Research techniques for a newbie.

[TheRockDoc]

Hey everyone, as some of you know, I decided to go with the Minelab Etrac. It will be here wednesday, and I cannot wait. I have been doing alot of thinking about spots to hunt, and have several to get me started. However, I see myself being one who really gets into researching old records, maps, etc. to really find some good spots that have the potential to have never been hunted. Can anyone point me in the direction of good strategies for finding these places? Im guessing there are websites, I have spent some time online but havent made it far at all.

thanks in advance.

Chris.

 

[TerryC]

Doc, Hundreds of books have been written on where to hunt. Since you have an "old spot" liking, may I suggest... Wherever people gather. Pretty ambiguous, hey? Try under large trees in the middle of town. Near a church. At the river. Also under the tree in the front yard. That is where they sat at the hottest part of the day. Natures airconditioner! You'll find relics where the smithy barn was. The main idea I wish to express is, again, wherever people gather. Work that idea into your plans and you will do good. When you are successful, try to repeat the parameters. Good luck! TTC

 

[Swartzie]

Here's a couple links to old map sites. They are mostly geared toward the east.
http://www.historicmapworks.com/Browse/North_America/
http://historical.mytopo.com/index.cfm

The local library should have some books on local history. Where the schools, churches, fairgrounds, etc.. were located.

-Swartzie

 

[deepskyal]

One of my tactics for researching online is plugging in town names and just filtering down through all the links. You'll learn to recognize the redundant ones with generic town info and skip them.

Yea...seems monotonous but I've found some great resources in page 18 (example) of a google query.

Google has a ton of OLD history books on line that the copy has expired and they digitized and put online for free. I'm talking history books written at the turn of the century. They were a lot more detailed with local information then the newer books.

Wikipedia has a lot of links you can follow to. It's a chase but fruitful when you hit one of those books on local or county history, written in 1890, and they talk about specific individuals, events, hangings, robberies, etc. I've found some real treasure clues with robbers burying their stash or money never being recovered...not in your mainline treasure books.

Any research requires diligence and patience. A good winter or rainy day project.

I just read about a man that stole 30,000 and when caught, shot himself dead. The bank never recovered it.
Also read about a flood that took a canal builders payroll and a good one that even gives the location of some cattle thieves that stole everything not nailed down from the townspeople and buryed it near their hideout. How much of that was never found.

Old history books!!! Thats the ticket.

Also try those buy, sell, trade book stores. Some real treasures of old books.

Al

 

[Lowbatts]

You got some good tips in response already. One thing I've noted while out hunting with a lot of other people though is the tendency to hit an area w/o reason. This doesn't give a great return on time spent.

If you find an old homesite on one of those old aerial views, or perhaps an old plat or topo map, pay close attention to the layout of the buildings and the yard. Once there, get the layout down first, then hit the areas you know had common activity throughout the history of the place. Finding a lot of building trash may be where a stash is also located, but finding a cleaner spot with only personal effects, toys, etc. in a corner of the yard may yield that really good incidentallly dropped coin or jewelry item in much faster time. Given time is your major limiting factor if you intend to cover multiple sites.

Once you learn to read a site, things move faster and recoveries will outweigh let downs.

 

[cooperriver]

Hi the rock doc,
What are you interested in hunting and what location? Civil war relics or other things?
To know what you interest is we could guide you to better references.
You could start in the reference section of your local library.
If you could be specific I may be able to give you some great research tips.


cooperriver

 

[Deepdiger60]

Hi rockdoc do you have farm fields by you ? if so ask the owners for permission to hunt them after the Fall plow i find those old fields are never hunted out Good luck HH Jim

 

[TheRockDoc]

Hi the rock doc,
What are you interested in hunting and what location? Civil war relics or other things?
To know what you interest is we could guide you to better references.
You could start in the reference section of your local library.
If you could be specific I may be able to give you some great research tips.


cooperriver

Hello, I am going crazy, my machine is scheduled for delivery tomorrow. To answer your question, I bought the Etrac partly because I read over and over again that it is the best coin finding (silver) machine period. So my first answer is any and all old coinage. With that said, I am very excited to find anything of historical significance. I would love to target any old artifacts, old toys, (hell even marbles). I also want to target any and all coins, money, trade tokens, etc. I am in Utah (Salt Lake City), and as ignorant as this sounds, I never thought much about Civil War relics because I didnt realize there were any here. The other day, I was talking to a guy who has found amazing civil war relics here. So that would be awesome too, I guess the point is, I will love finding anything that makes me "wonder"... If this "coin, token, relic, toy, etc..." could talk, what story would it tell?

