waseeker
Bronze Member
- Joined
- Dec 20, 2006
- Messages
- 1,133
- Reaction score
- 25
- Golden Thread
- 0
- Location
- Pacific Northwest
- Detector(s) used
- Whites DFX; Minelab eTrac
- Primary Interest:
- All Treasure Hunting
I found an un-searched Elementary School 
Now the rest of the story.
I had gotten my nephew hooked on MD'ing a couple of years ago. He has gone absolutely nuts for the hobby and has also had considerable success. He started hunting the strip between the road and the sidewalk in his neighborhood and found multiple silver coins including a barber dime, several mercury dimes, a WL half dollar and a Morgan Dollar.
He is also a builder and a bit of a history buff so he does lots of research on old areas on interest in Southern Illinois.
Anywho, his enthusiasm and tales of potential sites he had located piqued my interest to the point I decided it was time for a road trip. Unfortunately I had forgotten that he tends to omit certain items like permission to hunt the property.
I got into town late on a Sunday afternoon, called my nephew and told him we were burning daylight and to get to his dad's house so we could get started.
We took off to a couple of sites he wanted me to see, but we needed to arrange permission to hunt them. Not wanting the first day to be a total waste I suggested we go to a local elementary school. The nephew dismissed my idea by saying the school was "too new". It's been there at least 10 years, but his early success with finding silver has biased his target selections. After driving around to look at a couple more potential sites I told him to humor me and take me to the elementary school.
We went straight to the playground area and both started getting hits immediately. By the time we finished up a couple of hours later we had "found" a little over $19.00 in change. I barely had a chance to move before I got another beep. Also, I thought I was going to lose my jeans because the back pocket was so loaded with clad
My nephew, not to mention my brother were hooked on the idea on hunting schools. The town has 3 other elementary schools so of course we headed off for them the next day. Between the other 3 schools we didn't find 3.00 in clad. so it was back to the first school and a re-check. Taking a bit more time to search carefully we found another $10.00 or so in clad. For the remainder of the week that school was our evening search spot as we hit the soccer fields, the sidewalks and the base ball diamond. We found lots of clad every time we visited. For the week the three of us pulled a little of $50.00 in clad from that school. Why that one has never been touched when it was obvious that the other 3 had been (we even met a fellow MD'er on morning when we both descended on the same school), is a mystery and it will remain our secret place; at least until too many people see us out there and decide to hunt there as well.
We did get to hunt some older sites and had some good success with them. My haul included an 1893 IHC, 3 Wheaties (one from the teens), a baseball charm, a soccer ball charm and a ear of corn made of lead. My brother got a very corroded buffalo nickel. He also got hooked to the point that he decided to buy my backup XLT so he could hunt with his son. My nephew had the best find of all at an old church site - a 1914 Barber Quarter. Well worn but still a great find.
My haul for the week was $43.15. Total were Quarters 105; Dimes 118; Nickels 53; Cents 195.
One last observation. My nephew had been telling me about the great digging tool he had made from a finishing trowel. He thought he had lost his so had bought another and promised the extra one to me. By weeks end he had broken both of his plus a garden trowel. My Lesche digging trowel worked great in the baked clay and my brother was camped out at the local hobby shop one morning to buy a Lesche before the days hunt. He finally decided it was cheaper to buy a good trowel rather than frequent trips to the store to buy cheaper one.
All in all it was an excellent week. But after a week of 90+ temperature and humidity it was nice to get back to the cooler Northwest.
Now the rest of the story.
I had gotten my nephew hooked on MD'ing a couple of years ago. He has gone absolutely nuts for the hobby and has also had considerable success. He started hunting the strip between the road and the sidewalk in his neighborhood and found multiple silver coins including a barber dime, several mercury dimes, a WL half dollar and a Morgan Dollar.
He is also a builder and a bit of a history buff so he does lots of research on old areas on interest in Southern Illinois.
Anywho, his enthusiasm and tales of potential sites he had located piqued my interest to the point I decided it was time for a road trip. Unfortunately I had forgotten that he tends to omit certain items like permission to hunt the property.
I got into town late on a Sunday afternoon, called my nephew and told him we were burning daylight and to get to his dad's house so we could get started.
We took off to a couple of sites he wanted me to see, but we needed to arrange permission to hunt them. Not wanting the first day to be a total waste I suggested we go to a local elementary school. The nephew dismissed my idea by saying the school was "too new". It's been there at least 10 years, but his early success with finding silver has biased his target selections. After driving around to look at a couple more potential sites I told him to humor me and take me to the elementary school.
We went straight to the playground area and both started getting hits immediately. By the time we finished up a couple of hours later we had "found" a little over $19.00 in change. I barely had a chance to move before I got another beep. Also, I thought I was going to lose my jeans because the back pocket was so loaded with clad
My nephew, not to mention my brother were hooked on the idea on hunting schools. The town has 3 other elementary schools so of course we headed off for them the next day. Between the other 3 schools we didn't find 3.00 in clad. so it was back to the first school and a re-check. Taking a bit more time to search carefully we found another $10.00 or so in clad. For the remainder of the week that school was our evening search spot as we hit the soccer fields, the sidewalks and the base ball diamond. We found lots of clad every time we visited. For the week the three of us pulled a little of $50.00 in clad from that school. Why that one has never been touched when it was obvious that the other 3 had been (we even met a fellow MD'er on morning when we both descended on the same school), is a mystery and it will remain our secret place; at least until too many people see us out there and decide to hunt there as well.
We did get to hunt some older sites and had some good success with them. My haul included an 1893 IHC, 3 Wheaties (one from the teens), a baseball charm, a soccer ball charm and a ear of corn made of lead. My brother got a very corroded buffalo nickel. He also got hooked to the point that he decided to buy my backup XLT so he could hunt with his son. My nephew had the best find of all at an old church site - a 1914 Barber Quarter. Well worn but still a great find.
My haul for the week was $43.15. Total were Quarters 105; Dimes 118; Nickels 53; Cents 195.
One last observation. My nephew had been telling me about the great digging tool he had made from a finishing trowel. He thought he had lost his so had bought another and promised the extra one to me. By weeks end he had broken both of his plus a garden trowel. My Lesche digging trowel worked great in the baked clay and my brother was camped out at the local hobby shop one morning to buy a Lesche before the days hunt. He finally decided it was cheaper to buy a good trowel rather than frequent trips to the store to buy cheaper one.
All in all it was an excellent week. But after a week of 90+ temperature and humidity it was nice to get back to the cooler Northwest.
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