Any success in new cleared lots?

[BDinutah]

Ive seen posts previously about hunting excavated lots, but I don't remember hearing any success story's, there was an 1&00's house removed in our town & the ground was scraped. Has anyone had success in hunting a spot similar to this? Thanks for any comments.

 

[Chug And Red]

Not here 1920's house, They bulldozed it including the Shed full of mechanical parts!!! Did hit a Merc dime in the Grass Strip. If they ever do anything else on the Lot we will be all over it HH Chug 4 years and Still Waiting Impatiently

 

[EagleDown]

Downtown San Bernardino, 1980. A square city block that use to have houses on it. The houses were tore down and the property sat for years. It got pretty bad over the years as bushes had grown up and the wino's and others were camping in it. Finally, a crew came in and cleared and leveled it (in 1980) a day or so after the equipment pulled out, I went in with my Garrett ADS11. My first find, within 5 minutes was a 1892 half dollar. A few minutes later, I found a Sterling Silver compact. I could also see where the sidewalks up to the houses had been. Going along the sidewalk areas, I picked up mercury and barber dimes. I also found that most of the houses had trash holes behind them, where the residents would burn their trash. After telling a friend about them, and locating some for him, he started digging and found numerous bottles and coins in them.

So, all in all, yes, some old lots can be very good to the detectorist. But, it depends on how old the house/store was when it was tore down.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

Depends on several factors B-dinutah. Like :

a) what was there before?

b) how deep was the scrape ? If it's too deep, it goes below the strata of losses. If it's not deep enough, perhaps cr*p and clutter still litter the site ? Basements previously there, that were back-filled in with surrounding soil ?

c) Has fill dirt been added? Like scraped perhaps, but then new cr*p folded back in, etc....

I find the favorite lot scrapes are where yester-year's "board-&-batten district retail zones were. You know, like maybe it's 1890s brick now, single story store-frontages, yet it's on the oldest parts of town that started as tent-cities, to board-&-batten, to the eventual brick, etc... Because those weren't likely, to have had any sub-surface messing-with-the-soil, if the subsequent structures were blt before the age of heavy equipment (turn-of-century-ish). But I guess in that case, we're talking building demolitions, not "lot clearing".

However, a lot of what is just vacant lots in seedy parts of town *now*, might simply be where buildings had been torn or burned down in the 1960s, for instance. So it all just depends on what was there before, etc...

Yes I've done quite well. Seateds, barbers, etc... But mostly when it's building come-down, not an already existing vacant lot. If a lot has been allowed to sit for 30 or 40 yrs, trust me: it'll be full of junk.

 

[Chug And Red]

You should have taken a Pry bar out And Tipped the Side walk Slabs, OOps Gave away Another tip HH Chug

 

[BDinutah]

Tom, I've been watching this house sit vacant since last summer, when I researched its origin I found out it was built in the 1890's, when it came up for sale I approached the realtor for permission to hunt the site, but he declined. Today a crew tore down the building & garage, taking all the debris away, then used a bobcat to scrape the surface of the lot. I think it would still be a good site to hunt. There was no basement underneath.

 

[Normsel]

Heck go for it. Scraping the ground with a bobcat may even churn a few coins to the top

 

[Tom_in_CA]

... when it came up for sale I approached the realtor for permission to hunt the site, but he declined.

Well .... welcome to the harsh reality of things The safe and easy answer for anyone in authority (let's face it) is "no". I'm not saying you ALWAYS get "no's" , but ..... can you blame them ? Why should they be bothered? And now that's it's just a vacant lot (perhaps un-fenced? no signs?) , you have to ask yourself if you aren't just a victim of "no one cared till you asked".

So I have a suspicion that most guys on the forums here who hunt demolition sites, .... uh .... just go. But it's sticky to say that on an open forum. Because it's a little like asking publically: "can I go 56 in a 55 mph?". Naturally, on a family-friendly forum, you'll have to be given the obligatory answer: "No, you can't. Don't exceed the speed limit".

