Detecting mining ghost towns

[capri_auto]

I found an old ghost town, nothing left besides some foundations, old bottles and so on. Had a population of about 750 at it's peak. The homes were all owned by the mining company, there was a saloon, hotel and a school. There was also a church in the area which in no longer there, but I know the exact spot.

I have a good idea of the arrangement of the buildings, not sure where the hotel or saloon was yet though. Took my about 3 hours to find this place today so I only got to detect for about an house, didnt find anything good. Someone in the past was diggin bottles at this side, plastic bucket still in the hole.

Anyone ever hunt an area like this? Where should I concentrate my time? And do sites like this typically produce coins, these miners were pretty poor, and the mining company took rent and any purchases from the general store out of their pay.

Any advice would be great!

Thanks everyone!

 

[Tom_in_CA]

The best places would be where money (coins) was brought out, exchanged hands, etc... So stores, saloons, stage stop-type-stuff, etc... And another good spot is if you know if there was a tent-city type habitations, where guys slept on the ground. Sometimes these boomtowns started like that (before eventually giving way to more permanent wooden structures).

 

[njnydigger]

Just my opinion, I'd try and search the outer perimeters of ANY ghost town, NOT the ghost town itself. Why? Simple...

Most ghost towns have been hit HARD over the years. Doesn't mean there isn't anything there, just, you're gonna have to work a LOT harder to find it. In essence, you're looking for the "crumbs" that other detectorists left behind.

However, the folks in the town DID have to move around. So, try nearby look-outs, ranges, creeks, rivers, roads, etc. Your chances are MUCH better in these fringe places IMHO versus the town itself.

The only exception to the above would be if you think you found a virgin site. If so, tear that puppy apart. But, finding a virgin ghost town nowadays is pretty tough. They were all hit hard from the 70's through the 90's.

P.S. - Money was hard to come by in those days. Sure, it was used, however, in smaller quantities. The working folks just didn't have too much of it. You WILL find some, but, I'd imagine more things like tokens, gun parts, bottles, broaches, etc. That's the great part about hunting those kinda places...never know what's gonna pop out of the ground. Be on the lookout for nuggets too.

Have fun

 

[capri_auto]

Thanks for the replies. This is an iron mining town, I wish it was a gold town lol. As far as I can tell it hasn't been detected, at least not hard. I was there for not too long (maybe an hour)and dug a bunch of great signals, turned out to be junk only so far. Without a map, there's no way anyone would realize there was a town here unless they did in depth research, even so the place took me 3 hrs to find, its very well hidden and a mile off any road. With that said, someone deff has dug out some bottles in the past...

Today I scouted the site some more, and found the foundation of the old church! Also located the foundation of the hotel and narrowed the location of the school to 2 spots... I just need a break in the heat and I'll be there for a full day's hunt!

 

[Darshevo]

When looking over the layout try to determine how the roads ran and how the commercial buildings sat. The area in front of the building whether old west style board walk or porch/landing type of a setup is a good place to look. If anyone dropped change good chance it fell through the boards only to be laying in wait for you to find it.

-Lance

 

[Bavaria Mike]

Check the southern sides of the houses where a clothes line would have been, the route between the main house and the outhouse as well. The outhouses would be interesting to dig out and sift. Around the church should also be good as there were many community activities happening there. You have a lot of potential! HH, Mike