North Florida Fort

[Stan1942]

My Son got me into detecting about 2 months ago.
He tơok me to a place that he said was a old fort d?ep in the wơods of Leon County.
While there he found a dime that the coin bơok says it is worth $900.00 [that realy got me hơoked]
The spot I was working was a 20x20 hump with lots of exposed stones the sand was black, I think the building was burent down all I found was small rusted metal parts a few metal buttons and lots of home made nails
I can s?e that this place has b?en worked a lot [holes dug all over the place with lots of colored glass in the dirt piles]
there were a lot of stone scarrted about but no clear outline of building foundations.
I told my son I did not think this was a fort because it was d?ep in the wơods with no rivers close by butsomeone did
a lot of work hauling in the rocks.
Since then I have found out you can go to jail for digging this place even tho the State maps don,t show a fort here.

 

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[SHERMANVILLE ILLINOIS]

Stan,

sounds like and interesting site.

Shame that so many areas are off limits. on publlic property.

have a good un.............
SHERMANVILLE ILLINOIS

 

[IrishCharlieM]

You would be amazed at what constituted a Fort in those days......A detatchment and nothing more than a cabin ( for the officer of course ) and a rock and wood wall around it...

 

[hasbeen]

http://www.geocities.com/naforts/fl.html#sem

hasbeen

 

[mumszie]

Where are you in North Florida stan? I'm in Live Oak. Most of the places around here are off limits. UGH!

 

[Stan1942]

I live in Crawfordville about 12 Miles south of Tallahassee near Wakulla springs. I have hunted some sink holes near my house and only found new coins. The good places I would love to hunt are State land. I was told about a mound by a property owner and he let me look at it. someone in the past had dug into it but the main part was untouched the owner told me I could dig but I did not because it was next to the property line of the state forest. I did run my detector over the whole area and only found old nails. Florida law makes it real hard to look for treasure If I ever find anything real good I would not report it for fear of being put in jail

 

[mumszie]

Yes, Florida does make it hard and it doesn't help when the places you could hunt are put off limits by smaller county and city personnel! Do you have the same problem over there with the schools, parks & fairgrounds? NO NO NO

 

[Stan1942]

The parks are open for hunting I found 3 rings so far. Fair ground is out. Schools have fences that get locked due to I beleive insurance problems and being sued if a kid gets hurt after hours. I have never tried during school hours but I think they would run me off. I have not been to the old fort site but my son says he knows of another we can hunt I think if it is not on the state list we can go to it I will let you know when we go.

 

[mumszie]

I'm glad you have someone to hunt with. That makes it a lot more fun. Good luck!

 

[FLauthor]

I wrote a book called Forts, Camps and Batteries of Florida available from Kellyco for $18.00. Good luck.

Harry

 

[FLauthor]

Go to your county courthouse and ask for the old Government Survey Plats. Sometimes they have old maps already printed out for sale. These maps will show old roads, settlements, pioneer homesteads, Indian villages, river crossings, fort sites and crossroads. Should be enough sites to keep any TH'er busy for years. Remember in the old days, banks were scarce and not trusted so old pioneer homesteaders would cache their money in post hole banks. Good luck and post photos of finds.

FlAuthor

 

[deepsix47]

My Son got me into detecting about 2 months ago.
He tơok me to a place that he said was a old fort d?ep in the wơods of Leon County.
While there he found a dime that the coin bơok says it is worth $900.00 [that realy got me hơoked]
The spot I was working was a 20x20 hump with lots of exposed stones the sand was black, I think the building was burent down all I found was small rusted metal parts a few metal buttons and lots of home made nails
I can s?e that this place has b?en worked a lot [holes dug all over the place with lots of colored glass in the dirt piles]
there were a lot of stone scarrted about but no clear outline of building foundations.
I told my son I did not think this was a fort because it was d?ep in the wơods with no rivers close by butsomeone did
a lot of work hauling in the rocks.
Since then I have found out you can go to jail for digging this place even tho the State maps don,t show a fort here.

Try taking a look at it with Google Earth. You may be able to see the outlines of any old buildings. Outside of that, if ya know it's illegal, always consider the consequences if caught working it. Good Luck!!!!
Deepsix

 

[CREATURE]

im trying to get info on different forts, privy pits, turpentine stills ect. the only thing Ive found online in Crawfordville so far is Helen. i live in woodville just before county line.Ive been to the beach a few times "no luck" i did go to the woods by my house "kinda behind boys town" and found a knife from late 70's early 80's. is there any way i could get some help on where I'm allowed to hunt and all.i would also love some helpful sights to research some places and possibly find out some more things.

 

[CREATURE]

thats the type of places im trying to avoid deepsix47 i don't want to get arrested so I'm going to try to avoid hunting in those places but cant figure out where those places are. that's why i haven't been anywhere .

 

[GatorBoy]

This might not be what you want to hear but in Florida you basically need to stick to private property with permission to be on it and metal detect ..public parks.. or the beaches.
If it's not your property or the beach it's someone's property or state land.
You will best serve yourself to study the history of the area locate probable sites then locate the property owner end attempt to get permission to metal detect... No one here that does any amount of metal detecting old sites in Florida is going to just hand over a spot I guarantee that
Stan........ The homemade nails were probably square nails and are diagnostic of old forts if you post the buttons I can tell you whether or not you were on a Second Seminole war Fort or any of the forts for that matter.