Oh, and by the way: I do not go 56 in 55mph, in case anyone was wondering.

 

[Fletch88]

Well .... welcome to the harsh reality of things The safe and easy answer for anyone in authority (let's face it) is "no". I'm not saying you ALWAYS get "no's" , but ..... can you blame them ? Why should they be bothered? And now that's it's just a vacant lot (perhaps un-fenced? no signs?) , you have to ask yourself if you aren't just a victim of "no one cared till you asked". So I have a suspicion that most guys on the forums here who hunt demolition sites, .... uh .... just go. But it's sticky to say that on an open forum. Because it's a little like asking publically: "can I go 56 in a 55 mph?". Naturally, on a family-friendly forum, you'll have to be given the obligatory answer: "No, you can't. Don't exceed the speed limit". Oh, and by the way: I do not go 56 in 55mph, in case anyone was wondering.

Yep, JUST DO IT! Go at dark 30 or 5 am and no one will ever hassle you. I have 4 spots in mind right now, 3 auction houses and one hotel site that's leveled and scrapped.

 

[EagleDown]

Not here 1920's house, They bulldozed it including the Shed full of mechanical parts!!! Did hit a Merc dime in the Grass Strip. If they ever do anything else on the Lot we will be all over it HH Chug 4 years and Still Waiting Impatiently

In my opinion, any house built prior to the 1930's has the potential for fantastic finds. Remember, it was in the 30's that Franklin D. Roosevelt confiscated gold from the American people. A lot of the people were totally against this gov. 'wealth grab' and went out in the middle of the night and buried any gold they were afraid of having taken from them. Many of these "hoarders" passed away without ever recovering their hidden wealth. When they passed away, all that was left was family rumors of "Uncle Otto" having had a lot of gold coins that were never found after his passing.

My personal knowledge of treasures having been found not withstanding, all you have to do is read the many posts in Tnet to validate my opinion. (lol)

 

[Diggin-N-Dumps]

I have my best luck on those....the older the better. Normally they will scrap off a good few inches, which is loaded with years of trash...I hit any excavated lots i see!!!

 

[BDinutah]

Thanks for all of the replies, it's raining today...but it's going to be nice & sunny at 0530 tomorrow morning...

 

[etex]

Yes, especially after a few good rains. Most of the time you can google map the address and see the building or house that was torn down and get an ideal how old it was.

 

[Fletch88]

My problem is getting there before they haul in 900 dump trucks full of fresh fill dirt.

Did you make it this AM?

 

[BDinutah]

"Fletch88;3994788"]Did you make it this AM?

Yes I did! Not even the old agent orange could keep me away :-) I got there at 0530 (night opp.) and started hunting, the back light on my X-Terra 705 works great! The dozer had taken off 3" of topsoil, but still some trash. When it got light I found that someone had come in yesterday/last night and hunted ahead of me, leaving 30+ holes unfilled, so as I hunted, I filled all of their holes. The 4 coins I found were still 3-4" deep, but it was a lot of fun and I'm excited about how well detector worked! It only took me about 2 hours to hunt the whole lot, but that's all the energy I had, it was a great morning! (Sorry for the duplicate photo, operator head-space error)

 

[Tom_in_CA]

Ah, you can't argue with a silver quarter, now can you? haha And if you could find 4 old coins, I wonder how well the fellow who beat-you-to-the-draw did ? Congratz . And now you know how to get into urban old-town demo. scrapes from now on

 

[Fletch88]

Congrats on the silver and coppers your first outing with new machine! I have 2 tear outs I'm trying to hit but not much competition around here. I hope.

 

[Msbeepbeep]

Next time ASAP ! Nice finds!

 

[mercury1]

Nice quarter!

 

[swolfe]

I always try to dig the old houses right before they tear them down. They will pull the fencing out and even the windows sometimes. After they are torn down I don't do well.