anyone ever find anything good along a river?

[Kype]

i would have to assume people have been traveling rivers for ages. i live along a river and in the past have hunted the banks pretty hard only to find fishing lures, sinkers, and beer cans. i even tried hunting after major flood events like when hurricanes hit. and still only find garbage.

so just curious if any other members have found some good treasure along a water way like a river. i mean like on or near the river bank. not 100 yards from the river.

 

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[DizzyDigger]

Think this is the best I can do...

 

[Dakota Sioux]

Kype as others have said many times most activity in the past has occurred near water. Probably find something in every river you try

 

[Kray Gelder]

Nice chunky King! In my early teens, we snorkeled in the Stillaguamish River ( western Washington ) in late summer when the water levels were down. Lots of fishing lures hung up in the rocks on the bottom. That was real treasure for us.

Here in South Carolina, I have found a few relics ( MDing ) along small tributary creeks, where the banks haven't moved much over the years. I'm sure the bottoms of the navigable rivers here in the south are littered with artifacts from the colonial period as they were the primary transportation routes for goods and crops. Probably mostly iron items as coinage wasn't prevalent here during that time.

Any encampments on the high banks of rivers' outer bends have long washed away as the river migrates a bit with each flood, cutting into the bank.

 

[eyemustdigtreasure]

Kype as others have said many times most activity in the past has occurred near water. Probably find something in every river you try

Yes, the waterways have always been a magnet to mankind's need for water...!
Flood events often make course changes in the flow of the rivers or creeks..., so related cultural activity, will offer the hunter, a sampling of time and material...wealth..., but NOT in the places you would expect to find em...!

 

[Nathan W]

Nice chunky King! In my early teens, we snorkeled in the Stillaguamish River ( western Washington ) in late summer when the water levels were down. Lots of fishing lures hung up in the rocks on the bottom. That was real treasure for us.

Here in South Carolina, I have found a few relics ( MDing ) along small tributary creeks, where the banks haven't moved much over the years. I'm sure the bottoms of the navigable rivers here in the south are littered with artifacts from the colonial period as they were the primary transportation routes for goods and crops. Probably mostly iron items as coinage wasn't prevalent here during that time.

Any encampments on the high banks of rivers' outer bends have long washed away as the river migrates a bit with each flood, cutting into the bank.

That’s what I thought too, was going to do Lynches River along and back from the banks but it’s probably flooded so far inland over time

 

[RGINN]

Couple of guys I know pan out some gold along the rivers up here. I usually just pan out black sand.

 

[unclemac]

lots of info on "mudlarking" along the Thames... fun stuff

mudlarking" along the Thames - Google Search

 

[Nathan W]

lots of info on "mudlarking" along the Thames... fun stuff

mudlarking" along the Thames - Google Search

Very interesting , I can see a lot of people back in the day “got by” collecting items to sell

 

[ConceptualizedNetherlandr]

 

[FreeBirdTim]

All I ever find are oxen shoes and leg hold traps! But river banks can be a good spot to find old bottles. Back in the day, people would just back up their truck and dump all their trash in the river. The heavier stuff, like bottles, usually stayed within a few feet of the river bank.

 

[Ocean7]

Aquachigger on Youtube


He has found upwards of 100,000 CW minie balls, cannon balls,
and all kinds of other stuff. You have to find where the old river crossings used to be, camp sites, ferries, etc. The older the better.
Or where people were dumping their trash along banks.

 

[Nathan W]

Aquachigger on Youtube


He has found upwards of 100,000 CW minie balls, cannon balls,
and all kinds of other stuff. You have to find where the old river crossings used to be, camp sites, ferries, etc. The older the better.
Or where people were dumping their trash along banks.

This place I’m looking at doing had a ferry boat in early 1800s there. And Union troops crossed on makeshift bridge a little further down stream from what I can tell on the map. I guess it would be worth a shot to comb the banks on both sides for a ways

 

[tamrock]

When I lived within walking distance of the upper Arkansas River in Chaffee County Colorado, I spent many days sampling the gravel bars and looking for stone artifacts. I found all kinds of interesting things, with my eyes. Old bottles, spent shells like a Henry rim fire, petrified wood, worn down by the many years of erosion and once a busted tip of an aluminum plane propeller. One place I came along very rusty looking stained boulders and rocks on the river bank. I saw rail car couplings and other wreckage of iron rods, with big threaded nuts. They were what was left of two open rail cars that derailed and ended up down in the river with ore from Leadville. I think it was primarily being mined around WW1 for zinc and lead, but I did have samples assayed in Alma and it held 8 Oz. to the ton of silver and small amounts of gold. Very heavy rocks they are, as some are still there. Once in awhile I'll drive by it and look at the site down in a steep gorge and what's left of it is still there from the last I carried samples of those rocks out in 1985. Now that we have so much access to information online I searched records of train wrecks and you can find quite a bit of info about when and where these wrecks acured going back more than a century all over the country. This gave me the idea that it might be fun to try and search for some of these places along old abandoned rail lines and existing ones today.

 

[Georgivs]

I've found plenty in rivers, usually in rocky areas. The problem with banks is they get silted up and all the light trash ends up on top and the good stuff gets buried deep. I'm sure that its different in every region with different types of rivers though.

 

[Blackfoot58]

Aquachigger on Youtube


He has found upwards of 100,000 CW minie balls, cannon balls,
and all kinds of other stuff. You have to find where the old river crossings used to be, camp sites, ferries, etc. The older the better.
Or where people were dumping their trash along banks.

Yes, many wagons were washed away when crossing rivers. The unrecovered items end up in the silt. Rivers can change course over time.

Aquachigger on Youtube


He has found upwards of 100,000 CW minie balls, cannon balls,
and all kinds of other stuff. You have to find where the old river crossings used to be, camp sites, ferries, etc. The older the better.
Or where people were dumping their trash along banks.

Yes, wagons were washed away in the current. Unrecovered items end up in the silt. Many rivers change course over time. Dry river beds are often good sites.

 

[Blackfoot58]

Yes, many wagons were washed away when crossing rivers. The unrecovered items end up in the silt. Rivers can change course over time.

Yes, wagons were washed away in the current. Unrecovered items end up in the silt. Many rivers change course over time. Dry river beds are often good sites.

Sorry for this getting out twice! Not sure how. It appeared to be gone. Re wrote, posted the rewrite and now both. 🫤

 

[Mud Hut]

I have had good luck on sandbars and in sediment deposits but no much success along the banks themselves. Low lying fields in the flood plane also have been good to me.

 

[danloop]

I spotted a copper compact among the rip rap. The mirror was intact but the cloth had long ago disintegrated. The secretary at the city building was real helpful so I gave it to her. As usual, my best finds don't involve a detector.

 

[Spill]

I found a tiny little fish. I feel like I remember my dad having some old lures that had spinners on them that looked like that. I had lost my dad very recently so it felt pretty meaningful.