Farmers Field Hunt: Where to Begin?

[artemis moon]

Farmer's Field Hunt: Where to Begin?

I've seen a lot of posts where people find all sorts of interesting things in farm fields, from coins to buttons and everything in between...so, I just got permission to hunt a piece of property that has been part of a farm since the mid 1800s. It's an hour or so away from where I live, so I'm not going to have an infinite amount of time to search this property. It's about 120 acres and has a creek running through it. My question to the experts is, where do I begin? Do I just start at one end of the field and work my way through, which will take me until the next ice age, or are there clues that would point me in the right direction of where to start my search? I've walked the field and have not noticed any foundations, but there are some stone walls bordering the fields and some suspicious looking "bumps" in an otherwise fairly flat piece of property. I'm guessing that those areas would be good places to check out. I have also looked through land records and tried talking with the farmer, but didn't get a sense that their was much more information...so, it's what you see is what you get. Any advice is very much appreciated.

 

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[Terry Soloman]

Before there were village or city parks, the only large open place to have a big celebration at the beginning of spring or end of the harvest was a farm field. Start at a corner close to the access road and start swinging. High spots in farm fields can sometimes be the site of original farm houses - but not always. Troops in the Revolutionary and Civil Wars trained and camped in harvested farm fields. The key is to research rural areas and see if there is mention of traveling carnivals, or harvest celebrations at particular farms or homesteads. Just pick a spot and start sampling. If you find nothing after 30-minutes, move to a new section of the field. Best of luck!

 

[artemis moon]

Thanks, that's just the sort of information I was looking for!

 

[wkrp43]

Great advice, GL and HH

 

[Tom_in_CA]

artemis, I don't mean to be a kill-joy, but most of the people who hunt "farm fields" (random row crop ag fields) are European hunters. The average farm field in the USA isn't old enough to have accumulated enough "field worker" fumble fingers losses. (assuming it was strictly ag. use, and not recreational use as Terry says happens).

In Europe, where there's been fields continuously cultivated for 2000 to 3000 years, then it's true that you can just wander out to any field, and ......... given enough swinging, find random coins. But not so here in the USA. Well, yes and no. I mean, sure, you'll EVENTUALLY find "a coin", sure. But no, not like going to places with specific commercial or recreational usage. Ie.: stage stops, camp sites, where old homes stood, etc...

For example: Here where I'm at in CA, there's some row crop land we researched, where an indian rancheria (contact period indians) lived in huts from their "contact" times of the 1790s, till perhaps the 1820s. Naturally we're there for just that period of artifacts. It sat unused (perhaps cattle only) till the 1910s. HOWEVER, it became ag. use starting in about the 1910s (modern period). Sugar beets, lettuce, etc..... And sure, now and then we find a "nuisance" wheat penny, buffalo nickel, memorial, or even a silver washington once. And all those would be from the casual loss of a field worker/harvester. But no, in no way shape or form would it have been worth combing those fields for those losses, if "field worker" losses have been our objective. There's just simply not enough time for such losses to have accrued (verses the amount of time we've spent looking for the reales and buttons which are our true objective).

Not sure about the east coast (as you say, which are a bit older, which as you say, date to the mid 1850s tillage). But seems to me your time is STILL better spent hunting known parks, camps, ruins, known home or cellar holes, etc....

 

[cudamark]

Yup, I'd also hunt around any trees on the property and the creek area. Even though rock walls are hardly rare in New England (as you probably know already), I'd still be tempted to run a big coil along their length....on both sides.... All that hard work in the fields they needed a place to rest out of the hot sun.

 

[artemis moon]

Tom, it's OK to be a kill joy when you are speaking the truth. I guess that I hadn't realized that the stuff that is found in farmer's fields in the US are generally things that were dropped by field workers. I had thought that at different points throughout history the fields had been used for different purposes (taverns, stage coach areas, etc.) and that's why people where finding buttons and coins. In that case, you are correct in saying that 200 years is not enough time to accumulate anything other than the random coin or relic and therefore may not be worth the time to detect without having found any research that points to additional uses of the field. Now, I think a trip across the pond may be in order!

 

[Terry Soloman]

Farm fields here in New York, Connecticut, and Vermont, have been worked since the 1600s. We find old silvers and coppers in them ALL the time. Don't let Tom be a "Debbie Downer."

 

[G.A.P.metal]

Yep i hunt the fields and woods all the time and do very well.
Gary

 

[CoilyGirl]

Good luck Artemis and I guess I too,like you have the heart of an optimist.Yourarea is very old so you never know what you might find.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

..... I had thought that at different points throughout history the fields had been used for different purposes (taverns, stage coach areas, etc.) and that's why people where finding buttons and coins.....

Well, yes, if you can deduce that those type things were there, then yes, that makes it more than just a "random field". In those cases, something had been there (rather than just crops, and whatever a field-worker/farmer happened to have dropped).

But as you can see, a few east coasters are chiming in saying they do just walk out "anywhere" (fields and forests) to metal detect. There's 200 yrs. more history on the eastern seaboard. But still though, if you "pressed them", they'd admit that even east coast hunters are going to favor places where known activity occurred. Based on the amount of coins I see accumulate in 100 yrs. of our vegetable growing history in my area (the random wheatie or buffalo), I can not imagine that even in 300 years, that it's going to be a "must hunt" area, to simply walk off in any direction (the desert, cow pastures, row crops, etc...) when no particular usage/reason for the area was there (aside from a few times per year someone with a sickle). As opposed to parks, schools, taverns, homes, camp-sites, stage stops, etc... But that's just me.

 

[bluediamounds 55]

High ground close to the creek

 

[Ism]

First I would do a cursory search along the road frontage and work my way back to around 100 yds from the road searching for targets. While swinging the coil, look for signs of civilization like glass or pottery shards..etc.
Also work along the creek. If you have any historical maps of the area, they might show a homestead, but the map will only show a homestead that was there at the time it was made.
Lack of map evidence doesn't mean that a homestead was never there.