Never Came Home from Civil War

[bcruzin]

I have a pretty hot lead and I need your advice.
Plantation built in 1805.
4 of the boys who lived there during the Civil War allegedly buried their belongings before heading off to the war.
None of the 4 boys returned.
Mother of 4 boys went insane, left the place. Completely abandoned.
Place burnt to the ground early 1900s
Rebuilt by next generation of the family in the 1940s.
Abandoned in the 1950s due to financial reasons.
Handdug well on the property is currently plugged with an antique VW Beetle.
Purchased in 1992 by a friend of mine. 120+ acres.
Home is falling in on itself and he's turned the acreage into a tree farm. South West VA

SO, after all that... I'm on the hunt for Civil War Cache(s) with my Coinmaster GT and ProPointer.


I'd like input about typical cache locations on a plantation site/homesite. Were there popular spots to bury? I hate walking into a large area and having zero clue where to start. I will update this thread as I begin to detect the site in early Nov.

Place is virgin soil... I'm fairly certain. I'm giving you all the info I have. Apologize if it's not quite enough to go on.

 

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[smokeythecat]

Use the metal detector first. Grid off the place. (Look to the rear of the buildings and around old fence lines and trees first.) They wouldn't have deliberately hid the good stuff out front, but someplace out back they could find, but others would have had a problem guessing. Rocks? After you've gone over the whole thing, and (you might as well figure you've got a few year project here), then get a small dozer and take 6" of the likely spots, make sure you put everything back the way it was. Good luck and not kidding about the dozer. They rent by the day.

 

[HutSiteDigger]

If you get out there and can't find it.. shoot me a message, chances are they may have buried it say 2 feet in the ground, you have to look for little depressions in the ground that indicate the soil was messed with @ one time another, kinda like finding hut sites or old cellar holes, may just be a small little dip/depression of the soil..

Seriously if you can't find it shoot me a message, i go to Rustburg/Lynchburg area a-lot since I got family up there and have done quite a bit detecting up that way. I am not a shady person either, I have taken quite a few members here on TN out relic hunting in Stafford for civil war relics and also have quite a few references from land-owners. Give it a shot and if you need professional advice contact me, I can pull old land maps, insurance maps and look at the layout of the land today and I have archaeology software that will create what the property looked like in the time frame you want,etc.. Good luck sounds like a fun weekend trip..

 

[bcruzin]

I will be in touch.

Unrelated: any if you charge a flat rate for detecting services? Guy I'm working with is old school and no matter how many times I tell him I'd do it for free, he demands a rate. So what do you charge?

 

[DeepseekerADS]

This is a tough one for you Cruzin......

Each and every local digger on this site would want an opportunity to dig there, whether or not there was any chance of finding anything. 120 acres can be a lifetime hunt, and virgin ground at that. I've hunted an acre of my farm near Fairystone Park for over 30 years, and still occasionally find a wheat. A cache 2 feet or more in the ground would be pretty difficult to detect unless you absolutely knew what your detector is telling you, and you gridded, mapped, and took a very slow swing.

Not meaning to dishearten you, but the guy you're working with is absolutely correct in his wary approach. I'd say that first off, the two of you need a signed agreement between you - to give both of you safety & comfort - you know what happens between two friends when it comes to treasure.....

And certainly a guest hunter would want something from the adventure to add to a collection. Many, many hours can be expended at this location. Meanwhile, old coppers and silver coins will likely pop up here and there - outside of any cache... How would those be handled?

Greed and disappointment are extremely powerful emotions. And first and foremost, the owner would probably be demanding and alert.

The only way to deal with this would be a paper contract signed by all - yet even that comes down to the split - who gets what - when it comes down to a specific finding?

Good Luck.....

And then of course - brought to you by the sponsor of this message - I'm local too....

 

[CaptainRobin]

I know the kind of story you're telling... got one from an OLD woman back in the '70s. Her grandfather went out the night before he left for the war and buried his gold, and he never came home. The family never found it. I've never searched for it, but I do know the Family name and time frame. Would be some serious research in records to locate the property. Just an insider tip... and one to surely cause contention. Most old homesteads had a burying ground. It was not uncommon for caches to be placed in them.

 

[bcruzin]

Invaluable information from seekers much more experienced than I. Very valid points from all contributors. Contract is in the draft stage now. I hadn't even considered the other items we'll inevitably stumble across. Tunnel vision. Cache vision.

Thank you to those that posted. I will be discussing the option of bringing in pros should we get skunked

 

[DeepseekerADS]

Thinking about this more, when the owner keeps asking how much you would charge, I believe that he means he'd keep all finds.

I don't think he could afford a reasonable hourly rate, when it is very, very likely it would take some time to search the land properly.

Now another alternative I've heard raised which he might wish to consider .......

