Winter Research Pays Off

[SlateBeltDigger]

Between the 2 feet of snow and the low temps I've been unable to get out and hunt, just like the rest of the mid-Atlantic area of the East Coast. I hit the internet pretty hard researching the area and found two nice spots that became my latest permissions for the spring. In the coming weeks as the thaw happens (more snow will be flying today...) I'll have updates on the actual hunts that take place.

1.) 100's of acres of farm land that is directly next to the fields where The Delabole Massacre took place. Google it if you're interested in learning more. I've already asked for permission to hunt the massacre site, and was turned away. This land has been farmed since the 1700's and I'm expecting to find all kinds of relics and coins. The best part about this one was that the land owner offered me a reward if I found a piece of gold jewelry that was lost in a fire there years ago. I declined the reward in exchange for unlimited hours hunting the fields. If I find the piece even better, and that will be returned to them. This gentleman was more excited than I was to get me in there and hunting.

2.) Another old farmstead dating back to the mid-1700's. This guy was glad I called. He owns a metal detector but never took to it, and he'll be joining me in my hunts there. I was able to identify some old foundations in his fields using Google Earth, and he liked that I did my research and he took the time to explain what each building was. Most of them burned down in the 1920's but he knew something about each one. His family has owned this patch for generations.

It's always a good thing when you can put your down time to good use, and set yourself up for the nicer weather. I should be posting my finds at these spots for a while, there's a lot of ground to cover with these.

Thanks for reading-
Bernie

 

[ecmo]

Best of luck to you. Hope you find that gold for that kind gentleman.

Wish I could research but I genuinely suck at it. I can't even use Google earth properly. With books I'm better. So I just pretty much stick to going around standing structures.

 

[GoDeep]

Cool, let us know how your hunts go and post up some pics!

 

[BennyV]

Between the 2 feet of snow and the low temps I've been unable to get out and hunt, just like the rest of the mid-Atlantic area of the East Coast. I hit the internet pretty hard researching the area and found two nice spots that became my latest permissions for the spring. In the coming weeks as the thaw happens (more snow will be flying today...) I'll have updates on the actual hunts that take place.

1.) 100's of acres of farm land that is directly next to the fields where The Delabole Massacre took place. Google it if you're interested in learning more. I've already asked for permission to hunt the massacre site, and was turned away. This land has been farmed since the 1700's and I'm expecting to find all kinds of relics and coins. The best part about this one was that the land owner offered me a reward if I found a piece of gold jewelry that was lost in a fire there years ago. I declined the reward in exchange for unlimited hours hunting the fields. If I find the piece even better, and that will be returned to them. This gentleman was more excited than I was to get me in there and hunting.

2.) Another old farmstead dating back to the mid-1700's. This guy was glad I called. He owns a metal detector but never took to it, and he'll be joining me in my hunts there. I was able to identify some old foundations in his fields using Google Earth, and he liked that I did my research and he took the time to explain what each building was. Most of them burned down in the 1920's but he knew something about each one. His family has owned this patch for generations.

It's always a good thing when you can put your down time to good use, and set yourself up for the nicer weather. I should be posting my finds at these spots for a while, there's a lot of ground to cover with these.

Thanks for reading-
Bernie

Just read up on that massacre. Pretty crazy stuff.

 

[OBN]

I love researching spots for future hunts. Gives you that energy/drive And hope! Good Luck!

 

[brianc053]

Between the 2 feet of snow and the low temps I've been unable to get out and hunt, just like the rest of the mid-Atlantic area of the East Coast. I hit the internet pretty hard researching the area and found two nice spots that became my latest permissions for the spring.

...

It's always a good thing when you can put your down time to good use, and set yourself up for the nicer weather. I should be posting my finds at these spots for a while, there's a lot of ground to cover with these.

Thanks for reading-
Bernie

I love researching spots for future hunts. Gives you that energy/drive And hope! Good Luck!

I think this is a great thing to do during the winter months when we can't get out and detect. Here in NJ we still have 18" of snow, but we've had it for almost a month now, so I've done so much research that I can't imagine detecting all the places I've chosen for 2021.

My method is to use a combination of:
- Google maps: shows me parks, farmland and other open space

- Historic Aerials ("NETRonline"): If you haven't used this site, try it. It will show you old aerial photos of most of the US. In my area the oldest is from 1931 (poor resolution) and 1957 (good resolution). The website has a "compare" feature where you can put a current photo side-by-side with an old one, and then slide a line to show how it's changed. I'll put an example video at the bottom.

- Old maps of my area. Where I live the best one is from 1857. I'll have that open in one window and Google maps in another, and I'll try to compare 1857 roads to now's roads, which has led to finding some old homesites in parks and also guides me toward who I have to ask for permission.

- Google Earth: I overlay the historic maps on the Google Earth base map, and then draw in old roads and old homesteads.

- National Register of Historic Places. My town has a few of these designated areas. Did you know each area has a detailed write-up that describes every building and its history, and has maps and old photos? I got so bored during the snow I started reading these (one of them is 527 pages long) and it revealed that one of the houses where I have permission to dig used to have a "chair shop" on the property. The owner thought the old foundation was a chicken coop.

- Google Sheets and Google My Maps. I've created a spreadsheet tracking each hunt site (open or needs permission) and the quality of the finds, with color-codes for age (different shades of green 1700's, yellow 1800's, red 1900's). In Google My Maps I started drawing the property lines of where I've detected, and I color code for quality. I envision that 10 years from now the town will be covered in a patchwork of colored shapes.

You could say that I've gone a little overboard....but I feel organized going into 2021! Now the snow just needs to melt.

Here's what that Historic Aerials compare feature looks like: