Cache Hunting research

[CowboyKolo]

This thread really made my day. You see, I happen to be accident prone.

LD

So glad to be of help lol.
Ok, let's say for the sake of argument getting to
the library, or historical society is problematic due to
time constraints. Is there a web site you pros find
useful for researching your area?

 

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[lastleg]

Fess up LAMAR:

Did you fall for one of those yarns and buy a CD?

Your Pal,
lastleg

 

[lamar]

Dear lastleg;
I didn't need to, my friend. I think my dad bought most of those *treasure* books, until at least the mid-1990s. I learned my lesson from watching him.
Your friend;
LAMAR

 

[Shiloh1]

The best way to get information is to ask. I ask everyone that I know and meet about what they know or don't know about stories of old timers and what they did with their money. You would be surprised how many people know about uncle Joe or grandpa Charlie dying before he could tell anyone where the money was. It never hurts to ask.

 

[jeff of pa]

wow...didn't realize my post was gonna start a put up
or shut up debate lol

No need for a put up or shut up Debate
all one has to do is look at the Banner, Best Finds, Best
of TreasureNet, magazines Or Todays
finds, to see Treasures & Caches Are Real.
Or even Read the News Papers


http://forum.treasurenet.com/index.php/topic,233158.html

http://forum.treasurenet.com/index.php/topic,145244.0.html

http://forum.treasurenet.com/index.php/topic,48387.0.html

 

[pyledriver]

I found a cache once! I was about 13 and it was in an old farmhouse about a mile away from our new neighborhood in the middle of farm country! Peeled back a huge heavy rug that had been nailed down and there were 5 silver certificates underneath!! We never went back and somebody burned the house down shortly thereafter... Caches are real, period. On the research, the answers given here are great! For myself, being an impatient person, I have to have a few old spots to hunt that satisfy the 'itch' while I'm trying to run down something good. Finding some old wheats or silver is pretty rewarding whether it's a single or a few coins, or a cache! For me, the search for something DELIBERATELY hidden has a thrill all it's own! Considering the sheer luck behind some of the most fabulous finds on record, I figure that if I'm out shaking down old farmsites and doing research on potential 'big' spots at the same time, I'll luck into something at some point! Back 'in the day', when I found that cache of bills, I wasn't looking for money, or a cache, but just for something cool like maybe a skeleton key or something unusual. I still like finding stuff like that and I'll take the poison ivy, bug bites, stings, scratches and tetanus shots over any tot lot any day!!

So my tip? Look for bigger houses, more well-to-do farmers/ranchers. Those that have more, lose more....and maybe even hide more!

 

[deepsix47]

Caches end up being left for apparently a number of reasons. One of course is the death of the owner. When I lived in Southern California we spent a lot of time exploring the deserts and looking for old mines, buildings, etc.. We would collect old tools, building fixtures and a lot of other things that brought a good price on the antique market.

On one trip we dropped over a ridge into a little canyon and there, in the middle of the desert was a little spring and an old cabin. No amount of research turned up anything about the cabin and nothing that was inside gave a hint to who might have used it. I was poking around with an MD and found the trash dump but nothing really valuable. We started using the cabin as a base because of the water and worked the area surrounding it for old mine sites. On one trip I had left my wife at the cabin and gone to a mine that was a couple of miles away to gather up some things we had found there.

When I got back she was pretty excited. While I was gone she was playing around with the MD and had checked under the cabin steps (yea, I know. Why hadn't I done that first thing). What can I say....DUH!!!! Anyway, she had found a ring of large keys that had been wrapped in a rotting canvas type cloth.

I had never seen keys like those before. When we got back to LA I took them to a locksmith friend of mine. It turned out that they were master keys to the old safes that were used before combination locks came into use.

Who had left them. Were the person/s thieves that had used this for a hideout? Were they killed? Were they caught and locked up? We had no idea and still don't.

Another was a large jar that contained some Indian head pennies, a few old lead toys, a Boy Scout medal and a couple of other kid type things. Why were they left? Again the list of possibilities goes on. My point is that caches are abandoned for many reasons.

