Indianvintage
Tenderfoot
Hi from SW Texas hill country. 56 years old and finally ordered my first detector yesterday. A Fisher F22, headphones, and a pinpointer.
Been thinking about doing this for years, but too many other hobbies...
I live on 25 acres near a river. One corner has a dry gravel creek/wash that floods during heavy rains. Been living there for 20 years. Just old SW Texas ranch land that had no buildings on it prior to us building our house. I find arrowheads sometimes, old horseshoes, and other iron artifacts. Never used a detector on the land. Always wondered what might be there....
What finally got me to buy one is that my grandparents old five acre homestead is about six miles away from where I live. Grandpa lived from 1898 to 1972. One of my cousins is cleaning up the place and just took the old, mostly cedar, frame house apart before it fell apart. He saved all the old cedar wood and we have found a few relics that had been in the dirt. One relic being a 1926 Texas license plate from one of my grandpa's old trucks.The old house has been vacant since late 1970's. The only family left are some of us grandkids (now in our 50's and 60's). I did not want the land for myself. One of my cousins finally decided he wanted to clean the place up and live there. We (the remaining grandkids) all agreed that would be great. His original thoughts were to save the old house, but it was too far gone. It was probably built in the 1880's or earlier and was just an old pioneer shack, wood floor, cedar plank walls, one brick fireplace. He did save the fireplace. It looks odd standing there without a house attached to it. Some of the old roof tin and lumber will be used to put a covered patio around it.
The homestead has been in the family since the mid 1800's. It was first occupied by my great, great grandparents who were in the first wave of white settlers in the area. I spent summers there as a kid with my grandparents. The original land title, which one of my cousins found at the courthouse, says "REPUBLIC of TEXAS" on it, not "State" of Texas (so 1836 to1845 time frame).
My cousin wants to search the site with a metal detector. None of us had one, so I told him I'd been wanting a reason to buy one and this is it. It should arrive next week by UPS.
My grandparents were not wealthy. In fact they were poor like most folks were back then. Grandpa was a Sgt. in WWI and a cedar chopper after that. The house was small and simple. They raised nine children in a house that had no electricity or running water until the late 1940's. I remember grandpa had a garden, some hog pens, and a small barn. I was 12 when he died, but I had good times there many summers before that.
There is bound to be some lost coin or other items hiding in the dirt. My cousin thinks grandma used to keep a coffee can under a floorboard as her "bank" but I don't expect that is there anymore, if it ever was. When my cousin took the house apart he was careful not to trash the ground with nails and such because he was thinking ahead about using a metal detector where the old wood floored house had been. He is going to build a house on the land (but not over the old house site) and since he is doing 99% of all the reclamation of the property I plan for any valuables I find to be his. He gave me the old license plate and cut some of the old original wallpaper from inside the house and gave me that. I don't think many valuables are there, a few silver and gold coin at best, but I'm hoping for old simple iron or brass keepsakes to turn up. I'm just glad I'll be able to help my cousin find some of our family history. I'm the sixth generation of our family born in Texas!
Wish me luck on the old homestead site, and later on my 25 acres as I go over it. I'll search the old homestead first. I'll post pictures of what turns up. I do not believe that anyone has ever used a metal detector on either my 25 acres or the old homestead.
Been thinking about doing this for years, but too many other hobbies...
I live on 25 acres near a river. One corner has a dry gravel creek/wash that floods during heavy rains. Been living there for 20 years. Just old SW Texas ranch land that had no buildings on it prior to us building our house. I find arrowheads sometimes, old horseshoes, and other iron artifacts. Never used a detector on the land. Always wondered what might be there....
What finally got me to buy one is that my grandparents old five acre homestead is about six miles away from where I live. Grandpa lived from 1898 to 1972. One of my cousins is cleaning up the place and just took the old, mostly cedar, frame house apart before it fell apart. He saved all the old cedar wood and we have found a few relics that had been in the dirt. One relic being a 1926 Texas license plate from one of my grandpa's old trucks.The old house has been vacant since late 1970's. The only family left are some of us grandkids (now in our 50's and 60's). I did not want the land for myself. One of my cousins finally decided he wanted to clean the place up and live there. We (the remaining grandkids) all agreed that would be great. His original thoughts were to save the old house, but it was too far gone. It was probably built in the 1880's or earlier and was just an old pioneer shack, wood floor, cedar plank walls, one brick fireplace. He did save the fireplace. It looks odd standing there without a house attached to it. Some of the old roof tin and lumber will be used to put a covered patio around it.
The homestead has been in the family since the mid 1800's. It was first occupied by my great, great grandparents who were in the first wave of white settlers in the area. I spent summers there as a kid with my grandparents. The original land title, which one of my cousins found at the courthouse, says "REPUBLIC of TEXAS" on it, not "State" of Texas (so 1836 to1845 time frame).
My cousin wants to search the site with a metal detector. None of us had one, so I told him I'd been wanting a reason to buy one and this is it. It should arrive next week by UPS.
My grandparents were not wealthy. In fact they were poor like most folks were back then. Grandpa was a Sgt. in WWI and a cedar chopper after that. The house was small and simple. They raised nine children in a house that had no electricity or running water until the late 1940's. I remember grandpa had a garden, some hog pens, and a small barn. I was 12 when he died, but I had good times there many summers before that.
There is bound to be some lost coin or other items hiding in the dirt. My cousin thinks grandma used to keep a coffee can under a floorboard as her "bank" but I don't expect that is there anymore, if it ever was. When my cousin took the house apart he was careful not to trash the ground with nails and such because he was thinking ahead about using a metal detector where the old wood floored house had been. He is going to build a house on the land (but not over the old house site) and since he is doing 99% of all the reclamation of the property I plan for any valuables I find to be his. He gave me the old license plate and cut some of the old original wallpaper from inside the house and gave me that. I don't think many valuables are there, a few silver and gold coin at best, but I'm hoping for old simple iron or brass keepsakes to turn up. I'm just glad I'll be able to help my cousin find some of our family history. I'm the sixth generation of our family born in Texas!
Wish me luck on the old homestead site, and later on my 25 acres as I go over it. I'll search the old homestead first. I'll post pictures of what turns up. I do not believe that anyone has ever used a metal detector on either my 25 acres or the old homestead.