I see and here of people hunting these sights that to the untrained eye are just "in the middle of nowhere" or even "in the middle of everything". The person hunting this area, is hunting it because they were able to determine that a little community was located there 200 years ago, or whatever. . How could I go about doing the type of research that would help me discover that 100+ yrs ago, in the middle of all these trees, or this gravel field there used to be a couple houses, a barn, church, or school etc. I am wondering if there is a resource where one could find pictures, maps, stories, drawings, anything that would help me find information on what was where, 100+ years ago... etc.

thinking back, in my 25 yrs of hunting, camping, exploring etc, I have stumbled upon many things that I would now say... somebody must have lived there x amount of years ago, (maybe an old crumbled foundation, or other manmade signs that life once inhabited the area). I never thought about metal detecting until just barely recently. So for those of you guys who study, and research old maps, pics, info online, old books etc... about the area in the 19th century, and that type of thing, in the hopes of putting yourself in the "area of highest probability that a significant item could likely be found today"- places to find things of historical significance, or even significant monetary value for that matter, (old cache that old man rivers buried... silver spoon, any and all old relics, etc.).


I dont know why it feels like my question is so hard to verbalize. I hope I am getting my point across without sounding like im talking in circles.

Thanks everyone.

 

[TheRockDoc]

Hi rockdoc do you have farm fields by you ? if so ask the owners for permission to hunt them after the Fall plow i find those old fields are never hunted out Good luck HH Jim

Yes, as mentioned, I'm in Salt Lake City, UT. There are farms pretty much in all directions and not far from me at all. This sounds like a great idea to me, because I am very comfortable talking to people, and I'm confident that if anyone is ever gonna get permission, I could do it.

With that said, are you talking any farms at all? Anywhere? How do you know that people frequented areas you are detecting? What area of the country are you in? If you dont mind me asking?

Chris.

 

[TheRockDoc]

To everyone else, who I didnt quote: Thanks so much for all the help and guidance, one thing I already know is that for the most part the MD'ing crew is a good bunch of people. I am very excited to become a part of it. I am getting one similiar answer several times, and that is old history books, (that were written in the 1800's, early 1900's etc..) Is there a specific way to search for and find these old books? For instance, at the library is there a section in the History section where I could find "old history books"? Is there one major resource online that I could find old pictures, maps, historical information that would help me learn my city and surrounding cities (as they stood in 1800's?) Or, is it just totally random, bits and pieces found here, there, and everywhere? I really do appreciate it everyone, I am surprised at how excited I am to put my machine together tomorrow and get to it. I know I will "go all out" with my research and eventually my finds, and I am excited to post and share my expiriences with ya'll.


Chris.

 

[Swartzie]

For instance, at the library is there a section in the History section where I could find "old history books"?
Chris.

Most libraries I have been to have a local history section near the the regular history books. Libraries are a good source of information. Ask the librarian.

-Swartzie

 

[TerryC]

You might try looking for local historical societies. If you have a local, or at least regional, museum, look for the "donated by" plaque. You may find out that you have really good sources of local history nearby. GL TTC

 

[cooperriver]

The rockdoc,
Here is a little info for you. Not quite what you were looking for but a place to start your research
in the library
First--Gold--placer gold may be found along Indian Creek near town of Beaver (Beaver County)
Along the Green River near Dutch John (Dagget County), along the Green River in Emery County.
Bingham canyon and all area stream and bench gravels (Salt Lake County)
Gold discovered at GOld Hill in the Deep Creek Mountains in 1858. Serious stuff did not occur until 1864 when lodes and placers were found in Bingham Canyon near Salt lake City.
Ok here is another piece.--Carbon county--ghost town--stone ruins, nine mile canyon was a stagecoach and freighting route. Log cabins can be seen here dating back over 80 yrs.(location--north east of Price on the Tavaputs Plateau,
nine mile canyon strecthes across the Carbon-Duchesne county line)
I will dig into my civil war books this weekend and see if there were any scurmishes or encampments your way.
Mormons--lots of history with those folks and old history too. Look into mormon libraries if you can also the mormon churches would be a good place to do research. That should be a gold mine of info there.
This is what I have at hand but can give you more at a later date--the weekend.
Happy hunting.

