Big Boys Hobbies

An old well in the woods

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Daddy-O

Junior Member
Joined
Aug 3, 2006
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I keep throwing these out as I learn about them. I am sorry if I am posting too much. I know an old farmer (about 80 years old) that has a lot of land. He told me about a well that is on one of his pieces of property. He doesn't know the history of the well, but he does know that during the civil war, not far from the well, soldiers used to dig for lead to make balls for their weapons. He said you can still see where they dug for the lead.
He told me that he would take me out and show it all to me. Now I imagine that the detector will go crazy where the lead is in the ground, so I won't find anything right there. What should I do about that well? He isn't sure, but he thinks there must have been a house around there somewhere in the past (to have the well). The well just has some brush thrown onto it and into it so that the farmer's cows don't stumble into it. Advice?
Daddy-O
 
HIT IT!!!!!!! There was a house. They had to have water and thats all that is left. It should be close to the well. Dont descriminate so you can find nails. The nails will be square. When you hit them you are there. That sure sounds like a great place! Let us know how you do!
 
I would swing until your arm falls off, pull everyting from the surface, it might even be helpful to have one person with the PP and digger while you swing. Hunt the bejeesus out of it, then get ready to find tons...lol

HH as always,

Bri-
 
Welcome to the forum Daddy-O !  :grin:   
You'll never satiate the appetite of this group for new posts   :lol: LOL......keep'um coming ! 

I would definitely remove the brush and scan the ground around the top of that old well.
My "old well in the woods" produced a spigot and the gear drive from the old pump that sat
on top of the well years ago. These parts were discovered in the ground about 2-3 feet out
from the well wall and not too deep. There was an old wire fence surrounding the well that
was buried just under the surface of the ground and made my Ace250 go crazy, so had to pull
this up before I could do any good.  Assume the fence was for the safety of folks & animals.

Next, go to your nearest Harbor Freight store and buy the largest magnet they sell (Rectangular
shaped, with an eye-bolt and reasonable cost-wise) and drag the bottom of the well with it on a
strong rope.  Who knows what you might pull up  :shock: !!
I bought the next-to-largest magnet and scrubbed the bottom of my well with it, but  :(.
Since I'm really more into coin/jewelry hunting, haven't had the interest to go back for more relics
yet, but eventually will.......and with a bigger magnet too !

Good Luck and keep swing'in !

Todd
 
Was it a well or a cistern? Cisterns usually were located on the back corner of the house so that they would catch the water running off. I have permission and have been hunting a 21 acre 130+ year-old farm. I couldn't find any evidence of a house ever being there, just the barn. I finally found the cistern, and a little research revealed where cisterns usually were in relation to the house. I went back to the site, took my best guess as to where the house sat, and bingo! Right on the nose. Hope this helps.
 
Cover that raskel with a fine toothed comb. As old as it sounds, there ought to be some awesome finds there. GL&HH
 
I went out into the woods looking for the old well. I might have found it, but my son stepped on a yellow jacket nest and they swarmed us. We all got stung several times and had to run away. After getting away from them, my son told me that he dropped the tool belt (with the pinpointer on it) by the yellow jackets. I went back and looked and saw the tool belt. The yellow jackets were swarming it, on it and in it. It was like they were saying, "This is our prize for running those guys out of here!" Well, I decided to leave it with them for the night. I'll go back and pick it up tomorrow when they've calmed down a little bit. I had to get my kids back out of the woods since they had all been stung several times.
My wife's father lives out that way, and said that he knows where the old house's foundation was. He isn't able to get out there these days, but he gave me an idea of where it was. Nobody alive can remember any house out there, so it must be pretty old. I supposedly have to walk by an old pond which brings me out to an open field (I was in that field today). The well is on the other side of the field and the house's foundation (what's left of it) is on the other side of that. Well, we'll find it one way or another.
Daddy-O
 
Hope you all are ok. I know all about those little buggers, and hate them with a passion. They flat out HURT! :shock:
 
Hit that well. A buddy and I found one on the property of an 18th century hotel on a highly traveled road. I keep imagining wealthy traveling families of the late 1700s and early 1800s making "wishes" and piching in large cent pieces colonial coins and state coppers. Any more suggestions on how to get the coins from the bottom of a potentially 50 foot well without going down there are still appreciated. The best suggestion so far is jimmy rigging a pooper scooper from a pet shop onto a 50 foot rope to dredge it...after dragging a magnet accross the bottom...there has to be a new detector at that bottom of that thing!
 
Maybe you could put a modified metal bucket (not too large on the end of a short rope, tied to a pole (they make 50 foot extension poles). If you put some small nail holes in the bucket, it will sink when it hits the water. With the bucket lying on it's side (on the bottom), you could drag it from one side to another, pull it up to check your find and send it back down for another look. You could keep doing this, and it may be worth the effort.
Daddy-O
 
Thanks Daddy-O. I will let you know what we find...if we can get to the bottom of it.
 
I went back out into the woods to pick up the tool belt that we left there yesterday because of the yellow jackets. I only had about thirty minutes to look around, so I set out to find the old house foundation and the well. I didn't find them, but I did find an old (stable looking) barn (short with a flat tin roof). It had trees growing in front of two of the doors that were about 12 to 14 inches in circumference. There was a turkey walking around it also. It looked to be about 60 years old. The owner of the property is going to take me out tomorrow to show me the old well, and where the soldiers from the civil war dug for lead. I'll detect both of those areas on Saturday, Lord willing.
Daddy-O
 
If this is a rock lined well, be sure to scan the nooks and crannies of the wall as far as the detector will reach, AFTER you have
1 Made sure there are no poisonous snakes, blackwidows etc. hanging out in or on the walls. We used to kill at least one timber rattler each Aug or so when it got really hot, around our rock lined well. They would hang out in there to cool off.
2 Strapped the detector to your person so you can't drop it in.

I have read :?: that it would be a waste of time to try the magnet thing since any iron, silver, gold etc. since these items, if old, would be covered with many inches of silt. decayed vegetation etc. Ditto for an underwater camera.
Makes sense, but as anyone here had success with these techniques?
The clamshell digger thing might work if it was heavy enough to sink into the silt of its own accord. 100 lbs. or so might do it. Remember everything loses a third of its mass in water. Attached to a 12v winch via a pulley over the well.

There are well divers for hire if all else fails.

Sorry if I've bored you with my spiel, but I am looking for solutions myself and thought I would "think out loud" for a while.

No, you cannot overpost here!

Welcome, good luck, send some pics, and watch out for those YJ's.

Kevin
 
I went out with the owner of the property today, and we found the old well. It is/was a rock lined well. You can see where some of it has given way and fallen inside. There is still water inside of it. There was supposedly an old house on the site, but I couldn't find the foundation in the few minutes I had out there. I didn't want to keep the owner out there any longer than I had to. He crawled under a fence and walked through thick brush about a mile to show me the well. Did I mention that he is 84 years old! I can't believe how good of shape he is in. It wasn't a walk through the park for him, but he did it all (in style if you ask me). I probably won't be able to get back out there until November (we are leaving the state on business for a couple of months). BTW, he also showed me where the soldiers mined for lead during the civil war! It will be a great place to go when we get back in the state.
Daddy-O
 
Just curios, did it look like this well?

wellSmall-1.jpg


Im just trying to figure out a date of this one.
 
Wow... sounds like a site you could search for years... what potential. I believe a good clamshell shovel with a hoist would be your best bet... and work from the center.. the goodies will tend to slide to the center as you pull the material out... you may have to go down 2 to 3 feet if it has been open all these years... stuff falls in and accumulated. Good luck.. RickO
 
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