Deepsix

 

[Texas Jay]

One thing that I think needs to be mentioned is the fact that when small towns were founded, all across the country in the 1800s, sometimes the nearest bank was very far away. People who wanted to keep their money or other valuables safe from thieves, Indian raids, fires, or whatever often buried them in what were called "posthole banks". These caches were often within eyesight of their homes so they could keep an eye on them at all times. So, rather than try to figure out which people had money in the Depression era, I think one's time is better spent doing a little history research on the area where you live. Look for ghost towns, vacant lots where the earliest houses were located, and find out when the banks first came to your town or county. Concentrate on those places that were lived in prior to that date and get to work. Above all, have fun in your search.
I'm attaching a photo of an old homestead that is outside of a ghost town in Brown County, Texas that I discovered last summer while doing a little treasure hunting research.
~Texas Jay

 

[10claw]

cowboykolo,welcome here if this is your first post here. don't feel too bad about your question being shanghaied, stripped, waylaid and who knows what else. i asked one simple question and i thought i had used the ''R'' word, the ''N'' word or cursed god. it was waylaid in nothing flat. the best way to post on here is to go to 'treasure signs and marks' and find rangler's post on the 101 thread and follow his advice on who to use the ignore button on. there seems to be some he/she it/ crossdressers here that the button works very well on. ===tenclaw===

 

[Old Silver]

Ok, for the most part all I've ever found is the occasional spill cache.
Obviously you can't just go up to the rest home and shake people
down for information on where they buried their milk jug so...
Where's a decent place to look for possible cache sites?
What books/public records would someone look through?
That sorta thing is the cache I'm looking for at the moment

Talk to old people. Look at microfilm at libraries. Read history books on your area. Don't fall for everything you see, but don't doubt everything either. If it looks like it's possible, check it out. Research, research. research.

 

[lastleg]

Sometimes the research is critical after you get the sure-fire lead. Suppose
you get a hot lead out of the blue. If you don't examine each and every detail
for a recovery you may later wish you had never gotten itl Two guys in Florida
were arrested recently while still on site. These knuckleheads were spotted
digging many big holes in an area they were not cleared to be on. A few arrow-
heads proved not to be worth the effort plus they gave a that hobby a blackeye.
Actual large dollar amount caches are fraught with peril even if you do your
homework, not the least of which are ethical constraints we should observe.

 

[dogaround]

When I was a kid, my brother found a mason jar in the woods with a few dollars worth of silver coins. The newest was about 1935. The caches that I'm looking for would have been hidden around the end of the civil war. I live in Va. not far from Manassas. I believe that at the end of the war, there were vagabonds who had no homes to go home to. These guys would be mostly confederate soldiers who roamed the trails. Farmers & other home owners might have felt the need to hide whatever extra money or jewelry they had just to keep from being robbed. - I've been hanging around out here for months, but this is my first post. I'm working on a project that I'll post with pictures soon. But till then, let me say hey to all, & happy hunting.

 

[maui]

best of luck to you and keep us posted on how you do.
take care and be safe out there. ron

 

[Tuberale]

First thing, broaden your horizons! If you are concentrating on cache hunting to the exclusion of other treasure possibilities, you may never find a real cache.

Your area is noted for meteorites. About half of all meteorites are nickel-iron, composed of about 95% iron and 5% nickel. Currently the going price for nickel-iron meteorites is around $10,000/lb. Ok, it's not a cache, but it might help you on its way. Most farmers in Kansas will find meteorites by plowing. Learn what they look like, and be open to the possibilities.

On Research: leads are all around you!!!! You need look no further than your local newspaper to find many leads in the oddest of places. Ever search the lost and found ads from 50 or 100 years ago! These are, for the most part, factual lost treasures. It's going to be nearly impossible to return any lost platinum watch or diamond ring lost that long ago. Sometimes (not that often) they tell you an actual street address, too. While a nice pint of silver may be what you WANT to find, don't turn down that 2 carat platinum ring from the 1930's just because it's old. Remember: in the 1930's, platinum was worth only $30/ounce! Times have changed, and you need to adapt.

Know any older policemen? They are fountains of information! Ask about their old robbery cases. Was the loot recovered? How about the weapons?

There are so many treasure leads out there, I really don't know where to begin answering. You might start with a book called "The Journals of El Dorado." It's nothing more than a bibliography of books which have treasure hunting leads. Try reading some of them. You might find you are more interested in some leads than others. Why?

THINK! Just because people now customarily keep money in banks DOES NOT mean they always did. Learn why they did.

Try to pick up a copy of any of the Treasure Hunter's Manuals by Karl von Miller. READ IT! Write a list of all the treasure leads in it. Some will be local, some will not.

Newspapers can be found on microfiche, in bound volumes, even on-line. You will find leads by learning the art of research. What key words do you need to type into your computer to locate something near you! YOU are the only one who can answer that question.

Follow your interests. Do you like old cars? Do you know people who collect old cars? Some of these people pay really big bucks for old parts you might think are totally junk.

Your biggest source of treasure leads are the people you meet every day. Learn to listen. Ask, and YE SHALL FIND.

