I have a quick question, please.

[Frogsong]

In my area they are moving, expanding and widening one of the highways. In order to make room for it they dozed a bunch of old houses that I would guess were built anywhere between the 40's and 60's.

My question is this... is the property owned by the county now? And could I legally go hunt it before they pave over it? Or would I get into trouble?

 

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[Johnnysan]

My guess would be state property, and that they would chase you off if they caught you. If no equipment or vehicles are around (just bare earth), they may not say anything to you.

 

[Frogsong]

No, there is no equipment around, no fences, no signs, nothing but dirt. Basically it's the side of the road until they pave over it to widen the highway. It is also in a small town going through mostly fields and orchards, so not many people around either.

 

[steve71]

hit it. when they complain tell them get lost i pay taxes.till the police come then leave.

 

[Iron Patch]

No, there is no equipment around, no fences, no signs, nothing but dirt. Basically it's the side of the road until they pave over it to widen the highway. It is also in a small town going through mostly fields and orchards, so not many people around either.

Just tell them you lost a very special (but not valuable) ring and were looking one last time before it's gone forever.

 

[mlayers]

I would go for it. If there is no equipment around proably no one will say anything. Good luck and lets us know how you do......Matt

 

[jeff of pa]

When they cut out a Portion of Dauphin Borough
to Build a Bypass I stopped at the Construction
Trailer to ask Permission to
search the Yards before they tore the Houses Down.

I Was told He would NOT Give me permission
because of Liability,& some people
were not Happy about loosing their Homes
to Progress (eminent domain). But If he drove by & Saw me Swinging,
He would not Waste his Time Stopping to
chase me.

of course everyone is different.
I say go for it, If you get Chased,
So Be it. as long as you are not
doing damage and there are not signs,
You shouldn't be Breaking any Laws.

 

[Sandman]

Go for it and good luck. The construction companies are worried about liabilities if you get hurt and they gave you permission.

Hope you have fun.

 

[vayank54]

If it's not posted and no one is working. I would try it. the property probably belongs to the state or county and each one has different laws on digging. In Stafford county Va you are not to allowed to even have a detector in your car on county property. When they widened the roads there people were arrested for digging. The place was posted though. In Manassas Park VA it is illegal to even detect on you own property. A friend of mine was arrested, convicted and fined for digging on his and I was almost arrested fo digging on a construction site even though i had permission from the land owner. A lot of the constrcution companies are worried about liabilities and being sued but some are also afraid something historical will be found and the job will be shut down. I work construction and have seen it first hand. I hope you are able to hunt it and find some good stuff.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

The ownership of the land would depend on whether it's a state highway or a county highway. And guaranteed, if you asked either of those two entities (or the const. co), you would most likely get a "no". But if you just went, I bet no would care or notice. Afterall, didn't you loose your boyscout ring there when you were a kid? I hunt old-town urban demo's all the time. And it's as Jeff of PA says: they might say "Since you asked, no. But what I don't see after 5pm doesn't bother me."

 

[mark v]

And it's as Jeff of PA says: they might say "Since you asked, no. But what I don't see after 5pm doesn't bother me."

 

[TORRERO]

Generally speaking the rule I have lived by is, if its boarded up and looks to be demoed
and there are no Posted Signs, then we hit it.
We figure its easier to ask forgiveness than it is to ask permission.
Its always better to hunt sites like this before the house is removed, this way you can
see where the house once stood, Houses that are boarded up, front or back door hanging open
and clearly abandoned, busted out windows with high grass...
No one has ever stopped us, the truth is, if you are there and someone drives by how do they
know if you have permission or not ?
The Police won't know that... even the workers passing by won't know that, or even if you actually work there...
Let us know if you find something.
Richard

 

[Frogsong]

Generally speaking the rule I have lived by is, if its boarded up and looks to be demoed
and there are no Posted Signs, then we hit it.
We figure its easier to ask forgiveness than it is to ask permission.
Its always better to hunt sites like this before the house is removed, this way you can
see where the house once stood, Houses that are boarded up, front or back door hanging open
and clearly abandoned, busted out windows with high grass...
No one has ever stopped us, the truth is, if you are there and someone drives by how do they
know if you have permission or not ?
The Police won't know that... even the workers passing by won't know that, or even if you actually work there...
Let us know if you find something.
Richard

Oh, I know right where the houses stood. They were just recently demoed and there were several of them. More recently, they took out a little store which was the only thing left standing in the area.

