Tips on where I should focus

[ManFromMu]

Greetings all, I'm just starting out and have spent the last few weekends out in the woods and fields looking for history. So far I've been finding mostly garbage, which ive actually enjoyed, so I cant wait for the feeling of finding something legit. I'm hoping I can benefit from pooling all of your collective experience. I live in an area of SE Connecticut full of old farms hidden in the woods. I've got all the old maps, checking it against the state LiDAR hosted by UCONN, read historical accounts of my town and have mapped out and found countless walls and foundations. Heres an example of an old estate from somewhere between 1750-1850. A local family owned a farm here since 1750s and then in 1800s heirs built an estate on it:



But I'm dealing with extensive brush and growth along most walls and foundations, making access tough and swinging the detector almost impossible. So if im going to be able to even check the spots I assume are going to be best I've got to do some significant clearing. Presumably fall will be a little easier but I dont want to wait. In your experience where should i be spending my time? Are fields away from the main house generally fruitful? The still cleared centers are the easiest places to access and use my detector, but does anything ever turn up in the middle of an old crop field or should i stick to checking along the stone wall boundaries? Are corners better than the center? Do things usually turn up on the inside, next to or just in the vicinity an old foundation? Do I just go all in and spend a few days clearing brush from around the foundations? What other tips do you all have? I'll take any advice.

Thanks in advance!

 

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[RobRieman]

If you can't find it there, you can't find it anywhere. You just described a place people die for. Hit them cellar holes and dig everything above iron with that kind of history!

 

[Professor of Engineering]

Hello ManFromMu,

Sounds like a very promising site! If you can access the cellar holes hit them hard working all around the perimeter from the wall out to about 20 feet. After that begin to expand you search from the 20 foot marks. Work along stone walls, wells, privies and barns. The old fields could be very productive with relics and old coins. Also, look for the area where they dump the trash (I am working an old 1814 historical site and found a pottery and glass dump site).

From the photos little open area is still left for hunting, so you will be search the woods. Fully work an area, using flags (Lowes about $8:00 dollars) to grid a section, layering and other useful techniques. The place is very big a will take you a lot of time to properly search the area. Start with the easy areas first and then move in to the more difficult.

The first thing I do at a new site is to walk around the property and use my eyes and imagination/vision how it was in that time period; looking for places people would hang out. The point is to see the property as it was in 1750.

I have been recovering artifacts for historical societies, private homesteads, cities and town properties for some time now. If you should have any private questions please feel free to PM me.

GL & HH

Best Regards,

Doc