Missed opportunities

[Monty]

Since I have started detecting I have thought back over my lifetime at the opportunities I have missed. Foremost in my mind is when I was stationed in Libya in the Air Force in the early 1960's. I was stationed at Wheelus AB near Tripoli, Libya. All along the Mediterranean sea coast were Roman ruins. They were just out there in the open, no one guarding or protecting them. You were free to walk about the ruins and explore, handle object you find interesting, etc. Wouldn't a few Roman coins look good in a person's collection? Now that Quidaffe has started to coming around to more of a western mode of thinking perhaps the country will open up to tourism? That would be a commodity equal to the oil industry if it did. The beaches are beautiful and the sea is crystal clear, or was when I was there. Of course back then I was only 19 years old and had no fear of man nor beast and finding relics was the furthest thing in my mind. If it didn't have something to do with a cold beer and a pretty girl I wasn't interested. Well, I still like a cold beer on a hot day and to look at pretty girls. Notice I said," look"..., I wouldn't want to hurt myself! Then there were the sites in Florida where Ponce De Leon was thought to have visited searching for the fountain of youth. He obviously never found it as he has been dead for the past 400 years or so! Then there's old robber's cave where several of the notorious early western Indian Territory bad guys use hide out where we use to have our highschool and college beer busts.Heck, I may give that last one a try as it is still there on private land if I can get permission. Oh well lol.

 

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[Lowbatts]

Geez, you are old. Said with a smile of course! Don't you wish you had today's gear in yesteryear's settings!

 

[PJB (Ohio)]

For me, being only 32, I find that most of my regrets come from sites I learn about a week or two too late, such as the old brick road dating to 1806 that they tore up and replaced. Or the 1850's neighborhood that was razed to put in a manufacturing plant. For some reason, I seem to find out about it only a short time after it's "too late."

I need to get some good contacts like Free2Dtect has... people that will tell me when they're tearing up the ground, streets or sidewalks.

 

[Lowbatts]

Unfortunately you have to hit the bricks to see what's going on a lot of the time. A better option if your local governments are up to date is to look at pending and current contract work. Local, state and county governments must make such info public and many use the internet.

It's one of the most valuable tools to those of us who hunt the sidewalk work. Started monitoring these about a year ago and boy the stuff I'd missed, like you, was kicking myself. Found a local county contract information page and started looking at others in the area. Wow. Also get a county planning commission page if you can and you'll see projected development and where to keep your eyes open. Talk to the people who own the rural property also, they can tell you how much land is sold or being sold to developers and get you a jump start on some of the hunting.

 

[Monty]

When I was in charge of Code Enforcement it was part of the Urban Development Department of the City. Urban renewal has slowed way down but they still do a lot of demolition of old buildings and homes. Usually the City acquires the property before the demo takes place and I still am acquainted with some of the folks who do the demos. I plan on cecking with them for their summer schedule and possibly find some good sites this coming year. There's way more sites than I can cover and I am joining a local club and perhaps can recruit a couple of folks to lend a hand. Usually you only have a small window of opportunity before the sites are paved over or grow up in grass making it hard to detect. I am hoping to recover mostly silver coins, probably some old cents, etc.

 

[Lowbatts]

It's excellent to have the connection Jimmileo. I've worked demo sites before with the crew there. The only access I wish I could get was interior prior to demo. Won't trespass to that end. If the crew don't mind my being there, I'll work as close to any excavation as I can get without being run over.

And if the yard has the right characteristics I'll ask the cat driver to run the blade over a small stretch down a couple inches when he gets back from break. They have to account to their boss for all their work too so don't expect very frequent positives for special requests but once in a great while they help a little.

 

[spotz]

It does pay to be connected to the public works guys. My toruble is that I live in a very, VERY small community. I am the chairman of the city planning commission but there is just nothin goin on around here right now. You still need to spend some time riding around looking for potential good sites though. It's a good way to pass a bad weather day. Spotz

 

[Monty]

Usually the contractor will scrape off about two to 4" of the lot to fill in where the foundation was removed. That should give you a slight advantage to start with shouldn't it? Some of these buildings have been here since around 1900 and I am hoping to find some early coins pre-1900. You have to be quick because after about 6 weeks the sites grow up in grass and weeds making it vry hard to work.