Military Base Housing, Best Finds, Most Fun!

[AlaskaAng]

Hi All,

I was stationed at Kirtland AFB, NM from Jun 05 - Oct 06 and timing was perfect for detecting! A housing area of about 700 homes was scheduled for demolition in the coming months and I had permission to detect the yards before demolition crews arrived. The homes were built in the mid 40s and were occupied by USAF enlisted personnel. Most of the home were already vacant when I arrived.

The below pictures represent my finds from about 8-10 outings (8-hr hunts); I had a great time and got plenty of exercise! The nice thing about detecting these yards was there was little to no grass due to the recent drought...digging with my hand pick was very easy and fast! I didn't have to get too picky about how I filled my holes...just shove the dirt in and press!

In all, I found over 2,500 coins, of that, 33 were silver, 241 were wheaties and the rest either foreign, pennies or clad. I turned in $125 in newer coinage and put the $ towards a new Bullseye pinpointer! I also found a few silver and gold rings, USAF rank insignia, toy planes, cars, lots of marbles (eyeballed them) and keys!

I was able to sponsor some friends from my local metal detecting club (Albuquerque Metal Detectors Assoc) on base and we had a great time!

Enjoy the pics,
AlaskaAng

[slotman]

Way to go! that must have been great fun!

[warsawdaddy]

Awesome finds.Congrats! Nice that you could involve your MD club also.

[BuckleBoy]

Wow! Great opportunity there! And TONS of property to hunt. Excellent finds--enough clad to make the clad hunters drool, some nice jewelry and military relics, and some good silver coins too. Well done!

-Buckleboy

[Big_Digger]

boy lots of diggin cool

[AlaskaAng]

Thanks! Yes, tons of fun. I went back to the housing area after most of the homes were removed hoping to find some left over coins but there weren't many; the graders scraped the land pretty clean.

AlaskaAng

[CRUSADER]

Welcome from the UK.

Happy hunting

[Shortstack]

Hey, AlaskaAng--
I see you're at Eielson. I was there Dec 1976 to Dec 1979. Have you hunted the base ski slope yet? I never tried it, but I did get in some MD time in Fairbanks. Alaska was where I realized that frost heaves have nothing to do with coin depths.

I was checking out the base with Google Earth a while back and saw that someone had moved the B-29 hulk from the gravel pit straight out from the north end of the runway. There seemed to have been a bunch of changes made to the base, but our old quarters on Broadway were still there.

Before I forget, when the snow from the base streets were pushed up, it was moved to the coal yard of the base power plant. Maybe some good detecting.

[ivan salis]

great virgin spot

[birdman]

I have never hunted base housing but I will in the future for sure!

[pgill]

Wow superb finds.... seems a shame to waste such nice houses.... sure there would be people out there who would appreciate a house like that

God bless
Peter

[birdman]

Wowsers, I just looked at the whole top pic .Lots of nice rings also. Great stuff!! There are some base houses on the tear down list here but they still have people in them right now.

[karib2517]

great finds,right place at the right time.

[Patrol]

Hey Pgill,

When Dyess AFB closed in Fort Worth Texas it was suggested that they use the Base Housing Area for the poor. The offer was made to the local authorities but was turned down because the city said the housing was not good enough.

That burns my butt. It's good enough for the military who may be called to give their lives for the Govt but not good enough for those that do nothing but have their hand out.

TE

[AlaskaAng]

Wowsers, I just looked at the whole top pic .Lots of nice rings also. Great stuff!! There are some base houses on the tear down list here but they still have people in them right now.

Yeah, I had to crop the picture a bit in order to accomodate the size restriction so some of the neat stuff isn't shown.

On Minot, find out when the homes were built (the ones being torn down); the older the better...then start working the yards as the families move out. You're sure to make some neat finds since you don't see too many detectors being used on base.

Oh, almost forgot, I found a nice ring in one of the softball fields on Minot; a co-worker lost it during a game...it took me only 15 minutes to locate it. You can also search the soccer fields...they always seem to yield rings!

Good luck!

[Shortstack]

I have never hunted base housing but I will in the future for sure!

I would suggest that you check with the Base Security Police desk to find out if MDing is allowed on the base you're at. Each Base Commander can and does establish his / her own policies for local behavior. If some irresponsible detector user has caused complaints from the Roads and Grounds people, who in turn reported the situation to the Base Civil Engineer; who then mentioned it at the next morning briefing with the Base Commander... Well, you see how things could get out of hand.

[AirForce1 (Ret.)]

Base housing scheduled for demolition is awesome. Down here at Holloman AFB, NM my friend House and I have torn it up!! They are going to rebuild two areas here on base, they were originally built in the 40-50's. We have pulled out a ton of good stuff from rings, to mercs, buffalo heads, Franklin half dollar and even a indian head penny. I don't think too many other people here on base detect because we have always been the only ones out there swinging our gear.Oh well.......their loss and our gain

[jeff194307]

Hey, AlaskaAng--
I see you're at Eielson. I was there Dec 1976 to Dec 1979. Have you hunted the base ski slope yet? I never tried it, but I did get in some MD time in Fairbanks. Alaska was where I realized that frost heaves have nothing to do with coin depths.

I was checking out the base with Google Earth a while back and saw that someone had moved the B-29 hulk from the gravel pit straight out from the north end of the runway. There seemed to have been a bunch of changes made to the base, but our old quarters on Broadway were still there.
I was there from 1967 to 1971; the ski lodge should be a great place to detect. We belonged to the base motorcycle club and had many parties and cookouts there, as did a lot of other groups. Another place would be back in the woods on the west side of Richardson hwy, you have to travel down the old road that runs along the tanana river at the end there was several old cabins that were long abandoned.
Before I forget, when the snow from the base streets were pushed up, it was moved to the coal yard of the base power plant. Maybe some good detecting.

[River Rat]

Angie,

I want to commend you for the outstanding digs...truly awesome finds. I asked the new squadron commander today at a retirement luncheon (held elsewhere) if I could detect the grounds since they are doing some major renovations. He said "come on over". I do know the unit has been at that location since 1952, but during WWII the airport was used as a German POW camp. So it all kinda ties into together. I hope to detect there soon and find something worthwhile.

RR

[Calworks]

Ang thats great. Sure wish they'd let us do that here at Vandenberg. The east housing is being torn down and being relegated to nature after all the structure is gone. Unfortuantely even after they are gone MD won't be allowed. When Vandenberg was called Camp Cook in the early 50-60s the Army used the areas around VAFB as target practice. Even though the sites were swept for unexploded ordinace they won't let you MD anywhere on VAFB. The old trailer housing area is also empty now and it would be another place that would produce great treasures.

Imagine not letting us MD just because of a litlle kaboom, jeez