Is this heaven? Its Iowa. I could have sworn it was heaven...

time4me

Bronze Member
Aug 30, 2005
1,296
44
Detector(s) used
E-Trac, Explorer II, Excalibur
Is this heaven? It's Iowa. I could have sworn it was heaven...

"Is there a heaven?"

"Oh, yeah. It's the place where dreams come true."

"Maybe this is heaven."

A very moving exchange of words between Ray Kinsella and the ghost of his father John Kinsella in one of my all time favorite movies "Field of Dreams."

I thought it a fitting introduction to this post, as I believe that finally, in over 30 years of metal detecting, I have found my own field of dreams.

Most places I go to hunt produce trash, memorial cents and clad. Oh, every now and again there would be a random silver coin or piece of jewelry, but most of the time it was modern stuff. Obviously I was not going to the right places.

Last year, through much research, I discovered the "campgrounds" which I have been hitting about a day per week for the past nine or ten months. The campgrounds have produced over 40 silver coins during this past year, and over a dozen rings and hundreds of other interesting items. While it has been the best place I've ever metal detected, I still do not consider it a "honey hole", "glory hole", or "field of dreams". There is tons of trash there, and I've probably detected over 150 hours there to produce the finds I mention above.

But now I do believe I have found my true field of dreams. Countless hours of research have resulted in the identification of a piece of private property not too far from home, that I knew had tremendous potential. I met the owner about 6 months ago, and have kept in touch with him over this time as we share some common interests. About a week ago, the property owner invited me out to his property for the first time to look at a project he was working on. Once I was there, he asked if I had my metal detector in the car, and if so I should try detecting in one of the grassy areas near his home. It turned out I did have the detector in my car as I was planning on driving out to the campgrounds for a few hours of detecting after I met with him. Not one to pass up an opportunity, I grabbed my detector and started scanning the area in a random pattern to see if it did in fact have potential.

Signals were everywhere! The first signal I dug was a 1944 wheat cent. Then came another 40’s wheat cent. Then another, and another. Wheat cents were turning up everywhere, so I knew that there must be silver here.

After about 30 minutes of digging mostly wheat cents, several memorial cents and literally no trash, I got a faintly higher tone on the E-Trac, and out popped a silver Roosevelt dime. Shortly after that came another Rosie, and then a Merc. I was quickly running out of time, so I started skipping over the penny signals to try to cherry pick the silver (hoping that I would have an opportunity to come back again to pick up the rest of the detections). This strategy allowed me to pick up three more silver coins in very short order before having to pack up and get home in time to take my kids to the dentist.

For my 90 minutes or so of work, I found 33 wheat cents with the oldest being 1918 (most of the rest were in the 40’s and 50’s), only 8 memorial cents, one clad dime, one silver quarter, 2 Mercury head dimes, 3 silver Roosevelt dimes, and one aluminum play dime. A new silver record for me – 6 silver coins in one hunt (not to mention the 33 wheat cents)!!!

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Here are the only non-coin items I found during this hunt:

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And here is the silver:

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Well, the property owner was comfortable with me doing the detecting on his property, and he said it would be ok to come back again. So, yesterday I went back out there to do some sampling in another grassy area near his house (still planning to revisit the first section to grid it much more carefully and not skip over the penny signals). This second hunt had very similar results to the first, except that I broke my very recently set silver record by pulling 8 silver coins out of the ground! Again, I ran out of time and spent the last 20 minutes or so skipping signals to cherry pick silver. Unbelievable! I have not covered either of these two grassy areas well at all, and there are many, many signals that I skipped over in the areas that I did randomly walk through. His property is immense, and these two grassy areas I sampled are a tiny part of the grounds.

Yes, I believe I have finally found my field of dreams. Little trash, incredible older to newer coin ratio, exclusive permission from the property owner, and little chance it has been detected in the past. Funny, I actually did dream about the property quite a bit last night, so I think my nickname for it will stick.

Yesterday’s finds include 10 wheat cents, 7 memorial cents, 3 clad dimes, 1 silver quarter, 4 Mercury heads, and 3 silver Roosevelt dimes. I also found a very cool half-dollar sized good luck token, and old wood handled pocket knife, and small gold-tone pendent with no markings:

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So for two short hunts at this new site, I have had two silver records, totaling 14 silver coins!

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I’ve already made arrangements with the property owner to return on Tuesday when I’ll be able to spend a good 3 to 4 hours there!

Thanks for reading and looking, and best of luck to all of you on your next outing!

Happy Hunting,

Jim
 

Upvote 0

STH69

Bronze Member
Feb 17, 2009
1,669
4
Detector(s) used
Bounty Hunter, ACE 250 with 9X12 coil
Re: Is this heaven? It's Iowa. I could have sworn it was heaven...

Great finds a lot of digging
 

maceman66

Sr. Member
Mar 29, 2009
305
75
SE Iowa
🏆 Honorable Mentions:
1
Detector(s) used
Whites XLT
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Re: Is this heaven? It's Iowa. I could have sworn it was heaven...

