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River Fords

Amish Truck

New Member
Joined
Nov 29, 2009
Messages
6
I'm really interested in hunting old river crossings.
I haven't had any luck researching for them?
I'm looking for suggestions for research to find old river fords?
I've found a lot of interesting stories about river crossings in my area during the early 1800's, but I haven't had any luck finding the locations?
Anyone want to fill me in on how to pinpoint these spots?
I'm not holding my breath LOL!
 
Good luck with that. Not saying it is impossible but river have changed drastically since they have been dammed up usually to supple cities with water. I live in Rock Ford, the city was founded because it was an easy spot to cross the rock river. How are you going to go about searching these spots? Just curious. I saw a show of a guy once who would metal detect in the water and then use a suction dredge to dredge the area where they had hits.
 
Generally in my area, they built the bridges where the old fords were since the roads led there anyway. The building of bridges inevitably means LOTS of excavating with large machinery. Good luck and I hope you find some old crossings and hit it big! :aok:
 
Take a look at old top maps and especially along old RR trestles...Generally, the ford is nearby and downstream from the RR trestle...the waterway has not left its bed either on account of the trestle construction...Good Luck and report back!
 
Go to your local historical society if you have one and ask to look at the old maps. Take pics with your phone of places of interest then compare them at home with google earth. You can usually find old maps online too but they want to charge you for the image. Just use your phone and screen shot it to get the image for research. I’ve even used screen shots of old maps I found online and overlaid them on google earth.
 
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