Back in southwest Virginia. Any leads?

[bufaloeletric]

I just wrote a lengthy post about this, it didn?t load, I?m not happy now. Two well known treasure stories. Saltville saltpeter mine, Tazewell man named Grierson. Both involved union soldiers looting on raids. Tazewell has me interested, even though zero corroborating evidence can be found, story does mention plantation was eventually acquired by government. Quite a bit of Taxewell county is still National Forest.

So if anyone has anything they would like me to take a look at, I?m always looking for a reason to get out the house. Second, I remember a guy mentioning somewhere on this site that he had found a civil war camp in the area. I wouldn?t mind having a chat. Perhaps you can help me find my first official civ memorabilia. I?d be willing to take you to an old moonshiner?s place I?ve heard tales of and verified myself that something at least sat on the sight.

 

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[RTR]

Welcome back to SWVA
" something to look into"...How about that civil war gold train ?
Every time I drive on Rt.460(West of Appomattox) and look over at those train tracks IT drives me Crazy . That much gold didn't move far off those tracks,even on wagons w/o drawing attention .

 

[bufaloeletric]

I’ve detected a few railbeds around. There is so much metal in and around the things. Even the ones that have been “removed”. One of my oldest coins to date was found near a deleted roadbed though. I don’t know any specifics of what you are talking about though.

I’d be happy hunting anywhere around Appomattox, regardless of tracks. There is a lot more stuff in the ground in that direction than here. This was basically the frontier up until the 1800s a bit. Not that many people running around to drop stuff.

 

[RTR]

I’ve detected a few railbeds around. There is so much metal in and around the things. Even the ones that have been “removed”. One of my oldest coins to date was found near a deleted roadbed though. I don’t know any specifics of what you are talking about though.

I’d be happy hunting anywhere around Appomattox, regardless of tracks. There is a lot more stuff in the ground in that direction than here. This was basically the frontier up until the 1800s a bit. Not that many people running around to drop stuff.

The Train left Richmond Va. heading South (not too many train routes back then to choose from). My guess(most logical) it stopped in Appomattox . Then continued further South to Georgia ,empty.
>> https://www.history.com/news/confederate-gold-jefferson-davis
I wonder if LIDAR (on a drone) could find those wagon wheel tracks ?....... Skinny wooden wagon wheels with a Heavy load would sink in.And a few wagons in a row following the tracks ahead ,even better

 

[bufaloeletric]

Appomattox is central VA to me. That’s 3 hours from where I am right now. I don’t know about Lidar, but had a friend that flew the choppers that look for marijuana being grown using heat sensing tech. He said that you could tell where soil had been overturned many years ago from graves and whatnot, due to the soul composition being different due to being overturned. It would hold heat, or lose heat faster than the surrounding, undisturbed topsoil.

Down this way, I can still see wagon roads in some places. The ruts are still pretty easy to see. Some old horse trails too. A single path beat down into the ground about a foot. I never really thought about that being what they were until I started noticing that a lot of the current designated horse trails on National Forest did the same and worse after just a few years. I only notice these old paths on state forest though, I suspect most others on developed land have been graded, or other roads laid over them.