 

[CowboyKolo]

hmmm...at 10k / lbs, I think a rock from space would be a nice cache of one lol. Be enough to fund the remainder of my college bill anyway. Thanks for all the great advice on the more traditional caches though. I started looking
through the historical society's microfilm, but my search was too broad so
spent a few hours just reading papers. One thing I noticed was, the local paper didn't have a lot of local stories. And when they did, they were only a paragraph or two. Course, in the earliest days of my town, local news was probably shared over a pint of beer at the bars. I did come across information about a gang that worked in Nebraska called the Newton Gang. Anyone know much about them?

 

[lastleg]

A movie was made about the Newton Gang I believe. If you could find the
book ? ? ?

 

[Tuberale]

hmmm...at 10k / lbs, I think a rock from space would be a nice cache of one lol. Be enough to fund the remainder of my college bill anyway. Thanks for all the great advice on the more traditional caches though. I started looking
through the historical society's microfilm, but my search was too broad so
spent a few hours just reading papers. One thing I noticed was, the local paper didn't have a lot of local stories. And when they did, they were only a paragraph or two. Course, in the earliest days of my town, local news was probably shared over a pint of beer at the bars. I did come across information about a gang that worked in Nebraska called the Newton Gang. Anyone know much about them?

Try looking for Nebraska Meteorites at the Meteoritical Bulletin. They have a searchable database for the world.

Also, try researching Henry H. Nininger, perhaps the first American to systematically search for meteorites, many of which were found in the Mid-West.

If you're serious about searching for meteorites, check also any magnetic anomolies in your area. Large meteors can affect magnetic fields in the immediate area, one reason a magnetometer works well on both shipwrecks and meteorites. Another good tool for searching for meteorites is a sensitive compass: when the compass starts to point at a direction not magnetic north, you may be close to a large iron mass.

Aerial photographs are good sources of meteorite data. Impact craters look similar to deep circular lakes. Some people still believe that Crater Lake in Oregon may have been a meteor strike instead of the caldera of a large volcano. If meteoritical in nature, there should have been fragments of meteoritical material nearby, something which has not been found to my knowledge. However, in Canada, there are several lakes formed by meteorite impact.

Nebraska's geology is such there could be several meteorites waiting to be found. Every square mile of earth receives at least one 8 oz. meteor strike on average of every 10,000 years. How many square miles is Nebraska? How many verified meteorites have been found there? Why aren't there more?

A personal opinion: look at high-res photos of the Moon. Most craters there were caused by meteorites. What shape is a general Moon crater? Earth craters should look similar, but probably eroded. The rims may not be so pronounced, waterways may have filled in (silted in) the central depression. Undoubtedly many meteorite strikes were in the ocean or shallow sea. Nebraska used to be largely covered by a shallow in-land sea.

Every time I look at an aerial photo of the Aleutian Island chain ... yep, looks like a huge one to me.

 

[Smudge]

Oddly enough, most of the old timers I know or have known had no money to bury in the first place. For reasons unknown, cache hunters seem to be mesmerized into believing the masses had extra money lying around to hide back in the thirty's.

Oddly enough my family were dirt poor in the depression in the thirties. They were still richer than people whom had money because they busted their tail to earn a meager living and plant a garden, sew and mend their own cloths,raise goats and chickens for eggs, meat and milk. They even saved a few silver dollars and silver dimes and quarters in mason jars. It was not extra money but hard earned money that was not turned into the banks.

If you did not trust banks yesterday, then you don't trust them today or tomarrow. If that's the case, then where is your money? In your pocket, mattress, hidden in the wall, buried in the yard? Invested in collectible items?

I don't trust anyone to hold my money for me and I have more then two nickels to rub together. How about you?

I'm patriotic but I'm the one that earned my money and earned the right to hold it, spend it and invest it my way. The banks didn't earn the right to hold my money or the freedom to spend it or squander it. You have the freedom to hold, spend or hide your money the way you see fit.

CAN I GET AN AMEN!!!!

Amen!

Curious though. I wonder if caching would have any purpose for people today. Our coinage is composed of virtually worthless metals and all of our currency depreciates at the rate of about 2% a year due to inflation. So $100 today will have the buying power of $98 next year and so on.

Just curious what you folks think.

 

[CowboyKolo]

I'd say it's still worth caching, though not necessarily money.
For example, time capsules could be considered a cache. Of course,
at the rate gold and silver are increasing, if you invested in those
through coin or what not, it would make a nice lil hoard.

 

[Tuberale]

Just thought of another thing you can do on your computer: do a search for treasure found Nebraska. See how many "hits" you get. Then start narrowing the list by adding additional words: gold, jewelry, coins, cache, etc. Sooner or later you will find something in your neighborhood that should be interesting to you. Always research the things that interest YOU.