I'm going to go today and give it a shot. I'll let you all know what comes of it. I'm excited because I got my first metal detector, A Minelab x-terra 70, last year for Christmas and other than playing with it in my own yard I've never got to go hunting with it because I don't know how to find places to hunt.

I'll keep you posted.

 

[Frogsong]

Okay, here's what I found yesterday.

7 pennies
1 nickel

And a lot of junk... LOL

The oldest penny, and also the one in the best condition, is a 1963. After that they range from 1991 to 2000. And three of them are in such bad shape I can't read the dates.

The nickel is a 1980.

We're going back today, though I'm sure I'll be a bit slower today because, OMG, I'm in pain... LOL

 

[TORRERO]

Okay, here's what I found yesterday.

7 pennies
1 nickel

And a lot of junk... LOL

The oldest penny, and also the one in the best condition, is a 1963. After that they range from 1991 to 2000. And three of them are in such bad shape I can't read the dates.

The nickel is a 1980.

We're going back today, though I'm sure I'll be a bit slower today because, OMG, I'm in pain... LOL

And did anybody say anything to you
I think not !!!

 

[Frogsong]

And did anybody say anything to you
I think not !!!

Nope, no one said a word. We did get a couple of honks out of people driving by yesterday. I just smiled and waved.

 

[Frogsong]

Okay, we went back on Sunday and came home with a total of 25 pennies. 7 were copper, the rest were zinc. All Lincoln Memorial, no wheaties darnit.

We also found an old Tonka Truck, an old serving spoon stamped 1847 Rogers Bros, and of course your odds and ends, bottle caps, tin cans nails, bullet casings, bullet slugs and a couple of weird things that I have no idea what they are. the look like some kind of concho or something.

And that's pretty much it. Nothing to get excited about.

We did learn an interesting story though. And elderly gentleman stopped by to talk to us and he told us there was a flood there years ago, and someone who lived in one of the houses had a safe, supposedly containing gold and silver etc., which was washed away or buried in the debris and was never found.

He wasn't sure which house it was, but it was in one of the houses along the highway that we were searching. I'm going to try to do some research and see if there is a story about that in any of the papers.

All in all, I finally got a chance to play with my metal detector but I'm sure I need to learn how to set it and read it better. It's hard for me to believe there were so many pennies out there and nothing else.

Also, after we got home from the Saturday hunt I took some coins and jewelry, put them in little ziplocs and buried them out in the yard about 3 inches so I could see what kind of readings I got from each type of item.

It picked up everything and I noted the tone of the beep and wrote down the number that registered on the detector so I would know what numbers might be something.

But I buried a 1 ounce silver eagle and ran the detector over it and it didn't even pick it up. A big silver eagle! Instead of beeping, the detector just cut out and made no noise whatsoever. So, obviously, I've still got some learning to do. No telling what I missed over there.

I had lots of fun and it was worth not being able to walk today...

 

[Frogsong]

Oh yeah, and I can say this. The government sure didn't make the newer pennies to last.

All of the zinc pennies are corroded and crusty, some have pieces broken off of them, and many of them I can't even read the dates. All of the older copper pennies were in much better condition. No corrosion and not beat up. I always knew as soon as I dug the penny up whether it was zinc or copper.

We're going to try again next weekend hopefully after I've learned my metal detector better.

 

[TORRERO]

What kind of machine do you have ?

 

[Frogsong]

I have the Minelab X-Terra 70