Possible good park

Oldsjunkie

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Ellettsville Indiana
Driving home from work and I went the scenic route through a little town nearby. Never been through there before. It was definitely an old town by the buildings, and fairly rural. I see that they have a little park, but it's obviously new. The signs, equipment, tables and everything look new. I get home and decide to start digging. Ends up it was a church meeting/campgrounds with cabins and everything starting in 1859. They had attendance of up to 40,000 people a day between 1880 and 1900! The place burned down a couple times, and was eventually abandoned and sold in 1906. Part of the property is residential, but 23 acres is the new park, just put in less than ten years ago. I love research that ends up looking promising like this. Stopping there after work tomorrow evening and will post results. Wish me luck! HH.
 
Well I hope it's a good spot for you. But I got to say 9 times out of 10 it's been detected over and over again. Good luck.
 
Well I hope it's a good spot for you. But I got to say 9 times out of 10 it's been detected over and over again. Good luck.

Yeah, I'm well prepared for that. I'm hoping that since it closed down in 1906 and was sold to a private owner and sat empty, that by the time detecting came around everyone forgot about it...:laughing: It is awfully rural and off the beaten path. The search for the Holy Grail continues!
 
Yeah, I'm well prepared for that. I'm hoping that since it closed down in 1906 and was sold to a private owner and sat empty, that by the time detecting came around everyone forgot about it...:laughing: It is awfully rural and off the beaten path. The search for the Holy Grail continues!

I love hunting spot off the beaten path. Sometimes me and my brother will just drive around out in the middle of nowhere looking for what we hope are good spots.
 
Being able to look at sites as they would have been instead of how they are today is a huge advantage in our hobby. Sometimes you see those overgrown fence rows with big trees and a little creek and you just know people were making use of it.
 
With 23 acres even if it's been hunted there could still be some goody's there,
Hope it's a winner, good luck!

Yeah, there's a lot of area there. I've only seen it from the parking area, so tomorrow will definitely be a scouting expedition. The last fire destroyed 110 cottages, a tabernacle, and over 400 shade trees. Time to put on the old time eyes!
 
Parks can be interesting places. Most parks at some point had houses on them back in the day. I've found thimbles, porcelain canning lids, forks, ends of light bulbs, poultry tags and money of course. Hope you find some silver.
 
Definitely sounds like there is a lot of potential there! You may have to dig through a good deal of iron to get the goods though. 110 cottages burning down leaves a lot of rusted, bent nails in the ground.
 
It sounds like you've found a spot with a lot of potential but BottleCapKing is right. You'll probably have to deal with a lot of nails and scrap.

Good luck!
 
I'm liking the sounds of this! GL and Report back! Sometimes that Indiana clay drys out in the Summer and grips those targets as if in concrete!
Mud
 
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Sounds like it's got some good potential, even if it was hunted in the past. Looking forward to seeing what you find!!
 
So here's what I learned today about the site. The little town park is on a different piece of property acquired with the same donation money. The site of the old campground is down the road a piece and has basically just a parking lot and a sign. The spot where the lot and entrance is was the location of the old mail buildings and where they had dammed up the creek to make a small lake. At some point someone built a levee between the creek and lake bed. It's a tiny lake and is dry and overgrown. There is only about 4 or 5 acres of mowed and maintained "park" there. The place where all the action was including the cottages and other buildings appears to be on the top of the hill on the other end of the property. I walked up that way a little, but the weeds were grown up to my nipples...:laughing: I think there is some good potential in this site, but it will have to wait until late fall or early spring to get a detector in there. As soon as I get the money together for my MX Sport I'll be hitting the creek for sure. Thanks for looking and I'll update if anything pops up. HH!

Oh yeah, the only finds for today were a clad quarter and a 12 gauge head stamp. All the dirt I dug in seemed like new dirt though.
 
So here's what I learned today about the site. The little town park is on a different piece of property acquired with the same donation money. The site of the old campground is down the road a piece and has basically just a parking lot and a sign. The spot where the lot and entrance is was the location of the old mail buildings and where they had dammed up the creek to make a small lake. At some point someone built a levee between the creek and lake bed. It's a tiny lake and is dry and overgrown. There is only about 4 or 5 acres of mowed and maintained "park" there. The place where all the action was including the cottages and other buildings appears to be on the top of the hill on the other end of the property. I walked up that way a little, but the weeds were grown up to my nipples...:laughing: I think there is some good potential in this site, but it will have to wait until late fall or early spring to get a detector in there. As soon as I get the money together for my MX Sport I'll be hitting the creek for sure. Thanks for looking and I'll update if anything pops up. HH!

Oh yeah, the only finds for today were a clad quarter and a 12 gauge head stamp. All the dirt I dug in seemed like new dirt though.


Sounds like great spot with some great potential...when you're ready to purchase your new MX Sport, give me a holler... :)

Can't wait to see what you pull out of there!
 
Sounds like great spot with some great potential...when you're ready to purchase your new MX Sport, give me a holler... :)

Can't wait to see what you pull out of there!

Yeah, It gives me that feeling that it's probably (hopefully) been long forgotten. I'll definitely hit you up on the MX. Maybe get you sponsors in a bidding war...:D
 
I found an 1876 sld with a 9.5 (950) coil in the middle of alot of trash at 3", park has been hunted for a looong time so, have fun.
 
So here's what I learned today about the site. The little town park is on a different piece of property acquired with the same donation money. The site of the old campground is down the road a piece and has basically just a parking lot and a sign. The spot where the lot and entrance is was the location of the old mail buildings and where they had dammed up the creek to make a small lake. At some point someone built a levee between the creek and lake bed. It's a tiny lake and is dry and overgrown. There is only about 4 or 5 acres of mowed and maintained "park" there. The place where all the action was including the cottages and other buildings appears to be on the top of the hill on the other end of the property. I walked up that way a little, but the weeds were grown up to my nipples...:laughing: I think there is some good potential in this site, but it will have to wait until late fall or early spring to get a detector in there. As soon as I get the money together for my MX Sport I'll be hitting the creek for sure. Thanks for looking and I'll update if anything pops up. HH!

Oh yeah, the only finds for today were a clad quarter and a 12 gauge head stamp. All the dirt I dug in seemed like new dirt though.

Many of the parks around here are built on fill dirt as well. I was afraid you'd discover this to be the case also. In one park that I hit regularly here, I HAVE pulled some really neat old things but they were all down 8 inches or more. The park is some 20 years old and had a foot of fill dirt put down when it was built, one of the park maintenance workers told me one time. Some of the neat finds were a locking gas cap from the 1940s at 14 inches! A Calibri lighter from the 1950s at about 10 inches with a name engraved on the side, two 50BMG fired cases about 30 yards apart at least 12 inches down (I believe a fighter plane was flying over shooting at a target out in the Gulf about 200 yards away because if you drew a line between the brass and then drew a 90* line off of that it would go straight into the Gulf). I've also pulled 3 Wheaties and a Silver Rosie all on separate hunts and all about 10 inches down as well. So there may be good targets there, they just may be deep... GL & HH! Keep us posted please!
 
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