Utterly And Thoroughly Disgusted!

[Eric Willoughby]

I have been hard at it, day 7 now, putting in entire days into searching very old homesites with ZERO results!! You would think I would find a bent up spoon, a stove leg, a wheat, a rotten leather watch fob, a small tin canister or even modern clad...... NO!

I have come up with nothing but rusted nails by the pounds, trimmings from the old tin roof, a piece of lead (not a bullet), aluminum scraps, an old metal bolt washer, fence wire, and broken glass chips. And this is all came from a house built in 1890, and was used as a boarding house between WW1 and WW2. You would think with all the comings and goings going on at this house, that someone, at some time may have at least dropped a dang tin trade token or something of decent taste.

I knew going into this hobby that I was going to dig trash, but this is freaking ridiculous! All I do is dig trash.

 

[olekyground]

Nows the time to hang in there when its harder then ever. It will pay off soon!! I promise

 

[jamesbibb]

SOme site are just that way look at this one for example I cant place my coil on the ground in this place and it looks ancient and fantastic Im going back with a small coil soon but some are just so junked up it makes you want to give up on them, there are goodies in these site they are hiding and finding them will make a pro out of you. Ive hunted this site 2 times now with really nothing but 2 harmonica reeeds to show for it, the roofing is scattered around and there is lots of junk-go slow and dig good repeatables first. Oh and no was would I bring my Infinium up on this hill-thats a nail finding machine!

 

[jadeblackhawk]

I know how you feel. my mom has a late 1800's house in WV. I pulled like 20 nails out my first hole. Beer can at ten inches, etc. Her whole yard is like that. It's enough to make you cry.

I tried to talk her into letting me do some "landscaping" but it was a no go!

 

[crazyjarhead]

It's all part of the "game" if you will. If that place has been added on and redone over the years maybe all of the good stuff got covered over Sometimes you have to dig through the trash, especially if you have a cheapo detector like mine. I think we all dig rusty nails and pop top's. That's even veteran diggers. Has the soil been moved around? Filled in? Around here I can usually tell, especially when the soil is rich brown or black and when you dig into it it's clay or full of sand or gravel. These are signs that it's been disturbed. I hunted an old stage coach stop near here (nice clean yard) and didn't find NOTHING My late grandmother told me that someone must have beat you to it first. These and other factors have to be considered. I also hunted a 1836 house a few years ago and it was the cleanest yard I have ever seen. Plus it was full of good signals for nearly a year. 15 IH's in one yard.

I'll close by saying that "trashy sites" are very hard to hunt, even to the seasoned veteran. If you are skilled enough and have a good detector "sometimes" you can see between the trash and pluck out coins. I personally move on if it's too trashy. Unless you are prepared to dig a lot of iron signals and dig everything you may burn yourself out.

Good luck and keep us updated..............Ron

 

[Bill D. (VA)]

Try doing a bit of research

I just googled your county and came up with a list of a number of good reference books available at your local museum (see link below). Check those out, and hit the library and internet hard. Here in VA, at the Libraray of VA website, I came across a historical building survey that was done in the late 1930s (by county) that provided a detailed fact sheet including specific directions to find homesite dating from the 1600s up to the Civil War. Some counties had 100s of homesites ID'd. There may be a similar resource for NC and your county. Also, if you look around you may be able to find detailed maps dating back to the CW and earlier that show locations for homes from that era. I have discovered many unkown and undocumented sites that have never been hunted through diligent research, and you can do the same. Over the years I've probably spent 3 times as many hours doing the research than I have been out swinging my detector, but the rewards have been great. Give it a try, and good luck.

http://www.maconnchistorical.org/books/

 

[groundsmn]

How long you been hunting?

 

[crazyjarhead]

Re: Try doing a bit of research

I just googled your county and came up with a list of a number of good reference books available at your local museum (see link below). Check those out, and hit the library and internet hard. Here in VA, at the Libraray of VA website, I came across a historical building survey that was done in the late 1930s (by county) that provided a detailed fact sheet including specific directions to find homesite dating from the 1600s up to the Civil War. Some counties had 100s of homesites ID'd. There may be a similar resource for NC and your county. Also, if you look around you may be able to find detailed maps dating back to the CW and earlier that show locations for homes from that era. I have discovered many unkown and undocumented sites that have never been hunted through diligent research, and you can do the same. Over the years I've probably spent 3 times as many hours doing the research than I have been out swinging my detector, but the rewards have been great. Give it a try, and good luck.

