Old Railroads

[Roger Mn.]

I have metal detected on 3 old railroad sites and haven't found any coins yet. One area had just rail road ties and all the rails were gone and the others are now blacktop bike trails. I have found old bottles.
One area runs from Eyota, Mn to Plainview,Mn.

My question is did the railroad workers camp along the tracks or did they return to town at night ?

In a one mile area there is 5 timber trestles so It should have taking a few days to get them built. The " Great River Ridge State Trail."
I started in Viola,Mn. and went south.
I have been looking for camp sites and no luck.
roger

https://maps.google.com/maps?q=viola+mn&ie=UTF-8&ei=ADrxUszoOO-CyAG1qIGQBQ&sqi=2&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAQ

 

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[Jason in Enid]

The railroads established camps along the way as they extended the line. I don't know if there would be much coinage to be lost but that is where they would be. I imagine a large tressel bridge would be a fairly long encampment.

 

[Helix]

One of my best sites for mding is around an old RR line. In order to put this line in they had to cut through tons of rock and lessen the grade of the surrounding hills. Also build a few bridges and fill in a few deep ravines. Basically the line ran out of a river valley. I took two thousand workers three years to complete, this was in the 1840's. I have located were the main camp was and sadly it is a trailer park today. Bummer.. I have read very detailed accounts of this camp talking about the "shanty" buildings, murders, prostitution, and even a few riots were the state militia had to be called in to protect the near buy town. Still I have seemed to locate smaller camps or hot spots in other areas. Still have made some nice relic finds around the line. Not much in the way of coins though as Jason stated. I also read a lot of the workers were paid in Whiskey. LOL! Yes any major projects RR projects like that would be a great spot to metal detect if you can locate the camps.