I've seen the question raised here on this site: Offer permission to search, with the finder keeping all finds with essentially a paid license to hunt there. It wouldn't be real cool, but they do the same thing in the VA lottery with the scratch offs. Nobody needs to know that the cache has already been found.

I don't know how many people would pony up cash for the right to hunt there, but it would be cash in the owner's pocket whether or not the cache was ever found.

 

[bcruzin]

Now that's an interesting proposal! I tutor this guys grandkid and we have a rapport. I'm a teacher by trade. I don't know if he'd accept money from me. He wants to spend a Saturday up there and hit the hot spots he has found just walking around. Ruins, trash pit, well with VW beetle in it. Go from there I suppose.


We only hope the legends are true about the 4 civil war soldiers. His daughter had a history of the property that she researched in Grad school. I need to get my hands on that.

 

[DCMatt]

We only hope the legends are true about the 4 civil war soldiers.

Have you verified that there actually were four brothers from the family who fought and were killed in the war? I'd start with that before spending time and money searching for a cache.

DCMatt

 

[bcruzin]

Matt
I couldn't agree more. So far it's hear-say. Fact checking will be priority 1. Despite that it's still an 1800s virgin soil plantation.

 

[rovnrbl53]

Never Came Home

Why don't you structure a deal where you get a percentage of the cache finds, 40 - 50%? That way if you find anything you both get rewarded, if you don't, you get nothing where you offered the search for free anyway. I'd suggest looking at Google Earth and a topo map to see if any unusual features stand out - large trees, rocks, streams, etc. It's also possible you're looking for one large cache, not four smaller ones.

Good luck!

 

[rovnrbl53]

Also - where was the father in this? Imagine he started the plantation. Still bothering me why the brothers would bury their "belongings"....I doubt that was typical....and what are they going to bury, other than money?

 

[H-2 CHARLIE]

this should be a productive area , I woild look around the bigest trees first then any old fence posts ...Good luck

 

[bcruzin]

Also - where was the father in this? Imagine he started the plantation. Still bothering me why the brothers would bury their "belongings"....I doubt that was typical....and what are they going to bury, other than money?

Agreed. This story like most small town legends has its share of holes. My research continues. Nov 1 is the scheduled visit. Owner hates snakes and it seems the place is chock full. He wants to wait on temps to drop here in VA

I'll post pics of the area. It's a tree farm currently so most topographic features are obscured.

 

[smokeythecat]

My grandfather had some land near Bogalusa, Louisiana. I've been to the property. The family legend had it that once upon a time ago they buried their gold on the property. Trouble is these people were so poor they probably didn't know what gold was.

 

[WVPapaw]

I have a pretty hot lead and I need your advice. Plantation built in 1805. 4 of the boys who lived there during the Civil War allegedly buried their belongings before heading off to the war. None of the 4 boys returned. Mother of 4 boys went insane, left the place. Completely abandoned. Place burnt to the ground early 1900s Rebuilt by next generation of the family in the 1940s. Abandoned in the 1950s due to financial reasons. Handdug well on the property is currently plugged with an antique VW Beetle. Purchased in 1992 by a friend of mine. 120+ acres. Home is falling in on itself and he's turned the acreage into a tree farm. South West VA SO, after all that... I'm on the hunt for Civil War Cache(s) with my Coinmaster GT and ProPointer. I'd like input about typical cache locations on a plantation site/homesite. Were there popular spots to bury? I hate walking into a large area and having zero clue where to start. I will update this thread as I begin to detect the site in early Nov. Place is virgin soil... I'm fairly certain. I'm giving you all the info I have. Apologize if it's not quite enough to go on.

Ok, I would try to put myself in the 4 soldiers shoes and try to identify where they would bury the casches. Someone who buries a casche on a plantation is going to put it where they can keep an eye on it from the house, but if they know they are going away to war, would most likely bury it in a very secret hidden place like deep in the woods. If there is a woods on the property, I would start my search there. I would try dowsing a google earth picture of the place to try and locate the caches with a pendulum. You don't have anything to lose by trying it, anyway. I would scour the woods looking for possible landmarks like overgrown trees, big rocks or other significant terrain features such as a hilltop or rocky point. Look for markers, carvings in trees or rocks and other signs pointing to possible cache sites. Good luck.

 

[cw0909]

if you run their name here you might find something,dont forget the 2box
HH
whoops,forgot your lookin in va,still might find a good map
Historic Map Works, Residential Genealogy ?

 

[The Rebel]

Also might want to see if there are any historical air maps here: NETR Online • Historic Aerials

This way you can see what the area looked like & perhaps point you in the right direction.

 

[bcruzin]

Thank you. The 1st rapidly approaches. Excited. That word doesn't quite describe it