1900 School House

[Diggin4nails]

Going detecting Saturday at a old location of a school house that my great grandparents attended. There is nothing there but a really big tree. Hopefully I find some interesting items. Will post picks of the finds.

 

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[Tom_in_CA]

reply

Going detecting Saturday at a old location of a school house that my great grandparents attended. There is nothing there but a really big tree. Hopefully I find some interesting items. Will post picks of the finds.

Do you mean, as in .... a one-room county school-house? Not sure about Louisianna, but here in CA 1-room school house sites are often un-productive. I've hunted scores of such sites that we knew for a fact were virgin (found rivots, levi buttons, lantern parts, etc... ), yet not many coins, if any at all. In rural areas here, it seemed that prior to the age of bussing ('20s and '30s) there were 1-room school houses every 5 miles along all country roads. So scores of such spots exist. Yet they rarely pork out coins.

A little deeper sleuthing revealed why: There'd sometimes be a few as a dozen kids, and sometimes existing for as little as 4 or 5 years. Perhaps 15 or 20 at the most. And if, for example, it existed from 1890 to 1940 (a VERY long lived one), invariably any coin we'd find would be at the later end of that spectrum (a '39 wheatie, for instance). Because it wasn't till after WWII that America entered into such a prosperous time, that kids were carrying coin $ to school, to begin with. This same trend is seen in the demographics of finds from urban schools too: So for example, if there's an inner city urban elementary school blt. in 1920, and you were to talk to someone who's gotten 1000's of coins from there (because perhaps they started detecting it in the 1970s when things were virgin), they would concur that the vast amount of silver and wheaties post-date WWII as for time-when-lost. So if there's teens coins found, they're more worn d/t lost later. At first, back in those days, we wrote that off to the fact that the "older coins must be deeper". But eventually came to see, that that's just how the demographics worked. In the 1950s school lunch programs started, milk for the 5c or 10c, and so forth. So there came a time when every kid had coins in his pocket. Not true of the '30s and earlier kids. ESPECIALLY rural areas.

Exceptions in productivity will be if the school house were also used for adult activities. Ie.: grange halls, churches-on-Sunday, and so forth.

But by all means, try it. Ya never know.

 

[SusanMN]

Good luck to you. Sounds to me like a very interesting place to hunt.

 

[scotty544]

Do you mean, as in .... a one-room county school-house? Not sure about Louisianna, but here in CA 1-room school house sites are often un-productive. I've hunted scores of such sites that we knew for a fact were virgin (found rivots, levi buttons, lantern parts, etc... ), yet not many coins, if any at all. In rural areas here, it seemed that prior to the age of bussing ('20s and '30s) there were 1-room school houses every 5 miles along all country roads. So scores of such spots exist. Yet they rarely pork out coins.

A little deeper sleuthing revealed why: There'd sometimes be a few as a dozen kids, and sometimes existing for as little as 4 or 5 years. Perhaps 15 or 20 at the most. And if, for example, it existed from 1890 to 1940 (a VERY long lived one), invariably any coin we'd find would be at the later end of that spectrum (a '39 wheatie, for instance). Because it wasn't till after WWII that America entered into such a prosperous time, that kids were carrying coin $ to school, to begin with. This same trend is seen in the demographics of finds from urban schools too: So for example, if there's an inner city urban elementary school blt. in 1920, and you were to talk to someone who's gotten 1000's of coins from there (because perhaps they started detecting it in the 1970s when things were virgin), they would concur that the vast amount of silver and wheaties post-date WWII as for time-when-lost. So if there's teens coins found, they're more worn d/t lost later. At first, back in those days, we wrote that off to the fact that the "older coins must be deeper". But eventually came to see, that that's just how the demographics worked. In the 1950s school lunch programs started, milk for the 5c or 10c, and so forth. So there came a time when every kid had coins in his pocket. Not true of the '30s and earlier kids. ESPECIALLY rural areas.

Exceptions in productivity will be if the school house were also used for adult activities. Ie.: grange halls, churches-on-Sunday, and so forth.

But by all means, try it. Ya never know.

I seem to concur some of the oldest places that I have detected in rural Arkansas seem to be almost barren of pre 1900 coins. I thought for sure that my great Grandfather's yard would be loaded with Indian Head pennies and so forth, but that was a big negatory! I asked my grandfather about it and he told me that he remembered a time in the late 1930s that between him and his father they didn't have a single thin dime between them! To call those people frugal is an understatement! They weren't out in the front yard throwing coins around. They were working coal mines by the age of 14 just to survive. These places that had these types of families and conditions will probably be pretty slim Pickens!

 

[RobRieman]

The best I've found at a single school house was one silver Rosie and a few wheats. I did find an old navy button and a cool dog tag though. Good luck, you never know until you try.

 

[Silver Simon]

The best I've found at a single school house was one silver Rosie and a few wheats. I did find an old navy button and a cool dog tag though. Good luck, you never know until you try.

My best school house find is an 1865 IHP, in amazing shape.

 

[CoilyGirl]

Good luck,sounds like the site has some potential.

 

[Back-of-the-boat]

I was actually lucky enough to go to one of the last one room school houses left here in California and the one we were in wasn't the original site of the school. People would always detect there and all they found was modern coins but one day I showed the couple that were detecting where the original site of the school used to be before it burned down and they started finding items that were left after the fire had burned the original school down and they had a blast.I wish you luck in your hunt it should be fun.

 

[Lanny in AB]

The answer's always no unless you go.

If you find a site that looks good, go for it.

If you find a spot that you want to detect and you have permission, go for it.

No one can tell you what you'll find. It's always part of the adventure, part of the mystery, the biggest part of the unknown.

Go for it.

All the best,

Lanny

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