Elad
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The Cursed Woods
*Click on an image if it appears blury to get the full resolution.
Late in 2013, I made a pact with myself to make 2014 my best detecting year ever. I live smack in the middle of New England, so how hard could it be?
To get an idea of what kind of detecting I do: I avoid parks. Finding modern silver is ok, but I have a passion for finding the oldies. That being said, you will find me 90% of the time in the woods around cellar holes or simply in random areas where there may or may not be stone walls present. The other 10% I am in old farm fields.
It all started in January. I was scratching my head trying to figure out where my next honey hole is. Then I saw this area while going over some aerial photos:
Zoomed in on a certain spot:
This also looked interesting (zoomed in):
As it turned out, I knew someone who knew the land owner, which worked out perfectly. One simple phone call was all it took - permission granted!
I parked my vehicle and headed into the woods. About a half mile in I started seeing stone walls. A bit further in I came across a cellar, which was right on the edge of the old dirt road; a good sign of old age. I beeped around for a bit around the cellar and found an old spoon. I then wandered around in the "backyard" and it was really quiet; which lead me to think it has been hit before. I did, however, come across some very interesting stone work. This above ground foundation:
& these collapsed walls built up against a rock face:
Curious to see what else was in these woods, I left that cellar area and continued down the old road.
It only took a couple minutes of walking until I came across another area that had not 1 but 2 cellars directly across from each other (1 is pictured below):
I ended up finding 2 buttons very quickly, which gave me high hopes. The buttons were 18th century for sure, so I was right on target. As the hunt progressed, I was beeping along a stone wall and I got a perfect 81 on my T2. Turned 90 degrees, still 81. Just a slight delay in the beeps, so this told me it was relatively deep. I was pretty sure I had found an old copper coin, probably a KGII or possibly a state copper. I dug it up and sure enough:
It was absolutely freezing that day, and even though I had gloves on my hands felt strange. My body was very cold too, so I decided to call it a day. I ended up with frostbite on my knuckles, so it was a good call leaving the woods!
Once I got home that day, I emptied my finds pouch and to my surprise the copper coin I found was gone! I had somehow lost it between finding it and driving home. To this day, I have still not re-found it. (Wait, is that even a real word?)
The very next day I returned. There was a light dusting of snow on the ground. I did some more exploring and found another cellar not too far from all the other ones:
I can't remember exactly what I found that day, but I know I found at least 5 buttons, possibly more. 3 of them were dandy buttons, which are notorious for being found at colonial sites. I left the woods and was eager to return.
The next chance I had to go back I took 3 buddies of mine with me. (Yes, I am that awesome to share my sites) I remember walking them out to the site and right away one guy found a copper(KGII), right in front of the above ground foundation. (How did I miss that before?)
Everyone found something that day, only if even 2 of the guys just found buttons. I found a handful of buttons and more notably a very old knee buckle with some rusty chape action:
A few hours into the hunt I noticed my trowel was not in my sheath. I tried my best to backtrack & locate it, but there were so many footprints everywhere it was not as simple as I thought it would be. The woods claimed yet another item of mine, so that day I came up with the nickname: "Cursed Woods"
Then, Snowfest '14 came, and the Cursed Woods became unswingable & it remained that way for 3 months! My poor Lesche trowel was out there all alone somewhere... it was a very frustrating wait.
Finally March came and the snow was just about gone. The Cursed woods were finally detectable again:
My return trip was a glorious one. I found a handful of buttons, one being a very special - albeit unidentifiable - pewter button. I also found my first 1700s silver of the year:
I returned again and again, every time finding more colonial buttons and even some later period buttons & suspender buckles:
Eventually I found my trowel too:
One day while in the Cursed Woods, I was traveling between cellar holes and I noticed a downed tree that was obscuring a "gate" in a stone wall. I hoped over the wall and made my way up a little hill and to my surprise I found yet another cellar:
I found more buttons there, & soon returned with a buddy of mine. We did a bit of trenching around the cellar lip but all we really found that day were plain colonial buttons. A bit further down the old dirt road we came across yet another cellar:
Unfortunately, someone had pounded this particular cellar site hard and all that was found there was 1 dandy button and some old lantern innards.
I returned on my own a few days later and revisited the cellar that had it's entrance obscured. I spent a good hour clearing away logs and branches. It worked out really well because I found more oldie buttons, my first "US" pewter button (circa 1815) and also a decent looking 1805 Draped Bust large cent:
Mind you, this was quite an accomplishment for me, considering all my buddies whom I brought there were so sure that there was nothing good left in the Cursed Woods, especially not any old coins. Just goes to show you that you have to believe in yourself despite what the naysayers think.
I returned again and worked the old "field" by one of the cellars. I found a very familiar looking shoe buckle frame. I also managed several more buttons and another tiny buckle with the date "1877" on it. (second pic: shoe buckle on right was found Nov2013 & is nearly identical to the frame from the Cursed Woods):
Apart from the coins and buckles, so far around 70 buttons came from the Cursed Woods, a good portion being dandy buttons. (No GW ones though) Looking back I believe it's possible that someone was detecting there long ago, but if so, they sure missed a lot!
With summertime in full effect the Cursed Woods is put on hold due to extreme overgrowth - but you can bet I will be returning!
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