http://www.maconnchistorical.org/books/

Nice job on the search. That's a lot of history books. I'm sure you could find something in all of that

 

[Eric Willoughby]

Re: Try doing a bit of research

I just googled your county and came up with a list of a number of good reference books available at your local museum (see link below). Check those out, and hit the library and internet hard. Here in VA, at the Libraray of VA website, I came across a historical building survey that was done in the late 1930s (by county) that provided a detailed fact sheet including specific directions to find homesite dating from the 1600s up to the Civil War. Some counties had 100s of homesites ID'd. There may be a similar resource for NC and your county. Also, if you look around you may be able to find detailed maps dating back to the CW and earlier that show locations for homes from that era. I have discovered many unkown and undocumented sites that have never been hunted through diligent research, and you can do the same. Over the years I've probably spent 3 times as many hours doing the research than I have been out swinging my detector, but the rewards have been great. Give it a try, and good luck.

http://www.maconnchistorical.org/books/

Wow! Thanks for the lead and resources Bill! Ironically, I was just in the Historical Society and museum yesterday to introduce myself to the Director of the place. I offered to donate my fidinigs to them, and somehow they never mentioned that they had books that I could look at that would help me in my search.

Excellent job Bill, it was very thoughtful and generous of you to have taken the time to find this stuff for me, I am very grateful. Thank you!

 

[BobinSouthVA]

haha just wanted to post, I'm feeling your pain and your not alone.

This past weekend I had half the day Sunday to dig 1800 built house along civil war lines with complete blessing from the wife.
Nothing but junk. Usually I can dig a days worth of junk and it does not bother me, but that day was different. and to top it off I suddenly couldn't pinpoint worth a dam. Digging 12 inches down only to find the junk on the side of the hole.
Left the site completely discouraged.

flash forward to yesterday. Had the afternoon off to hit my button field with colonial history. Nada. I love finding old coins most of all and its been a pretty long dry spell.


Actually had the thought of hanging the machine up for a while, but that probably won't happen.

anyhow, thats probably not what you wanted to hear Guess I'm just hijacking your thread to soak in some of the encouragement.

 

[Deepdiger60]

Woods and fields my friend i gave up on old home sites to much trash people buried everything back then , once in awhile you will find a few good coins or copper buttons but fields plowed up produce much more finds JMO Jim

 

[Woodland Detectors]

Hang in there buddy, if you only saw the trash I dig in one day too.
It's what is underneath that trash where the good stuff is. You'll find something soon.

 

[kane23]

you need to find some areas that hav'nt been searched already ! Kane 23

 

[ivan salis]

trash is often the guardian of treasure * few folks want to do the hard work of cleaning out a trashy area --so they by pass such spots -- often they are the only old near virgin sites left in some areas---- many of the easy to hunt old spots have long ago been hammered to death and picked clean by earlier detectorist --it takes a lot of effort but some of my most "interesting" finds have come from some really trashy spots that other detectorist would have had nightmares about having to hunt.

 

[mretrackr]

stay positive especially while you are out in the field. stay focused. its a numbers game. but you can beat the odds a bit by doing some research. heres a pic of my 5 gal bucket full of junk from 5 diferent home sites with approx. 60 hours total of hunting. however along with all the junk i was able to recover a good handfull of coins and tokens dating back to the mid 1800's see my prior posts over the last couple months. also in this post is a pic of some of the goodies i have dug at these sites.

good luck!!


HH

mikeB

 

[ivan salis]

some of that junk in the above junk box isn't junk

 

[oldcoon]

Sounds like someone beat you to the goodie pile. I've been there and done that, first one way, than the other. While I have won, I've also lost and I feel your frustration of digging junk by the bucketful. You just have to grin and bear it and try harder. Good luck and happy hunting.

 

[mretrackr]

hey ivan, the goodies are in the box and the trash in the bucket. BTW how are you?? this is mike formally from fl. went to SC. for a while now im here in TX. ill give you a call soon.

mikeB

 

[ivan salis]

was wondering thought that box looked good to me.

 

[gleaner1]

Think about the next poor bloke that hits this site. Think about how he is going to feel. Totally utterly thoroughly disgusted and perhaps more depressed. Yet a glory hit is just around the corner.

 

[traverdog]

The more you dig the more you find including the junk. At least the junk is thrown in the garbage.