Elad
Hero Member
Holly Woods
*Click on an image if it seems too blurry, to see it in full resolution.
Going over some aerial shots one day, I came across this:
The old stone lined roads were enough to draw me to this area. Upon arriving at the woods, I noticed a car parked and some people walking dogs coming down the trail. I asked them if they knew who owned the land and they said it was state land. With no "Keep Out" signs anywhere I geared up and ventured up the path.
The hill leveled out and I saw some subtle stone walls and stone piles. Just beyond that was a cellar, right off the old road. The cellar was a made of stone but also had a bit of concrete mixed in. This was a sure sign that this site was occupied for a long time. On top of that, piles of junk were dumped all over the place. I didn't even bother to detect this nightmare and kept on going down the trail.
The trail looped up and around a very large hill, and then went down the other side. At one point there was a fork in the road, but I initially chose left instead of right. Left would have to wait it's turn to be explored. I noticed an overwhelming amount of overgrowth from a particular bush that resembled Holly - which is where I got the nickname idea from.
All along the main road were stone walls. There was a "gate" in the stone wall at the bottom of the hill, & I could just about make out an old road going through it and beyond it. The woods were wide open and after a while of walking I came across a small cellar that looked colonial. I spent a while there but only found modern lead bullets and shotgun shells. Someone must have hit this site a while back:
I returned back to the main road and before leaving the old "field" of this cellar hole I did some detecting along the old stone wall that also was adjacent the main road. I am glad I did because I found 2 identical dandy buttons that had etchings on them. One was in decent shape & still had gilting (strange for a dandy button) with a little flower in the center:
I gave the old field some more time and after finding nothing else I decided to make my way to the fork in the road to try the other area. After about 15 minutes of walking down the other old road , I spotted an interesting little hill with some stone work all over it:
While standing on top I scanned the area. I got excited when I saw this:
I walked over to it & I remember saying to myself "Pleeeeaaase be virgin". Standing where I took the above picture, I turned on my detector. Without moving a step I got a good signal. I dug in anticipation and out popped a very ornate shoe buckle fragment:
This was a very good sign, but I still wasn't convinced that this site was virgin.
I continued on swinging, and just about every step I dug a button. In 10 minutes I had about 10 buttons; a mix of colonial & post colonial. This had me pretty convinced that this site was virgin. At the same time I was very perplexed as to why the person who pounded the cellar hole right up the road ignored this one. Perhaps they missed it all together?
I spent the remainder of the hunt at that cellar and it was one of the most pleasurable hunts I have had in a long time. I found button after button with hardly any waiting in between - unless of course I was taking a break. I found 3 coppers that day - 2 Coronet Large Cents and a mystery coin, the only clue being the date "1786". I knew it had to be a state copper of some kind, but until I gave it a good cleaning, identification would have to wait:
The mystery coin turned out to be a beauty. It's a Vermont State copper, Landscape variety, Ryder 6 type. Note the die crack & weak reverse strike, which is indicative of later mints:
Of course the very next day I returned. I would have been crazy not to. I spent about 4 hours happily digging buttons. I didn't find any coins that day, but 2 of the buttons were extraordinary:
Just like with any site, the next few hunts did produce more and more buttons, but of course the numbers slowly started dwindling. Then one day I returned again with 2 of my buddies. 1 of them had no luck at all that day, and it made me feel terrible - but it's not like I was responsible for their bad luck, right? The other ended up finding a hot spot not too far away from the virgin cellar, up on a little hill. He pulled out a couple of colonial buttons there, which immediately made me realize that there had to be more.
So on the next trip back out there alone, I hit up that little hill hard and ended up doing pretty well - I found a 1739 KGII, a couple of oldie buttons & one rare cuff button - has a hot air balloon pattern, which is from around 1784+, during the hot air balloon craze:
A couple of days later I was back & once again hit up the little hill. I found another Coronet Large Cent, but the strange thing is that it was practically on the surface. I literally kicked it away when I used my boot to remove the leaves above the target. I am still not sure why this old coin did not sink into the ground like the others:
I continued beeping around, determined to find more. I got a very weak mostly iron sounding signal that an unexperienced person might actually skip. I dug down deep and created a nice big plug. Out popped the strangest looking button. Upon closer examination it turned out to be a very old cuff button with a piece of gem cut glass on the inside. The drilled shank was a definite sign of 18th century craftsmanship. Intact Colonial buttons with glass in them are very rare!
After that I wandered back over to the cellar and not 10 feet from it I found my first ever platinum ring. We all somehow missed this shallow & obvious target:
The next chance I had I was back in Holly Woods. I did some thinking abother where other hot spots would be. My research paid off - I ended up finding another area beyond the beat cellar that in all likelyhood was a terraced hilltop field made in colonial times. That day I found 3 beat up colonial buttons there It was a large area.There had to be more...
Itching to get back to the hilltop field, a few days later I went back & brought my friend Evan along for the hunt. The mosquitoes were terrible & I personally found nothing but a 19th century spoon, however, Evan found another beautifully etched dandy button with a big flower in the middle of it. I wonder if the same person who etched the other dandies also made this impressive work of art?:
I returned again and decided to go low and slow all around the cellar hole area again. I got a great signal and I had a feeling it was old silver before I dug. It was found in the same area where I had found the Platinum ring.
A beat up 1777 Half-Real! (This is the sixth Spanish Silver coin I have ever found.)
Artifacts are becoming scarce in Holly woods, but who knows what else is hiding there?
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