned, treasure hunter adventureland.

Got out of school, earned enough money and bought the Eagle Spectrum I still have today.

Buddy moved away, got boring going alone, the hobby got shelved. I'd use it now and then to fart around the yard.

I never lost interest in the area. My dad lives there now, and I live not far away. In the 25 years since, I never stopped buying maps and books and talkin to folks. Computers got better, Google Earth, internet, I got a mountain of crap and incidentally acquired some odd skills.

About 5 years ago, The family wants to try geocaching. I hated it, searching a parking lot for a container of dollar store junk. So I hit the website and started finding ones in ghost towns, skull orchards, homesteads....you know, fun places.

One particular kid liked it enough we started cruisin, campin, and just going to fun geocaches. Then we make our own geocaches. I gotta find cool places, so we start to shuffle paper and find some.

After a few, she starts to get a kick out of some of the crap we find in the places I find. So we start lookin for old trash as fun....surface relic hunting I suppose.

A place I knew a house was at some point got bulldozed, and I couldn't resist takin the metal detector there. Didn't find anything, but I got the bug again and got someone to play with now.....winter came, it actually snowed that day.

All winter I geeked out on specific little things, and learned my way to do what I wanted.

A couple weeks ago I pulled out everything I had collected over 30 years, and nerded out on it and I scanned, overlayed, and cross-referenced like a fool for weeks. I generated a .kml file for the GPS of 126 specific sites, mostly pre-1930. All on public land. The narrow gauge railroad still has some mystery. But I can usually tell you who's owned it, seen their headstones, family tree, seen any pictures of them, how they died.....It's kind of sickening really (but it's winter)

The snow is melting now.....and I don't know where to start......So here I am, talking to yall

 

[Texas Jay]

I have a map of my county. I did all my homework, and I ended up with quite a few sites of various types I could hunt.

There are farms/homesteads, seasonal homes, fishing cabins, hunting cabins, schools, railroad sites, logging camps.....lots of stuff. Most of the sites would have popped up around 1880, the hunting and fishing would have been 1910? And most sites abandoned between 1925 and 1940.

I'm mainly a coin shooter, but interesting relics are fun too.

The logging camps and railroad, I would think are mostly relic.

A farmer was probably poor, and not have much change to drop.

The schools were one room schoolhouses, not exactly "lunch money" kind of schools.

The hunting/fishing cabins, the people had some sort of loot, but weren't there a lot to drop things.

What would you choose?

I'd make a list of about 5 or 6 of the sites that peak your interest. Then I'd go to the first on the list, detect it for an hour or so and if you don't make at least one promising find, I'd move on to the next and do the same thing there. Keep doing that until you figure out which ones are the best ones to thoroughly hunt. Always remember the old saying "Gold is where you find it." Don't discount any place where people have been. Loggers and railroad workers lost money and jewelry too. Farmers often had a post hole bank or two on their property because banks were usually far from them in the 1800s. Even kids in one-room schools lost things including coins and pieces of jewelry. Hunters and fishermen often lose coins and jewelry too and once the hunting or fishing trip is over, they must head back home and don't have a lot of time to look around for their lost coins or other items if they know they've dropped something. Often, like everyone else, when they've lost a ring or other jewelry, they really don't know which area they lost it at so those things are left there forever until some curious guy with a detector comes along.
~Texas Jay
Central Texas Treasure Club

 

[smokeythecat]

Even with modern schools, there is a chance of class rings at the high schools. That and church ground, especially old ones would probably be your best bet. If all else fails, detect out of your area. I have detected 600 miles north, 100 miles east (we kinda run into the Atlantic Ocean more than that), 1100 miles south and about 150 miles west. Not all in the same year. But MD trips are a blast.

 

[Loco-Digger]

I do all kinds of hunting, but being a coin shooter at heart I love older yard permissions where the houses were built in the mid to late 1800's. The ones on the sides streets have more of a chance at being virgin in my area. The prominent ones on the 2 main roads that intersect the town have been pounded over the decades.

 

[A#1]

I'd make a list of about 5 or 6 of the sites that peak your interest. Then I'd go to the first on the list, detect it for an hour or so and if you don't make at least one promising find, I'd move on to the next and do the same thing there. Keep doing that until you figure out which ones are the best ones to thoroughly hunt. Always remember the old saying "Gold is where you find it." Don't discount any place where people have been. Loggers and railroad workers lost money and jewelry too. Farmers often had a post hole bank or two on their property because banks were usually far from them in the 1800s. Even kids in one-room schools lost things including coins and pieces of jewelry. Hunters and fishermen often lose coins and jewelry too and once the hunting or fishing trip is over, they must head back home and don't have a lot of time to look around for their lost coins or other items if they know they've dropped something. Often, like everyone else, when they've lost a ring or other jewelry, they really don't know which area they lost it at so those things are left there forever until some curious guy with a detector comes along.
~Texas Jay
Central Texas Treasure Club

Actually, I think that's what I'm gonna try.

I picked out a school, a larger fishing camp, couple homesteads, couple railroad foundations, the gangster burial ground, and a more promising ghost town/logging camp area.

All in kind of a loop throught the county, with a camp spot along the way.

Hoping next weekend will be go time, wanna start hitting places before the weeds grow.