Cooperriver

 

[Lakemonster]

Theres only so much available online.

As stated in a few replies, GO TO THE LIBRARY!

I live in a town of 1200 people, and theres not much online. I went to the library and and printed off the original town plat, discovered there was a cotton yard once and where it was located. I found where a Confederate quartermasters' depot once was. Many of the facts I found were in out of print books.

Other than maps.... the internet gave me nothing in comparison with my 2 hr spent at the library.

 

[deepskyal]

For instance, at the library is there a section in the History section where I could find "old history books"?
Chris.

Most libraries I have been to have a local history section near the the regular history books. Libraries are a good source of information. Ask the librarian.

-Swartzie

The main branch of the Carnegie Library where I live has a HUGE section dedicated to just Pennsylvania history. Books on every subject imaginable. Even found one on playgrounds in the Pittsburgh area. I could tell a bunch of detector people looked through it. Pages were extremely worn and battered...lol
And don't forget the archives and newspapers they have.

A good resource your library may have is the "Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps". The are extremely detailed maps of every building in the towns. The should have copies on hand and possibly with a library card you may be able to access them online. The online issues are not available to the general public anymore but libraries and institutes pay for access. The maps date back to the late 1800's thru early 1900's.
When I could, I downloaded every single map for every town within 200 miles of me. Took me 3 days...lol. They also have the towns divided into years. May be a set from 1890, another 1910 then another 1930...so you can see how things changed over the years. You can't beat the Sanborn maps.

Al

 

[rws51]

Read the old county atlas books from your state and county. You can google them and see what years they have available, but usually they go back to the 1870's at least
Use historicmapworks.com and google earth together. You can use a satellite map from google earth and overlay the old maps on the satellite image. This will pinpoint an old site on a modern map.
Talk to the old timers in your area. They will remember areas that maybe used to have a circus or church picnics in a grove of trees. Think outside the box and you will soon have more sites to hunt
than you could hunt in a lifetime........HH.

Roger

 

[TheRockDoc]

Read the old county atlas books from your state and county. You can google them and see what years they have available, but usually they go back to the 1870's at least
Use historicmapworks.com and google earth together. You can use a satellite map from google earth and overlay the old maps on the satellite image. This will pinpoint an old site on a modern map.
Talk to the old timers in your area. They will remember areas that maybe used to have a circus or church picnics in a grove of trees. Think outside the box and you will soon have more sites to hunt
than you could hunt in a lifetime........HH.

Roger

Thank you, I think this is going to fit perfect for what I am "looking for".

Thanks also to everyone else who gave me good pointers, I will be reporting finds now that I can use my machine to locate and recover whatever's making it sing....

Chris.

 

[jmoller99]

Try to find an early train route map - from the days of Steam travel. You should see train stops every 15 miles or so, where the trains took on water. Only a few of these places remained stops when trains moved away from steam, however, it may be worth your time to search some of these abandoned sites. Every state has places like this, and you may be rewarded by looking at some of the more out of the way sites. Most of these are right at the train tracks and there is practically nothing there anymore to give you a clue that anything ever existed there at all - which means that there are fewer people hunting those sites.

 

[HuntNdig]

 

[LaTxHunter]

I've spent A LOT of time researching and what you want to use depends on where you are located.

Country wide the Sanborn insurance maps are great. They seem to have covered most cities, at least in the South, and many small communities. They will show everything that was there at the time they were made, even down to outhouses if you are into digging for bottles.

In addition, back in the depression the government sponsored a Federal Writers Project which produced some great material. A trip to the library will show you what you have.

Finally, for civil war stuff nothing beats the Official Records (aka ORs). These are available in book form at the library and you can also buy them on a CD on eBay for a few bucks and they are a GREAT deal at that price.