My first site

First, congrats on your permission success. It's a beautiful home and site. FOr some reason, these old homes/shacks/farmhouses speak to my soul. Without creeping anyone out, it's almost as if you can feel the history of the place.

OK, I'm new to all of this, but I'll take a shot at a few suggestions. 15 foot grid at the main/front entrance and any others. The path between the barn and the closest entrance exit from the standing house.

If you believe the barn was a converted older home, I'd work the entire circum and where floor would have been. Rough cut floor timbers had gaps and allowed small items to slide through.

As for the creek, they likely used creek for drinking water as well as washing clothes, especially if you dont see and old well. Coins could have potentially fallen out of clothes.

Watch the ground in a 25 foot perimeter around the back of both buildings. You are looking for small ground depressions or small bits of glass. You need to look hard for the outhouses and or trashpits. If there are any bottles in them, you may find something really good.

I'll pipe down and let the experts chime in here.

We need lots of pics, regardless of any finds. Again, a beautiful site.

Great photos.

Start at the most obvious places and work your way out.

Look for any old trash in the ground.

Try to find hot spots.

I am not that good at it.

But I like the site.

Good luck,

Tabdog

80 acres one sweep at a time. There's no reason to be in a hurry so do what the other guys said, lay out a grid, and do the obvious walkways. Then sit down near what would be the kitchen window and think of outlaws, where would you hide your small amount of savings, think cache. Most of all, you have a great site to hunt, a great way of approaching people and I wish you the best of luck. Keep us posted.

That is a cool looking place! I saw several places similar to that on my trip out west last Summer.

The first think I'd do when I got there, is to start a big ole fire right in the front yard. What a weird thing to ask you not to do.

Great pics and nice looking site to hunt

The creekside is a good idea to check... no washing machines back then. If it has a sandstone foundation you can almost garauntee it was in the 1800's...by the looks of it, I'd say that's an easy assumption. Look for the remainders of any posts in the back yard...think clothesline... they are often laiden with coins that fall out of hanging clothes. Scan the lane on your way in and out... I'm sure they were walked numerous times. If there is a porch... check underneath of it.. they often hold alot of coins that fall through the cracks and they are usually laying within the first inch of dirt. (notice the outline of where the front porch once was in your pic) Almost garauntee coins are right there! If you feel that the structure is sturdy enough... run your machine over the steps inside and the cellar walls and floor. Looks like a neat place to hunt... good luck!

Again research pays off. Great story on getting permission. Very interesting site. HH Jim

geodawn said:

The first think I'd do when I got there, is to start a big ole fire right in the front yard. What a weird thing to ask you not to do.

Click to expand...

Geo,
Don't you remember seeing those prairie fires in the westerns????
Look at that expanse of dry grass!! I can understand why he'd ask you not to light a fire!! LOL

What a great site, I too can feel the history.

Make sure you check the most direct route from the house and the barn to the creek, you can lose a lot of coins toting water!! LOL

Keep us posted, and yes, definitely post pictures of everything!!!

Char

Looks like you will be detecting that place for a long time to come.

Little House on the Prarie

Wow Brian, what a great spot!! Love the solitude! Good luck!

Update!

