To Excited To Sleep!

Hambone · Jan 7, 2005

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

Cladius · Jan 19, 2005

Keep swinging Hambone and you will figure out the lay of the land and start making great finds! Keep us up to date on your finds. Cladius.

Darren in NC · Jan 19, 2005

Way to go, Hambone! We'd all give our right arm for such an opportunity. Are you doing this by yourself? Is a friend or the old man helping you?

Colorado2 · Jan 19, 2005

That's quite a job you've taken on Ham. It sounds like my place. So much iron all over the place that I just put down my MD and start diggin'. When you get a signal every two inches you might just as well turn it all over with a spade. Keep at it. You're bound to hit a sweet spot sooner or later. It's cool that you're uncovering walkways, and taking the time to dream about the people that walked them! It's gonna be all the sweeter when you start rollin' up some coins!~CO2

nicknyc · Jan 20, 2005

that is so ridiculously exciting. congratulations on finding such a great place!

i never realized how many ghost towns there were out there. i just came across a website that lists clost to 200 in Texas alone! That's NUTS!
http://www.ghosttowns.com/states/tx/tx.html

Generally speaking, who owns them? are they mostly all protected historical sites?

alwayslookin · Jan 20, 2005

Good luck dude....like they are all saying we are ALL pulling for you!!

Dave

Darod · Jan 24, 2005

That offer still stands if you want to put your pics on my Web Server. Just PM me and let me know. Or you can just email me directly at : darrin.rodriguez@earthlink.net

Give us an update when you get a chance.

Rod

Hambone · Jan 26, 2005

Hello All!

Thought you all might like to see some pics of the town that I have been working. Most of the pics were taken in the late 1800's. The first one is my son Justin standing by the only remains of the water well, the second is a trash pile that is 60' across at the base and 20' high. There are 3 pages of pics on the web site, so be sure and see them all. I do not have the pics of the finds ready yet but as I get time I will post them on this site as well. When you get to the page look on the left side and click on Photos.

http://groups.msn.com/TexasGhostTown/shoebox.msn

Thanks for all your support! Hambone

alwayslookin · Jan 27, 2005

Way cool man....I am sure that that the mags that follow these pages will want the story. KEEP great records..

Dave

Hambone · Jan 30, 2005

Hello Everyone!

Thought I would post today's finds from the ghost town. It was pretty slow today but I had a great time after all. The lock in the pic has Good Luck on it! So good luck to you all!

Hambone

Darod · Jan 30, 2005

Hey Hambone,

Send me those pics you want to host on my server. I'll upload them and send you the link for access.

Rod

alwayslookin · Jan 31, 2005

Great finds Ham...

I/we are all still pulling for you. Looks like you found some old hand cuffs...those are retty cool. Any ideas on the bottles

Dave

Hambone · Jan 31, 2005

Rtde3 and Alwayslookin

The item that looks like handcuffs are actually what appear to be a pair of large eyeglasses, maybe these belonged to Big Bad John.

Hambone

Hambone · Jan 31, 2005

Darod, I have been taking advantage of the nice weather in Texas and swinging all I could, I just haven't had time to send the pics to you. The weather has turned bad and it's raining now, I'll try to get the pics to you soon! I have downloaded some software that now allows me to resize the pics so I'll resize them before I email them.

Hamebone

SASQUASH · Feb 21, 2005

wow nice this is a ones in a life time dream chance for you. SASQUASH

Jim Cal · Feb 21, 2005

Man am I jealous! Thanks for posting the cool pictures and photos of some of the things you've found so far. Keep those pics coming. Good luck and good hunting. JC

Bavaria Mike · Feb 27, 2005

That place will keep you busy for years to come, awesome site! HH and keep posting the finds, Mike

lonewolfe · Mar 9, 2005

Any up dates to share!? Any new finds, etc.!? Haven't heard nothing from you in a while on this fantastic place you've been granted permission to hunt! Let us know, keep us up dated!

lonewolfe · Mar 9, 2005

Thank you sir,

I look forward to seeing/hearing more about your adventure, and seeing the display before you send it to the museum!

Thanks for the up date!

HH

Lonewolfe

P.S.

Your personal message box is full! I tried to mail you back but it's not accepting any messages, may wanna dump some of them!