Old Park..Fill dirt?

AJinNJ · Apr 26, 2012

There's an older park near me (sewer cover says 1922). I've found a modern gold ring there....

The strange thing is targets are scarce. even clad is hard to find. Not much junk either... which has me wondering if they put fill dirt on top? Or could it just be a hard hit place? I dont' notice anything to indicate that is is.....no holes or remnants of plugs...

I have found older "relics" (an old bottle top from the 20's-30's and a harmonica reed. But these were deep targets, I'd say at least 8-9 inches.

No old coins though...not even a wheat...

What you guys think?

Harmon4431 · Apr 26, 2012

What color is the dirt?

ohiochris · Apr 26, 2012

They could have trucked in fill dirt , but most old parks have been hunted hard over the years so who knows. Reminds me of an old park I hunted a couple times in Macon Ga. , considering its history as the site of the state fair for a number of years and before that a civil war mustering site and POW camp , I thought is was odd that there wasnt many good targets , until someone told me that every so often they scrape the area and truck in dirt and then it made a lot of sense. It dont help that its one of the primary destinations of many detectorists in the area either.

azdirtdigger · Apr 26, 2012

The ground around here is pretty bad. It is a common practice to haul in fill instead of reworking existing soil. I often find modern coins at 6+ inches deep in local parks. The only place I will find older coins is around older landscaped areas. I think they don't put much fill in those areas.

Irons · Apr 26, 2012

Very possible, they change the parks around here what seems like every year.

Whenever they scoop out dirt from one area I ask where they put it and go search it.

stewart73 · Apr 26, 2012

Yep it happens. You can sometimes tell by looking at the bases of the older trees...parks that have had fill spread out will often have trees will totally covered roots (ie. just the trunk is sticking out of the dirt). Not always easy to tell but it can be one indication that it's had fill. There is a park near my hometown that is over 120 years old and I found nothing...and no evidence of fill either so I had to conclude that it had just been pounded by other detectorists over the decades.

TheCoilist · Apr 28, 2012

stewart73 said:
Yep it happens. You can sometimes tell by looking at the bases of the older trees...parks that have had fill spread out will often have trees will totally covered roots (ie. just the trunk is sticking out of the dirt). Not always easy to tell but it can be one indication that it's had fill. There is a park near my hometown that is over 120 years old and I found nothing...and no evidence of fill either so I had to conclude that it had just been pounded by other detectorists over the decades.

This is good information. Look at tree bases. A tree should flare at the root line indicating no extra dirt has been added around that tree. If the trunk goes straight down and disappears, likely dirt has been added some time or other. However depending on erosion patterns, flares can be seen even though fill dirt was added.

Generally if you find aluminum products more than say 6" down, chances are it could be filled. Texas is notorious for filling everything... so around here it's hard to find a good untampered spot. I feel your pain. lol

AJinNJ · Apr 29, 2012

update on the location.... moved to another section of the park (closer to the street)

Found me some wheats and a merc.

Old Park..Fill dirt?

AJinNJ

Harmon4431

Senior Member

ohiochris

Elite Member

azdirtdigger

Elite Member

Irons

stewart73

TheCoilist

Elite Member

AJinNJ

Similar threads