Success! I went out to the old homestead Saturday morning. I left the house at about 5:15 and rode my motorcycle out to the property. It was a beautiful morning although it was a bit chilly! Once I arrived, I set up the metal detector and got started. For a while I wasn't finding much of anything - a piece of tin here, a chunk of rusted metal there. I wasn't having much luck in the immediate area surrounding the house, so I started to move a little further away from the property. Then I started getting a little more unique hits and less junk. I found a handful of bullet shells, some from shotguns and others from rifles of some sort. Then I found this:</p>
<p style="text-align:left;"><a href="http://funkysupreme.wordpress.com/files/2008/06/img_7325.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-26" src="http://funkysupreme.wordpress.com/files/2008/06/img_7325.jpg?w=300" alt="" width="300" height="242" /></a></p>
<p style="text-align:left;">It's a solid piece of metal. My first guess was that it's a hammer on a rifle. One end of it looks like it would be just the right size to strike a bullet, and the fact that it's kind of squished to one side (you can see it on the right side of the photograph) makes me think that's what this probably is. I didn't find anything else in the area to go along with it though.</p>
<p style="text-align:left;">The next find took the longest to recover. I was getting a pretty strong reading from the detector so I started to dig. The rest of the stuff I had found was no more than an inch down. This one was two, maybe three inches deep:</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><a href="http://funkysupreme.wordpress.com/files/2008/06/img_7326.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-28 aligncenter" src="http://funkysupreme.wordpress.com/files/2008/06/img_7326.jpg?w=300" alt="" width="300" height="276" /></a></p>
<p style="text-align:left;">I don't think it's a precious metal of any kind, as dropping it a short distance to my dining room table made a terribly unpleasant clang. I didn't see any sign of the jewel or whatever was supposed to be in the middle of the ring, but it's pretty cool nonetheless.</p>
<p style="text-align:left;">Next, I started moving further away from the house and poking around the area between the home and the barn. About halfway between the two, I got a really strong beeping from the detector. Squatting down to get ready to dig where the detector told me, I was surprised to find I didn't have to dig at all! There, just sitting on the dirt was a blackened coin:</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><a href="http://funkysupreme.wordpress.com/files/2008/06/img_7327.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-27" src="http://funkysupreme.wordpress.com/files/2008/06/img_7327.jpg?w=300" alt="" width="300" height="293" /></a><a href="http://funkysupreme.wordpress.com/files/2008/06/img_7328.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-23" src="http://funkysupreme.wordpress.com/files/2008/06/img_7328.jpg?w=300" alt="" width="300" height="256" /></a></p>
<p style="text-align:left;">I apologize about the first picture, it didn't come out as sharply as I had hoped. But sitting right there on the top of the dirt for who knows how many years was a 1916-S Barber dime. Pretty cool to not even have to dig for that one!</p>
<p style="text-align:left;">As I came even closer to the barn, the beeping of the detector all but stopped. It wasn't until I was right outside the crumbling remains of the foundation that I started getting a few signals. Then, another strong one. After a few minutes of digging, I discovered this:</p>
<p style="text-align:left;"><a href="http://funkysupreme.wordpress.com/files/2008/06/img_7331.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-24" src="http://funkysupreme.wordpress.com/files/2008/06/img_7331.jpg?w=300" alt="" width="300" height="200" /></a></p>
<p style="text-align:left;">I have no idea what this is! I don't know if you can see it, but the bottom edge (and the top, although it's not visible in the picture) is ridged, kind of like a file. It's maybe three inches across and an inch tall. I thought it was pretty cool, so I grabbed it as well.</p>
<p style="text-align:left;">Now it was getting pretty late in the morning and I knew I had to get going so my wife wouldn't have to deal with the kids by herself for too long. But it was so tempting to just stick around for a little while longer, so I decided to do just a few more feet of sweeping. What a good decision! Maybe just three feet away from where I found the mystery tool thingy I started hearing a bunch of mixed signals. But most definitely there was something there. I was standing right near where the entrance to the barn would have been, which furthered my interest as to what was being picked up. I did a little bit of digging and then clank! I hit something metal. I did a bit of poking and prodding at the object sitting an inch and a half or so below the surface. To my surprise, here's what popped out:</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><a href="http://funkysupreme.wordpress.com/files/2008/06/img_7329.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-25" src="http://funkysupreme.wordpress.com/files/2008/06/img_7329.jpg?w=300" alt="" width="300" height="200" /></a><a href="http://funkysupreme.wordpress.com/files/2008/06/img_7330.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-22" src="http://funkysupreme.wordpress.com/files/2008/06/img_7330.jpg?w=300" alt="" width="300" height="200" /></a></p>
<p style="text-align:left;">It's the Great Seal of the United States! What the heck?! The thing is approximately 1 3/4" across and is a rather heavy metal for it's size. I am guessing that by the weight and the color that appears on the backside (where I scratched it when digging it up) that it's probably bronze. I'm thinking it's some sort of decorative button. There isn't any other identifying marks on it, although it's in really good shape considering it's been in the ground for who knows how many years! You can still even read the "E Pluribus Unum" in the banner!

So there you have it. Day one of my official scouring of this fantastic property. Not too shabby for an hour and a half of early morning detecting! I did find another dime close to the property, a 1982, but that doesn't count. There were a lot of signs that people had in the past come out to the property to drink beers and whatnot (what a shame). I also brought home a handful of various shotgun and rifle shells in hopes that I might be able to better put a time frame on the property. I'll be sure to continue sharing in my results as they happen.

Wow! Those are great finds!

I've never heard of a barber dime just laying on top of the ground - I wish they were all that easy!

Nice finds.. and a great place to hunt... locate the kitchen window of the house, then look out for any significant landmarks (i.e. fence post, tree, rock etc) and check the ground around it... that would be where the valuables would be cached. The kitchen, even then, was the center of activity.. and the people liked to be able to keep the 'bank' in view. RickO

Very nice and interesting finds. Keep hitting that site, there's bound to be more. Jim

Thanks for the update, great finds!!

Woohoo ! You are off to a tremendous start ! I love the ring.

I hate to say it, but chances are you are going to have clear the junk in the heavy signal areas. If there lots of junk in any area, there is likely a treasure or two.

Keep the pics coming.

very nice finds so far

gemstones in rings usually get pushed out by frost when the ground freezes so you really have to sift the soil in the hole you dug it from , the great seal item looks to be a horse rosette , beautiful area to hunt at . wish you continued success at the site ,Dan

Brian, thats a beautiful location, and some awesome finds. I'd search that thing as much as possible. Congrats.