To Excited To Sleep!

[Hambone]

I have been doing historical research on a ghost town in Texas for three years. The town was completely gone by 1910 but had a population of 1200 in 1875. It was in existence for 60 years before the mill closed down and it was abandoned. It covered approximately 400 ac and had 2 General Stores, saloon, train depot, drugstore, office buildings, church and many houses. This property was owned by several generations of the same family and they would not let anyone on the property. Recently the property was sold to an elder man. I have always THed outside the property lines of the town, and have found many relics from the 1800's including a pocket knife that is approximately 125 years old as well as many bottles from the time. Here is the strange part, two weeks ago I was hunting my normal areas when the owner walked up behind me and ask what I was doing. I was really nervous and didn't know what to expect. I explained that I had been THing outside the town for several years and I was careful not to tresspass into the location. To my surprise he was more intrested in my metal detector than anything else. After I showed him how it and the GPS unit worked, I could not get away from him. After we talked in the woods for about an hour he invited me up to his house to look at something. He had 27 photographs taken of the town from atop the water tower. The pictures were taken in 1887 and showed the layout of the whole town. He let me make copy's of the pictures and gave me permission to hunt the entire town site, just not to come in during deer season. The great part of this story is that this is a virgin site that has never been hunted. I guess the moral of this story is there are still some great sites out there, I almost missed the opportunity to hunt this one because I would not ask for permission assuming the answer would be NO! Deer season ended in Texas last weekend, It's Friday night and I got all the gear loaded in the truck, sandwiches made and the water bottle full. Tommorrow will be my first day inside the ghost town. Now if I could just go to sleep!
Good luck to you all!
Hambone

 

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[jeff of pa]

GONGRATS HAMBONE. sounds AWSOME to say the least. KEEP US POSTED ; Jeff

 

[nedigger]

I don't think I would be able to sleep either. Sounds like a great opportunity and I'm sure you will do well there. Looking forward to your posts and pics of the finds. Good luck and HH.

 

[Hambone]

Thanks Jeff, I will probably spend much of the day tomorrow trying to locate the saloon and Depot, they are on the same block. I will keep you all posted on the finds.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Hambone

 

[Colorado2]

Wow Hambone. This sounds great. Mind swinging a little out of your way to pick me up? I've got my own sandwich. I'm new to TH'ing but have done a ton of research on some local sites, to the point that I'm living the era. Even found myself visiting the graves of the people I was researching. Felt like lost friends. I'd do anything for photo's of the stations I've been researching. Congratulations, and I hope you do very well~CO2

 

[Zeke]

Why wait till morning I'd be out there with a miners light. lol

 

[OnionRings]

Great story! I wish you all the best in your hunt and I hope to see pics posted of all the silver that you find!

HH, Onion

 

[navychief1968]

Congratulation Hambone,

Your perseverance and patients has paid off! Not to mention a lot of good research! I wish you the best of luck and please drop us a post and let us know what you found. I have always had good luck getting permission to hunt private property myself. I think I'll post a few of my better "tricks" to getting permission in the general metal detecting forum. Maybe it can help someone in the future. Once again, congratulations and the best of luck to you!

Chris Reynolds
Chief Petty Officer, USN

 

[Colorado2]

Hey Navy Chief. I'll be anxiously waiting for those tips. Thanx up front~CO2

 

[czman]

Go get them hambone..dig one for us.

 

[alwayslookin]

Congratulation Hambone! and good luck. BTW how much are ou charging for TH excursions ??

Please keep us posted

Dave

 

[Hambone]

Hitman,
Your personal email address is hidden in your profile, Send an email from the personal address to [email protected] and I will send you the information you need.

Thanks Hambone

 

[True_Metal]

Did you hit that site, Hambone? Whats the word?? 8)

 

[Darod]

Man!

Hambone! I just read your post and I have to be honest with you,...I had to sit down because my heart was racing!!!!!!!!!!

I just can't tell you how damn jelous I am of you
PLEASE, PLEASE, keep us posted with pictures of what you find.

I went hunting (antelope, with a rifle) a few years ago in Montana. At the time I wasn't into detecting. However, I can't wait to get back to the area I was in! I will definately bring my detector with me as the town I was in was established in the late 1700's to early 1800's. The little town of Ingmar, Montana, built because of a the railroad. Not much there now. I stayed in the school house when I was there on my hunting trip. I can just imagine what treasures I was walking on as I strolled through town.

Anyhow, I'm very excited for you and your ghost town visits! I'll be watching this post VERY closely for sure!

Rod

 

[nicknyc]

i think hambone is living in that ghost town now just camping and th'ing ... someone get him an internet connection out there so we can all do our vicarious living through him asap!

 

[bergie]

Hope the town ghosts didn't get to him...

 

[nicknyc]

*dig*dig*dig*

hambone: YESSSSSSS!

se?or spooky: beg'r pardon, but that's mine.

hambone: get outta here! this things been in the ground for at least a hundre... aw crud.

 

[bergie]

Meant to add, don't be disappointed if it's been well hunted. Just because it's been on private property, doesn't mean the property owners or their friends or relatives haven't hit the site. I've had that happen in a similar situation where I was the first outsider let on the property.

 

[sssnake31]

Hambone, come on give us an update we have been waiting ever so patiently. lol HH

 

[Hambone]

OK Guys Here I am! Man it is great to see that so many people are waiting to see some information from Ham Town! I really have just about camped at the site for the last couple of weeks. I have spent much of this time trying to locate the landmarks that are left so that I could coin hunt the saloon and depot area. I have done gps readings on the areas that I have located and all of what I suspect are the privy locations. I found what apprears to be a trash pile or where they pushed what was left of the town into a huge pile. It is 50'-60' wide at the base and 20' high. You know that I got hung up here for 2 days digging and probing the area. The pile is full of thousands of square nails and it was covered with earth, it has a big sweetgum tree growing right out of the top. I have not probed any bottles are solid material in it yet. I have found the well and the concrete supports that held the water tower that some of the old photographs were taken from. I have located several miles of the company tram right of ways and the main rail line that came through the town. I have also located the remains of a brick building, that is now just a pile of bricks in the shape of the building. I really have not spent a lot of time detecting up till this point. I have not located the saloon and depot as of yet, but I think that I am getting closer. This site was several hundred acres at it's boom and it takes some time to cover it since I am in Texas and the area is covered in forest, vines, bushes, and some things I really don't know what they are, but I just got a thorn out of my hand that had been in there for 10 days. On Sunday just before dark I found a privy and started to probe it, I took 17 bottles out in the first 2'. As I was digging around the top I hit a layer of bricks 8" down that appeared to lead away from the privy. I started to uncover a nice brick walkway about 24" wide and I probed it out for a distance of 50'-60' to the end, this was probably the location of the back door to the house. As I swept the dirt off of the perfectly laid walkway I started to wonder about the people that used it. This hobby just brings you face to face with our heritage and the ways of a time gone by. We are getting tooled up to dig the rest of the privy out and see what else may be below. As far as the finds so far, I have found no coins, but some of the things that I have found are: 18" long pc of narrow gauge train rail with the manufacturer's name and date of manufacture (1878), a set of oxen harness chains for loading the logs onto the train, 32 cork top bottles, some type of lantern top, cast iron shovel handle, broken single bit axe head, many small railroad spikes for the small tram rail, brass remains of a clock, a brass hand pump for a lantern ( I think), a large open end wrench, many pcs of mill machinery broken parts are train parts (I really don't know what these are and most are to heavy to carry around are try to get out, one bullet. I have picked trough the square nails and have saved the best one's. I have digital photo's of the well and trash pile but I cannot figure out how to get the pics small enough to meet the 128KB limit on the forum. I try'ed to attach them but 1 pic was over 128KB. I will try to get it to work so I can keep you guys up to date on the findings. I have been holding off on this post thinking I might have some cool coins, but so far they have been very elusive. They are there and I will find some of them I feel it in my bones!

Hambone from Ham Town