Post by Deleted on Jul 11, 2020 11:05:34 GMT -5
This is information regarding very useful sites for those of you who are into metal detecting, and you are looking for historical locations that may have good stuff to detect. For example, in this video he discusses a house that had an old rifle in it, the house burnt down years ago and he wanted to locate the coordinates to it.
Basically your goal is to do historical research to locate old parks, churches, schools, etc. You are looking for places that people would gather to picnic or just have fun. The places you want to find are the ones that no longer exist. You want to find out where they were located, and then investigate what exists (if anything) at the current time. Then you explore there. You can do things such as search old newspapers for things people lost (Ex: "A rich woman loses expensive ring while swimming at blah lake at the church gathering/party"). Your goal is to locate places such as that, then go there (request permission if its private property).
I once talked to Man Alone about these things, and he had some great ideas. Use your location to your advantage! In his area, historically back in the old gangster days many of them owned cabins and other homes that they used for vacation. He would locate them, and then go detect in and around places that they might have swam, fished, or hung out at and perhaps lost a few valuable items. So he didn't research the losses, only the places where people "who had valuables to lose" lived, gathered, and played. Then you go find what they may have lost. Unfortunately it is not always easy. I am in FL, and almost all the gold that the Spanish took from North America came to FL where it was loaded onto ships. FL has so many wrecks that after a storm, you can almost always locate a Spanish coin or some gold on the beaches. However, inland they had locations where they would cache the gold at a Fort or some other place they temporarily built. Now detecting those spots would be GREAT. One major problem is that many of those places have been developed into condos, housing, commercial property, etc. making it nearly impossible to detect them.
Bottom line is you need to do your historical research to locate places. The better you can research, the more ideal because the "EASY" spots such as war battlegrounds are no good, low hanging fruit that the noobs go after. You want to find the HARD stuff, and that won't happen at a place where everyone can easily locate.
Some Links:
Topo Explorer
Very good historical maps
Historical Marker Database
Old News Search
More Historical Maps
Try to create a picture of a location that is 100+ years old, and known to have a lot of people gathering. Or maybe other historical events such as gansters, train robberies, etc. Then research it to get locations. Then get maps and translate the positions to where the places are today on an existing map. Research the land owner history and current owners to determine if you can go there or not.
In almost all cases if its on private property such as an estate or farm, the owners will be willing to deal with you provided they get part of the loot of course. But you need to be prepared and know what their land looked like 100 years ago, where old buildings were, where did they bathe/wash up (almost always a river creek will be nearby) because they had no plumbing back then. You want to pretend you exist back in that time, what would the residents have done, what paths did they walk, where did they do things and might have lost items. Etc.
Most detector users avoid private property, but that is where the good stuff might be. Imagine you are in NYC 200 years ago, what did it look like, where did people go? Certainly you won't find much in Central Park, but what about an OLD park that was not yet developed on, or it is in ruins?
If its a beach, be prepared to get wet. You won't find much up on the sand where people lay down, that is the low hanging fruit. Gold for example is very heavy, it will sink into the sand and be moved to a low lying area close to bedrock, probably in a nook or shelf. You have to learn how the beach changes with the tide, and go where the water send heavy items. The people walking up where the blankets are on a beach are foolish. Yeah, you might find a ring/watch, but only if you are there the day its lost and the life guards or city employees don't beat you to it. But the real old stuff goes down and out towards the water, sinks, and is moved in the same direction up/down the beach where the tide erodes the shore and draws it back into crevaces.
Another example: If detecting was legal in Yellowstone for example, I would NOT go to a current campground. For example, look at a Satellite image of the Fishing Bridge. Note where the RV camp sites are, then ignore them... Look further south and you will spot a bunch of old sqaures in the woods. Those are THE OLD 1 room cabins (taken down) and the OLD tent camp areas also removed because you can't use tents in bear country. I would go look around the founations of the OLD no longer used camp sites. Maybe find a pocket watch, knives, guns, whatever. Basically you want to go to OLD areas that are no longer used, many have overgrowth! Search there.
