improve finds?

[urban miner]

Hey, I've read this site for awhile but just recently started posting... Anyway I got into this hobby with my dad, years ago. We usually detected in city parks and schools, finding mostly pocket change. Nothing of any real excitement, a couple wheats being the oldest. I just started to get back into this but want to improve my finds. For the more serious and/or long time members, what do you suggest I do to improve my finds (by improve I mean older coins and any cool historical relics)? Do you detect public land? Private? For those that do private, do you usually know the person or knock and ask? I live in Michigan and it seems that anything of historical significance is owned by the city and not available to hunt. I know to find older things, I must research what, where, and how the land was used long ago but how do you find that? Any suggestions or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Happy hunting

 

[Charlie P. (NY)]

I do most of my detecting on public land, schools and parks, but occasionally ask permission for private property. I coin hunt, and public places tend to have more of those.

Do some research keeping in mind coins are found where people reach into theor pockets - fairs, carnivals, concession stands, farmer's markets, etc.

If you're looking for relics research local battles, encampments or old cellar holes.

 

[TerryC]

Urban, This may sound really broad but ANYWHERE PEOPLE GATHER. There are virtually hundreds of places to look to improve your finds. First, may I say, record your finds in a notebook. Really! You will record all places, weather conditions, soil conditions, finds... good and bad. What your detector "said" for good finds, bad finds, and the settings for each. With all this info put in one place, you will begin to see patterns emerge. When you see successfull patterns, try to duplicate the parrameters. Success breads success. Second, Know your detector and your searching technique. Can you get a veteran hunter to critique your machine settings and how you search? Now, my favorite, drool, crave, type of place to look (not many around) is a lot where the topsoil has been scraped off. An EPA thing for new construction. The people working on the lot have put you about 5 inches closer to the OLD coins. A few summers ago, I worked the SW corner of Howard and Kinnikinnic in Milwaukee, WI. Using mostly a Garrett 250, over the course of a summer (7 visits?) I found about 28 wheats, 4 silver dimes, 1 silver Quarter, 1 Buffalo nickle, and 1 clad. No jewelry (pooh!). Other spots I like are.... the area that runs between the back door and the transportation... assuming grass and not concrete. Under the large tree in the front yard of old homes.... they didn't have air-conditioning. The direct path between bleachers and the concession stand in an old park. Note: be certain the ball diamond hasn't been relocated. Hundreds of places I can think of. I've been detecting for over 40 years. I have also found jars and jars of good jewelry and baubles. I can go on and on but that is why they write many books on where to look. Oh, do much research. JimB, Alpha105, TimC, and I hunted the childhood home of Charles Giteau, the later assassin of Garfield. The library ghost town book showed a large tree stump in the front yard. It was nolonger there when we hunted. I found a V nickle under where the tree would have been. Try to look up old pics of old parks and use them to find where the buildings once stood. Also, the horseshoe pits. They don't have many of those anymore. You will find BUNCHES of dimes there. Hows that for starters? You figure out the rest. My two typing fingers hurt! Go for it! TTC

 

[deepskyal]

I hunt public land but not the run of the mill public land. Don't get me wrong, I hit a couple older parks that still like to kick up an old wheatie or 2, but those are getting rarer with the amount of people detecting and how much time has past when I first started detecting years ago.

Through research, I like to find the old lumber camps, RR stations, where the original county fairs were held, etc. Just because a county fair has been in the same place for 30, 40, 50 years...doesnt mean it wasn't somewhere else befor and even another place before that. Small pieces of these places are still around and as posted...wherever people gathered, there's a good chance something was dropped.

Lumber camps and old mills are almost impossible to find in the woods just by eyeballing because nature has reclaimed much. But through detecting and a good imagination, you can figure that level spot in the middle of nowhere along that somewhat obvious logging trail, could be your jackpot. Remember payday...those old loggers had no place to hide their small pay from the other guys and a drunk nights spree, they bury their pay, forget it or get hurt and never recover it.....

It's all limited to your imagination.

A lot of small towns around here have community libraries with microfilmed local newspapers and almost without fail, some person may have done an indepth history of the town that is on file. That is an excellent place to start your research. The internet is great for research but is not even close to what you'll find in libraries. The internet is available to all and I use it for old maps and such but if there's a treasure lead or detecting location posted...well you can figure others know it too and may have been hit already.

