steve in so la
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- Joined
- May 9, 2006
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Here's a possible idea for others to consider. Along the old railroads, especially the abandoned ones, they had a maintence house or two for people to take care of the tracks. Each man would check 5 miles or so each way so they had these sites every 8-10 miles. They are long gone now but the goodies arew still there. most of the land has been given back to the state or local ranchers/farmers. We ask at the adjoining house for permission. They usually dont mind.
Anyway, when these sites were in operation they frequently had families there - which translates into trash - then into an old dump site. So we go along and find these spots, detect all around the grounds and sift the dumps. Some sites are easy to find, through research, like this one with the old slab and red bricks.
And some are just out there somewhere and harder to find. With my GPS unit we have been to probably 50 sites in Az and New Mexico and only failed to find 2 or 3.
After detecting the area we go to running the dumps through a sifter. Here's my wife hard at work looking for the goodies.
And here I am on the side of a hill away from the tracks in the dump.
In this particular dump site we got a few wheats & a couple silver coins; a bunch of bottles; a watch fob from old that I sold on ebay for 80 bux, and about 900 date nails, which is the main reason we go there.
So maybe give it a try in your area - they had these old rr lines just about everywhere. The RR bible we use is "Railroads of North America" by Mike Walker. It comes in 2-3 states coverage for each book so just look for your state. It shows every railroad that ever existed in your area. I see them on ebay all the time also. Steve in so az
Anyway, when these sites were in operation they frequently had families there - which translates into trash - then into an old dump site. So we go along and find these spots, detect all around the grounds and sift the dumps. Some sites are easy to find, through research, like this one with the old slab and red bricks.
And some are just out there somewhere and harder to find. With my GPS unit we have been to probably 50 sites in Az and New Mexico and only failed to find 2 or 3.
After detecting the area we go to running the dumps through a sifter. Here's my wife hard at work looking for the goodies.
And here I am on the side of a hill away from the tracks in the dump.
In this particular dump site we got a few wheats & a couple silver coins; a bunch of bottles; a watch fob from old that I sold on ebay for 80 bux, and about 900 date nails, which is the main reason we go there.
So maybe give it a try in your area - they had these old rr lines just about everywhere. The RR bible we use is "Railroads of North America" by Mike Walker. It comes in 2-3 states coverage for each book so just look for your state. It shows every railroad that ever existed in your area. I see them on ebay all the time also. Steve in so az