Those are some nice finds!! Glad to see another Iowan doing well!!!! ;) Good Job!!! Mace
 

OP
OP
time4me

time4me

Bronze Member
Aug 30, 2005
1,296
44
Detector(s) used
E-Trac, Explorer II, Excalibur
Re: Is this heaven? It's Iowa. I could have sworn it was heaven...

maceman66 said:
Those are some nice finds!! Glad to see another Iowan doing well!!!! ;) Good Job!!! Mace

Sorry, the Iowa reference was just from the quote from Field of Dreams.
 

Johnny Ringo Silver

Hero Member
Dec 6, 2007
884
7
KANSAS
Detector(s) used
Minelab SE and Sunray probe
Re: Is this heaven? It's Iowa. I could have sworn it was heaven...

Way to go on an awesome site! Those virgin sites are the best. I had one last year that gave up 16 silvers. One of those being my second morgan. Good luck on a return trip. 8)
 

how u do n

Sr. Member
Dec 21, 2008
369
3
in my own little world :)
Detector(s) used
Fisher 1280x Minlab E-Trac Garrett Pinpointer
Re: Is this heaven? It's Iowa. I could have sworn it was heaven...

Awesome!!!!
Now remember if you get a low tone that reads 12/4 to 12/30 do not pass it up!!!
You will hit gold!!!!
gl hh and keep us updated with more pics way to go
dan
p.s.
gotta love that etrac!!!
 

SilverFinger

Sr. Member
Apr 17, 2008
326
158
Woodstock, Georgia
Detector(s) used
White's MXT, Eagle Spectrum, Treasuremaster
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Re: Is this heaven? It's Iowa. I could have sworn it was heaven...

Woo hoo! Great day out 'eh? NICE finds and a short time out too! I love those kinds of places. Congrats!
 

Captn SE

Silver Member
Apr 1, 2007
2,774
13
Southern CA
Detector(s) used
Minelab Explorer SE; X-1 Target Probe; Pro Coil, 6x8 SEF, Coiltek Platypus Elliptical, Sunray X8, Expl. 1050 coils
Re: Is this heaven? It's Iowa. I could have sworn it was heaven...

Very impressive, Jim! :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

I'm glad you found such a productive site to hunt. Better yet, it's all yours! ::) ::)

I know you'll strike silver again on your next hunt....what I don't know is how many you'll get. ;D

Congrats,
CAPTN SE
Dan
 

Detectingfreak

Gold Member
Apr 26, 2006
5,736
21
Bellevue, WA
Detector(s) used
Minelab Explorer SE, Tesoro TigerShark
Re: Is this heaven? It's Iowa. I could have sworn it was heaven...

Thats very awesome!!! Nice job on the silver!! :thumbsup:
 

R

RUDY2003

Guest
Re: Is this heaven? It's Iowa. I could have sworn it was heaven...

:thumbsup: Great post Jim! Like goin' back in time...

Keep safe...
 

MrBling

Sr. Member
Aug 12, 2008
356
1
North Florida
Detector(s) used
White's Surfmaster PI/Garrett Ace 250
Re: Is this heaven? It's Iowa. I could have sworn it was heaven...

I think sites like yours are the future of metal detecting.

The public areas will become depleted at some point, but there are hundreds of thousands of good sites on private property that have been minimally detected or are totally virgin.

Congrats on the research and results
 

kimsdad

Silver Member
Apr 17, 2008
4,692
24
Moronica, northwest of Chicago.
Detector(s) used
E-trac & Bounty Hunter Land Star
Re: Is this heaven? It's Iowa. I could have sworn it was heaven...

Wow! What a spot!! :o

Congrats on the great finds, Jim, and keep those great posts coming from that spot!!! :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :icon_king:
 

My Precious

Sr. Member
Feb 10, 2009
289
18
Adirondack Mountains
Detector(s) used
Minelab Sovereign GT
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Re: Is this heaven? It's Iowa. I could have sworn it was heaven...

I've kind of been struggling with trashy spots myself as a newbie just learning, I need to do the research and find my own field of dreams too. That must be a great feeling!!! Congrats on your new MDing spot and the finds... :thumbsup:
 

thunderbyte

Newbie
May 27, 2007
2
0
Erie PA
Detector(s) used
Garrett GTP1350
Re: Is this heaven? It's Iowa. I could have sworn it was heaven...

Keep us posted for sure! Im still looking for a spot like that where I can dig some silver instead of junk and clad. Now that Im getting used to my detector and have started fine tuning my ability to use it Im going to start doing some research and try to get permission to hunt a "virgin" site.
 

SaintSea

Sr. Member
Feb 13, 2005
346
11
Central Florida
Re: Is this heaven? It's Iowa. I could have sworn it was heaven...

I just LOVE the way you told your story... a bit of what it's all about for those of us who enjoy this hobby. Congrats on finding your own Field of Dreams and thanks for sharing your story with us!
Now get back out there and give us an update!
Ruth
 

kdismuke1

Silver Member
Jun 14, 2007
2,597
12
georgia
Detector(s) used
garrett 1500-ace 250-garrett ads groudhog deepseeker
Re: Is this heaven? It's Iowa. I could have sworn it was heaven...

NICE FINDS.CONGRATS.
 

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