Basically your goal is to do historical research to locate old parks, churches, schools, etc. You are looking for places that people would gather to picnic or just have fun. The places you want to find are the ones that no longer exist. You want to find out where they were located, and then investigate what exists (if anything) at the current time. Then you explore there. You can do things such as search old newspapers for things people lost (Ex: "A rich woman loses expensive ring while swimming at blah lake at the church gathering/party"). Your goal is to locate places such as that, then go there (request permission if its private property).
I once talked to Man Alone about these things, and he had some great ideas. Use your location to your advantage! In his area, historically back in the old gangster days many of them owned cabins and other homes that they used for vacation. He would locate them, and then go detect in and around places that they might have swam, fished, or hung out at and perhaps lost a few valuable items. So he didn't research the losses, only the places where people "who had valuables to lose" lived, gathered, and played. Then you go find what they may have lost. Unfortunately it is not always easy. I am in FL, and almost all the gold that the Spanish took from North America came to FL where it was loaded onto ships. FL has so many wrecks that after a storm, you can almost always locate a Spanish coin or some gold on the beaches. However, inland they had locations where they would cache the gold at a Fort or some other place they temporarily built. Now detecting those spots would be GREAT. One major problem is that many of those places have been developed into condos, housing, commercial property, etc. making it nearly impossible to detect them.
Bottom line is you need to do your historical research to locate places. The better you can research, the more ideal because the "EASY" spots such as war battlegrounds are no good, low hanging fruit that the noobs go after. You want to find the HARD stuff, and that won't happen at a place where everyone can easily locate.
Some Links:
Topo Explorer
Very good historical maps
Historical Marker Database
Old News Search
More Historical Maps
Try to create a picture of a location that is 100+ years old, and known to have a lot of people gathering. Or maybe other historical events such as gansters, train robberies, etc. Then research it to get locations. Then get maps and translate the positions to where the places are today on an existing map. Research the land owner history and current owners to determine if you can go there or not.
In almost all cases if its on private property such as an estate or farm, the owners will be willing to deal with you provided they get part of the loot of course. But you need to be prepared and know what their land looked like 100 years ago, where old buildings were, where did they bathe/wash up (almost always a river creek will be nearby) because they had no plumbing back then. You want to pretend you exist back in that time, what would the residents have done, what paths did they walk, where did they do things and might have lost items. Etc.
Most detector users avoid private property, but that is where the good stuff might be. Imagine you are in NYC 200 years ago, what did it look like, where did people go? Certainly you won't find much in Central Park, but what about an OLD park that was not yet developed on, or it is in ruins?
If its a beach, be prepared to get wet. You won't find much up on the sand where people lay down, that is the low hanging fruit. Gold for example is very heavy, it will sink into the sand and be moved to a low lying area close to bedrock, probably in a nook or shelf. You have to learn how the beach changes with the tide, and go where the water send heavy items. The people walking up where the blankets are on a beach are foolish. Yeah, you might find a ring/watch, but only if you are there the day its lost and the life guards or city employees don't beat you to it. But the real old stuff goes down and out towards the water, sinks, and is moved in the same direction up/down the beach where the tide erodes the shore and draws it back into crevaces.
Another example: If detecting was legal in Yellowstone for example, I would NOT go to a current campground. For example, look at a Satellite image of the Fishing Bridge. Note where the RV camp sites are, then ignore them... Look further south and you will spot a bunch of old sqaures in the woods. Those are THE OLD 1 room cabins (taken down) and the OLD tent camp areas also removed because you can't use tents in bear country. I would go look around the founations of the OLD no longer used camp sites. Maybe find a pocket watch, knives, guns, whatever. Basically you want to go to OLD areas that are no longer used, many have overgrowth! Search there.
