TCosbyJr
Jr. Member
- Joined
- Jun 3, 2012
- Messages
- 95
- Reaction score
- 24
- Golden Thread
- 0
- Location
- Bedford, IN
- Detector(s) used
- Current: Tesoro Outlaw, BH Tracker IV, HF MD6008
Ex: White's Coinmaster Pro, BH Discovery 3300, Tesoro Cibola
- Primary Interest:
- Metal Detecting
I imagine this has been asked/answered but a look through the forum doesn't seem to pull up to many possible answers.
As my dad and I just recently got back into MDing we have been looking for old houses/schools/churches/etc. to MD. Turns out we found enough sites to keep us busy for quite a while; however, the problem is there are no -owners/neighbors/etc. left anymore to get permission for these places.
For example a church we found today was built in 1891 and seems to be all but abandoned. It is in a tiny town that has many old buildings/houses/factories that have been abandoned for several years and most are collapsing or just shells/walls. There doesn't seem to be many if any people left anywhere in the town.
Here is a picture of the church I found online, but it has changed some since it was taken.
The church doesn't have any contact information on the sign or anywhere, but the property is mowed at least. I did find some contact information for it online but 2 of the 3 phone numbers are disconnected. The third number is for the "retired" pastor, he left in 2009 and does not know anyone to contact or anything about it's current state. He was very disgruntled in discussing the church and only answered/talked one or two word responses and I found out nothing from him.
We knocked on several doors today with no answers even to houses that appear to have people living in them anywhere near the church. Also the "post office" is nothing more than a few dozen mail boxes and nothing else - no window, post master/person, or anything beyond the wall in the building with the mail boxes in them.
The only way I can think of to track down the current pastor or owner is to try and show up Sunday morning, which would not be the best time to ask to MD - and chances are they no longer have services there anyway.
Does anyone have any ideas how to go about finding more information about such a property to find the land owner, pastor, or someone to contact about getting MD permission?
We also found several old houses, several that had to be from the 1800's based from their architecture/design, lack of electricity poles/lines, any type of road leading to them, etc. Several have thick grass/weeds that would come to my shoulders, but there are some that are in fields that have small grass if any.
All of which seem to be in the middle of nowhere down a old country road and no neighbors/houses or anything around for miles. My question is how would one go about find the owner of old houses or the property itself? Any neighbor we did manage to talk to about such houses had no idea who owns that property - as with most people this day and age they keep to themselves and avoid other neighbors (and haven't been around long enough to know anything about the area).
Any help to get me pointed in the right direction to tracking down the current owners of such properties would be greatly appreciated. As my city parks seem to do nothing more than add to my pull tab collection, and there appears to be many great places within driving distance that would be awesome to MD
I must admit the urge to simply go ahead and detect such places once the owners/permission can't be requested or even found is strong. If we weren't worried so much about ethics/laws/punishment/or what have you, we would detect, but we would like to ask at least.
As my dad and I just recently got back into MDing we have been looking for old houses/schools/churches/etc. to MD. Turns out we found enough sites to keep us busy for quite a while; however, the problem is there are no -owners/neighbors/etc. left anymore to get permission for these places.
For example a church we found today was built in 1891 and seems to be all but abandoned. It is in a tiny town that has many old buildings/houses/factories that have been abandoned for several years and most are collapsing or just shells/walls. There doesn't seem to be many if any people left anywhere in the town.
Here is a picture of the church I found online, but it has changed some since it was taken.
The church doesn't have any contact information on the sign or anywhere, but the property is mowed at least. I did find some contact information for it online but 2 of the 3 phone numbers are disconnected. The third number is for the "retired" pastor, he left in 2009 and does not know anyone to contact or anything about it's current state. He was very disgruntled in discussing the church and only answered/talked one or two word responses and I found out nothing from him.
We knocked on several doors today with no answers even to houses that appear to have people living in them anywhere near the church. Also the "post office" is nothing more than a few dozen mail boxes and nothing else - no window, post master/person, or anything beyond the wall in the building with the mail boxes in them.
The only way I can think of to track down the current pastor or owner is to try and show up Sunday morning, which would not be the best time to ask to MD - and chances are they no longer have services there anyway.
Does anyone have any ideas how to go about finding more information about such a property to find the land owner, pastor, or someone to contact about getting MD permission?
We also found several old houses, several that had to be from the 1800's based from their architecture/design, lack of electricity poles/lines, any type of road leading to them, etc. Several have thick grass/weeds that would come to my shoulders, but there are some that are in fields that have small grass if any.
All of which seem to be in the middle of nowhere down a old country road and no neighbors/houses or anything around for miles. My question is how would one go about find the owner of old houses or the property itself? Any neighbor we did manage to talk to about such houses had no idea who owns that property - as with most people this day and age they keep to themselves and avoid other neighbors (and haven't been around long enough to know anything about the area).
Any help to get me pointed in the right direction to tracking down the current owners of such properties would be greatly appreciated. As my city parks seem to do nothing more than add to my pull tab collection, and there appears to be many great places within driving distance that would be awesome to MD
I must admit the urge to simply go ahead and detect such places once the owners/permission can't be requested or even found is strong. If we weren't worried so much about ethics/laws/punishment/or what have you, we would detect, but we would like to ask at least.
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It lists the property owners/build dates/and so much more. It didn't help me with the church, but did help me find the owner of a 1868 house that sits alone in a old field ready to fall in. I can't wait to see if the owner will let me check around the house for some silver. 