In a main branch library here, there is a small book on old playgrounds. It was written in the 1950's. Think about it, in 1950 they were writing about OLD playgrounds. But as other oldtimers like myself used the libraries, that book is well worn and dirty...like someone just came from detecting with their dirty hands and paged through it...lol.

It's a shame how underused libraries have become because they are just so vastly rich with info. Everyone wants the ease of use of the internet.

One or 2 good book sites on the internet have old local history books written in the late 1800's and earlier that you can download in a pdf format. Copyrights are public so they are free. Google has books and the other site is called, "The Online Books Page". If you can't down load it from there, look it up on Google where you might be able to download. If nothing else, you can still read it online. Imagine local history written in 1850. Doesn't get much better than that.

I'm always scanning roads when I drive around and do spend some time just endlessly driving places looking back in the woods for a subtle spot to hit. Even Youtube has locals interested in history and doing videos of old locations they find fascinating. There are a couple I follow for old mill locations, ferrys, beehive coke ovens, etc. And the best part is you see the site and choose where to detect without having to go there.

Okay...enough of my secrets...have at it! Good luck.

Al

 

[TimC]

urban miner,
My brother, TerryC, and I grew up in Milwaukee, WI. He knows his beans about MD'ing. One area he didn't mention in a city setting is the strip of grass between the sidewalk and the street. Lots of newer coins and some jewelry. Another real good spot would be where the carnivals used to set up; lots of trash though. Good luck.
TimC (That plug, excuse the pun, cost you another $5 brother.. LOL.)

 

[TerryC]

urban miner,
My brother, TerryC, and I grew up in Milwaukee, WI. He knows his beans about MD'ing. One area he didn't mention in a city setting is the strip of grass between the sidewalk and the street. Lots of newer coins and some jewelry. Another real good spot would be where the carnivals used to set up; lots of trash though. Good luck.
TimC (That plug, excuse the pun, cost you another $5 brother.. LOL.)

You a bean counter, now, Tim? Tnx, put it on my bill. Just to show you my bean bag is bigger than Tim's, he should have said the better grass strip is on the driver's side of a one way street, when the drivers park on that side. TTC

 

[Lakemonster]

Research has made all the difference for me.

Some parks have been there for 30-40 years..... some are placed where an old school or other public building once stood. Figuring this stuff out has been how I have upped my silver and jewelry finds.

See if your state has a website like this

http://www.tshaonline.org/

I use this for Texas... you can search the name of a town and get some history of the place... sometimes you will learn that the old town was actually a mile or two away until the railroad went in. Then you can go to Google maps and look at satellite imagery and find remnants of old fence rows that make up small lots of land... and tada.... you found your ghost town. etc.

Another tactic I use is not to overestimate or underestimate any site. I have found nothing but junk at what one would consider a potential honey hole at first glance..... on the flipside... I have made some of my best finds in the worst neighborhoods or really unlikely looking spots.

Gotta remember.... it aint what is there now....but what was there then.

 

[urban miner]

Thanks to everyone who has posted on this topic. You have definitely pointed me in the right direction. I'm just starting to brush up on the history of my town and it's almost as fun learning the history as it will be to go out there searching... On a side note to Terry, Charles Guiteau went to the same high school I did (he's from Illinois but moved to Michigan). I just thought that was kinda cool. Thanks again guys. I'll start posting some (better) finds soon.

 

[TerryC]

Thanks to everyone who has posted on this topic. You have definitely pointed me in the right direction. I'm just starting to brush up on the history of my town and it's almost as fun learning the history as it will be to go out there searching... On a side note to Terry, Charles Guiteau went to the same high school I did (he's from Illinois but moved to Michigan). I just thought that was kinda cool. Thanks again guys. I'll start posting some (better) finds soon.

Tnx for the proper spelling of Guiteau. History is cool! Yes, fun. I went to the same High School in Milwaukee as Gen. McArther. I went to a grade school, Riley (on 4th and hayes, I think) that Golda Meier (spell?), Isreal's first Prime Minister, taught at. She was 22 at the time. Neat! TTC