Please forgive me if these seem like dumb questions with obvious answers.
I was looking at a late 1800s map of my county and found a spot where there was once a farmhouse and a ford across a creek. The house was torn down between 1955 and 1972, and the ford doesn't really exist anymore because the water level in the creek has risen significantly over the past several decades. There was apparently a mill near this ford as well. This area is now just a wooded peninsula behind someone's house (but not on their property), with the old road bed that went to the farmhouse and ford running along the homeowner's property line. I use my county's GIS website to figure out land ownership, and this wooded peninsula does not seem to have any ownership. Just like the creek surrounding it, when I click on the area I get "Parcel not found at this location." If the land were owned by the TVA or the Army Corps of Engineers or even just the county, the GIS software would say so. So my first question is, should I assume this is public waterfront land? That no one owns the wooded peninsula just like no one owns the creek? The nearby homeowner might know the answer to this question but maybe not. Have any of you ever had problems detecting waterfront land that apparently has no ownership? This "ownerless" peninsula is 17 acres in size.
Second question, assuming that this is public waterfront land that I can detect: I would obviously need to get the approval of the homeowner to walk through their property to the house site. I would probably need to park my car on their property line. However, this house is in a ritzy neighborhood where many of the houses have long driveways for privacy reasons (so house cannot be seen from the road). The house in question has a 350 foot driveway and I would feel like a fool walking up the driveway and invading the homeowners' space. I am thinking about writing a note (with old map screenshots and my contact info) and leaving it in the mailbox. I am a lot better at communicating through writing than through conversation. Anyone have experience with this kind of situation and how to approach it? Should I just suck it up, walk up the driveway, and hope I don't get shot or attacked by a dog?
Update: I figured out that it is TVA Undeveloped Land, and metal detecting is prohibited.
I was looking at a late 1800s map of my county and found a spot where there was once a farmhouse and a ford across a creek. The house was torn down between 1955 and 1972, and the ford doesn't really exist anymore because the water level in the creek has risen significantly over the past several decades. There was apparently a mill near this ford as well. This area is now just a wooded peninsula behind someone's house (but not on their property), with the old road bed that went to the farmhouse and ford running along the homeowner's property line. I use my county's GIS website to figure out land ownership, and this wooded peninsula does not seem to have any ownership. Just like the creek surrounding it, when I click on the area I get "Parcel not found at this location." If the land were owned by the TVA or the Army Corps of Engineers or even just the county, the GIS software would say so. So my first question is, should I assume this is public waterfront land? That no one owns the wooded peninsula just like no one owns the creek? The nearby homeowner might know the answer to this question but maybe not. Have any of you ever had problems detecting waterfront land that apparently has no ownership? This "ownerless" peninsula is 17 acres in size.
Second question, assuming that this is public waterfront land that I can detect: I would obviously need to get the approval of the homeowner to walk through their property to the house site. I would probably need to park my car on their property line. However, this house is in a ritzy neighborhood where many of the houses have long driveways for privacy reasons (so house cannot be seen from the road). The house in question has a 350 foot driveway and I would feel like a fool walking up the driveway and invading the homeowners' space. I am thinking about writing a note (with old map screenshots and my contact info) and leaving it in the mailbox. I am a lot better at communicating through writing than through conversation. Anyone have experience with this kind of situation and how to approach it? Should I just suck it up, walk up the driveway, and hope I don't get shot or attacked by a dog?
Update: I figured out that it is TVA Undeveloped Land, and metal detecting is prohibited.
Last edited:
