Can?t believe didn?t find hardly anything

[bufaloeletric]

Did the map maker just spill ink all over the map or am I just that bad. Went to this site today and crawled through rhododendron for 5 hours today. Maybe one spot looked like a place someone might would have seen as a feasible spot to build on. First pic is map I went by, second pic is pretty much all I found.

 

[SD51]

Keep looking and you will be rewarded!

 

[Mud Hut]

What was suppose to be there?

 

[ScoTTT2]

I'm guessing that the dotted line was once the road through there .. and since there isn't a road going to the buildings up the creek that the creek was the access to those buildings marked .. they might not have been a residence .. but something other .. what year is this map? .. I would be looking along the road (if that is what it is) and also in the creek bed .. also be digging iron/everything .. it is possible that there just isn't anything there to find

 

[ticndig]

maybe you're checking a place that was hunted hard over the years. I once hunted one of Lees winter camps , spent about 4 hours without a tone . I kept testing my machine and trying different settings ,zero targets recovered. other relic hunters had completely cleared the area not even a shotgun brass or 22 bullet to be found. the guy hunting with me had the same results. keep swinging and dig those iffy signals and you'll be on the good stuff in time.

 

[crashbandicoot]

Bummer.Going by that map I,d have expected to find something too.perhaps you haven,t gotten to the building or home sites yet.Hard to imagine it,s all hunted out.I,d wait for cooler weather and give it one more good try at least.Good luck to you!Good map work,by the way.

 

[bufaloeletric]

What was suppose to be there?

Buildings I presume. That’s how all the topo maps depict them as far as I know.

 

[bufaloeletric]

I'm guessing that the dotted line was once the road through there .. and since there isn't a road going to the buildings up the creek that the creek was the access to those buildings marked .. they might not have been

1936 topo map. Yes, the dotted line was more of a “jeep trail” at that time, which was just an old road. Somewhere along that route a Union retreat took place. I don’t know if it was along that actual path though. There were parts of the creekbed that pretty much had to have been the roadway considering the topography. Idk how a horse could have navigated through the rhododendron if the vegetation was the same back then though. But apparently they did, as I found three different partial horseshoes along the way. There was one odd site that appeared to have a outhouse/cellar hole, and that’s where I found the button and bullet among some random pieces of what appeared to be some sort of zinc housing for something.

I’ve been pretty good about identifying old homesites in the woods that weren’t depicted on maps, but like I said, nothing stood out up and down that hollow to me as even a potential place to have built except that one particular spot, which didn’t make much sense as the creek being so close and it basically being in a hole. Only thing I can think of was that they were logging camps, but I’ve never known a logging camp to be depicted at all on a topo before.

 

[bufaloeletric]

maybe you're checking a place that was hunted hard over the years. I once hunted one of Lees winter camps , spent about 4 hours without a tone . I kept testing my machine and trying different settings ,zero targets recovered. other relic hunters had completely cleared the area not even a shotgun brass or 22 bullet to be found. the guy hunting with me had the same results. keep swinging and dig those iffy signals and you'll be on the good stuff in time.

I saw signs of more modern campsites in the same hollow, perhaps they were other detectorists. But usually things get missed as you might know, or those guys/gals were really good. It’s on such rough terrain and out of the way though, that I wouldn’t think many have searched there at all. I’ve found other such “ghost towns” and always came away with pretty definitive proof that it existed. This one has me perplexed.

 

[bufaloeletric]

bandicoot, thanks. The older topo maps have proven to be really handy. The only problem is, they were there for everyone else to see haha. What really pumps me is when I’m on these big farms I get permissions to and run up on old sites that weren’t ever shown on a map. Finding these old places and being able to confirm they were indeed in existence has become more of a hobby to me than the actual metal detecting itself. I’d love to be in europe where the metal working culture has been in existence for thousands of years. Can’t imagine how many unrecorded homesites exist under that dirt.

 

[pa-dirt_nc-sand]

I hunt a lot of areas in ravines like this. One technique that has been effective is to walk the stream until you see pottery. Then look for the old homestead. If no pottery is found, likely very little chance of old occupation nearby.

 

[crashbandicoot]

I saw signs of more modern campsites in the same hollow, perhaps they were other detectorists. But usually things get missed as you might know, or those guys/gals were really good. It’s on such rough terrain and out of the way though, that I wouldn’t think many have searched there at all. I’ve found other such “ghost towns” and always came away with pretty definitive proof that it existed. This one has me perplexed.

Bear in mind that a barn or utility type building is usually depicted with an open square,while the solid square usually depicts a habitation of some type.I too often get more interested in the hunt for what the map showed to once have been there.I understand about Europe,but I,ll stay here,never lost anything there I need to go look for.Patience and perseverence,luck to you!