Packers Island a surprising disappointment

[DaytonaRacer]

In the mid-1890's the county fair was temporarily moved from Flemington, NJ to Packers Island. It was held there for 4 years before moving back to its original location. The island was then in continuous use as a picnic area into at least the 1930's when other "better" parks opened up further up the rail line. Eighty or so years later there is no visible signs of how or where folks accessed the island from, nor does the historical society know. I thought to myself "This is the perfect place to break in my new F22!"

Without access to a boat to traverse the fast-moving Raritan River your only other option is to find the shallowest part of the river during low tide and walk across, which is what I ended up doing. For an inaccessible & abandoned island there were plenty of trail markers up and signs about no hunting.

I set my new gun on Jewelry Mode, volume 12, sensitivity ? (don't remember) and began a walk of the perimeter first. I then found the epicenter of the county fair/picnic area within a large clearing with a large-diameter iron pipe sticking up from the ground (center post for a large structure - maybe a shelter or tent).

Unfortunately that was the most positive thing about my hunt. As hard as I hit the trails, the perimeter, and the clearing I found nothing but trash. Not a single item of any value or significance! After a while I didn't even bother with the signals that jumped from the 20's to the 70's to the 50's to the 90's to the 40s, depending on which direction I swung the 22 - and there a ton of those! I would have been happy to walk away with only a single good hit, but none were to be found. So much "modern" trash!

After 4 hours of fruitlessly swinging in the heat I was done. I found my way back to my access point, waded across the now-high-tide river, and settled back into my truck for the ride home.

I had been looking forward to exploring the island for a long time now only to walk away very disappointed. <<sigh>>

 

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[Loco-Digger]

Sounds like a promising site, in order to find the goodies it may take some time. 4 hours for an island is not much time. You will need to think outside the box and not look at areas that surely have been cherry picked over the decades. I'd get back out there and hunt away from the beaten paths. You might want to look for ald postcards for this island, these may give you better insite as the where you should hunt.

 

[DaytonaRacer]

Thanks, Loco. Problem is that there are no images available. I checked the Historical Society and the Parks Department. I did about 1/5 of the entire shoreline including into the water. The rest of the shoreline is somewhat inaccessible. Without waders on it's almost impossible to circumscribe the entire shoreline due to steep drop-offs.

On the island itself there is a ton of VERY heavy overgrowth so for this round I knew I had to be selective. I concentrated my efforts around old growth trees in the overgrown areas. In the clearings I tried to grid the entire thing and sweep it, especially in the main clearing where the most human activity was centered. I did the edges of the trails, which themselves were heavily overgrown in places. My thought there was that the Parks Department was likely somewhat lazy and decided to use the pre-existing heavily trafficked areas for the official trails so I hit those and off the edges.

If it weren't so hot out and I had had even some minor modicum of luck I probably would have hit more of the island in the denser parts. But I was just too dragged by the end.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

Maybe it's already been hunted to smithereens by other md'rs ?

 

[WhiteTornado]

Wow, sounds like a lot of build up of excitement, only to be thwarted. Did you get any keepers at all? Any clad or junk jewelry of interest?

 

[DaytonaRacer]

Wow, sounds like a lot of build up of excitement, only to be thwarted. Did you get any keepers at all? Any clad or junk jewelry of interest?

I got to keep 3 pulltabs and a lot of foil. I could have taken home a bunch of old beer cans, too, if I were so inclined. Absolutely ZERO coins or jewelry of any ilk.

 

[cudamark]

I'm with Tom, the local detecting club has nailed that place.

 

[Loco-Digger]

Sounds trashy, Maybe a few hunts with a sniper coil in the late fall when the area may be more accessible.

 

[DaytonaRacer]

Maybe. Anyone have a sniper I can borrow.

Tom/Cuda - There aren't any clubs that are truly local. I just joined the Deep Search MD club last night which is the closest one to me and still a 45 minute ride from my house and none of them knew about the island.

 

[WhiteTornado]

There are many detectorists who are not part of clubs. I'm going with the "pounded to death already" theory.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

Maybe. Anyone have a sniper I can borrow.

Tom/Cuda - There aren't any clubs that are truly local. I just joined the Deep Search MD club last night which is the closest one to me and still a 45 minute ride from my house and none of them knew about the island.

30 or more years ago, this rationale would make sense. But not now. Here's what I mean:

In the late 1970s and into the mid 1980s, it was true that if you attended club meetings, and rubbed shoulders with long time md'rs (who might have started in the 1960s & 70s), it was perhaps true that you could get a feel for what's been researched and exploited, versus what has not.

However, Fast forward to 2015: I bet if I were to ask anyone in my town now (even with 10 or 15 yrs. md'ing under their belt) "has anyone you know of ever hit such & such site?", they might tell you "No, I've never heard of anyone ever trying that". Yet I know for a fact we hunted the heck out of the spots 25 to 35 yrs. ago. And I chuckle now decades later, when I hear "no one's ever detected there before".

So unless you're talking to long-time hardcore hunters (ie.: not just sandbox hunters), who truly ran around with other old-schoolers like that, don't put much stock into it when someone says "no one's ever md'd there".

 

[DaytonaRacer]

I hear ya.

 

[theHouse]

Sorry to hear that Daytona. We recently have been there a few times and have sifted that whole area. We did dig a gold 1/4 Eagle coin and a few Indian heads as well as a few old relics. There is alot of junk yes. I use a Whites AllPro and my wife a Nox800. That place is spent. It's alot of work to get almost nothing. All the best!!