Please help with aging this 'site'

[OCHawgy]

Stumbled across a potential detecting site. In the picture you will see what appears to be a cellar or cold storage of some sort. Behind that you can see old walls, made of concrete. The structure isn't big enough to be the entire building, so I am not sure if there was a wooden structure around it, connected to it, or near it. The surrounding area is desert with the 1 big tree by a dried up creek. Any ideas about how old this site COULD be?

[bushmasta]

Maybe try finding out when homesteading first opened up in your area. That's a start. Otherwise your finds will get you close to a date I would like to think. HH
Bushmasta

[montanamuzik]

Best way to date is to start detecting. The items you find will hold clues. The foundation in back a house probably sat on top of. There is a couple here like that and the old timers remember the remnants of the houses when they were still somewhat standing.

[Joves]

If the building is indeed concrete then it is sometime after 1910 most likely. When you look at the structure look at the cold joints on the walls. This will tell you a lot, if they are all up and down then it is an older building, if they are pretty much level then it is more modern. Also is the aggregate showing near cold joints. A little of it showing is newer and a lot means older. The reason there will be a difference in the cold joints is in the early years they mixed it by hand and it took longer to batch, that is also why more exposed rock is a clue because the mixes were inconsistent so the rock and fines never segregated correctly. While newer in the 30s and on people had some form of mixer and could get better mixes faster.

[Milhaus]

If someone went to the trouble of pouring concrete then there was some kind of economic activity on the site, which means records. If you get the parcel info you can look up the tax info as well.

[OCHawgy]

Thank you for the help. Definitely gets me started in the right direction. I know the finds will help me out the most, but it's on private property and wanted to see what other people could tell me before trying to track down the owner. I am fairly new to coin and relic hunting. Done nugget shooting, and some clad hunting as a kid at campgrounds and stuff. Here is a closer picture of the 'concrete' structure. Thanks again.

[rhendry17]

Keep us posted, excited to see what kind of stuff you find.

[Joves]

Looking at it makes me think around the 30s or 40s. The consolidation of the concrete is pretty poor and the cold joints show a long time period between lifts. So it was most likely a hand or on site mix. In most places after the 40s you do not see that as much because the availability of mixer trucks and larger more consistent loads was more common. Though in your area muck like where I was in Arizona getting a mixer to some areas was more costly than some people were willing to pay. But I still think that is in the time frame stated above.