lordmarcovan
Hero Member
- Jan 3, 2006
- 553
- 29
- Detector(s) used
- Many models over the years, mostly Garretts
- Primary Interest:
- All Treasure Hunting
Dig O' The Day, 1/5/06
Sunny, 73 degrees, under blue skies. Aah, the perfect day to go diggin'! Last time I went out was in August, at the height of the steamy humidity. Here in this corner of the Deep South, fall and winter are good times to be outdoors and summers are uncomfortable. I live for the cool weather.
Round one: relic hunting in the boonies, Crescent Farms area, McIntosh Co, GA.
This is what the site looked like in February of 2005. Except for the vegetation now growing a bit higher along the shoulders of the road, this picture could've been taken yesterday- same blue skies, same dirt, same trees, same spot.
This is how we track down old homesites when relic hunting in Coastal Georgia. First we find "naked dirt" that's been bulldozed or cleared somehow. Then we walk the site and look for concentrations of oyster shell, in an area otherwise devoid of shell- it's usually a sign that people were there.
Sometimes those clusters of shells can lead you to prehistoric Native American sites, too. The next thing to look for is pottery sherds or old glass. Sometimes you will find both prehistoric and antebellum pottery on the same spot- here in the low country, higher ground has always been good real estate, for thousands of years, so overlapping homesites or campsites are fairly common. In fact, I did find one small piece of plain earthenware Indian pottery on the site yesterday, but old porcelain and glass is what to look for if you're going to be detecting for metal relics. The Indians here didn't use much (if any) metal, and there's not much stone to speak of in our sandy, coastal soil. So white bits of shell and pottery tend to stand out well in the dirt, particularly after it's rained.
Though it's practically impossible to date plain white pottery sherds, pieces with a pattern can usually tell you how old your homesite is. This particular site has yielded much early 19th century pottery in the past, and some pieces that could date to the late 18th century.
You can even tell when other relic hunters have been there before you. This old broad hoe was right on the surface, by the side of the road. Another detectorist had found it and left it there, since my last visit. These big old hoes are common finds on old plantation sites here- the slaves used them in the fields.
I hunted the Crescent relic site and some of the sand roads up there for an hour or two, but the homesite indicated by the shells and pottery in the pictures above has long been picked over by lots of relic hunters with big searchcoils, so the pickins' are slim indeed, unless one wishes to hack into the underbrush, which is not my idea of fun.
Some folks do, though. My pal Billy is a more adventurous, bushwhacking type. He found a sweet 1820 dime on that site some time ago, so you can see why I keep going back, despite finding little.
I did dig my first target of 2006 there- a rusty square nail that crumbled away in my hand. The roads through this area are used by modern hunters, so aluminum cans are a problem- I dug at least a dozen of them. One hot signal I thought was going to be a can proved to be a coin, though- it got my pulse rate up when I saw a big reddish-brown disc pop out of the dirt. It was only a 1967 clad quarter, though, stained brown by the soil, as they usually are.
I decided to switch modes from rural relic hunting to city park coinshooting, and to try my Shadow X2 with its bigger coil out in Halifax Square, so I drove back to Brunswick and got there in the late afternoon.
Round Two: coinshooting in the park, N side Halifax Square, Brunswick, GA.
The sun was getting lower in the sky. I dug several deep bullets and cartridge casings and pieces of buckshot- small targets. The small stuff and the deep stuff is mostly what's left after decades of detectorists working this place.
Live oak trees are evergreen. It seems like every other winter, we get a bumper crop of acorns. Sometimes they're a little uncomfortable to kneel on when you're digging. But dig I did. I'd gotten a faint, semi-crackly signal, decided it was too "iffy", gave it up and walked on. Then changed my mind and went back to dig it. Eight or nine inches down, my electronic pinpointing probe sounded off at the bottom of the hole. As I stirred the dirt, I saw a coin. Oh, yeah!
Here it is on the tip of my digging knife, seconds after it came out of the hole.
An 1881 Indian cent! (Sorry for the wretched, out-of-focus pictures).
Many of the Indian cents I've found in this spot were deep, from the 1880's, and in fairly high grade. This one was deep and from the 1880's, but it had seen some circulation and probably would grade Good. So it may have been lost around the turn of the century.
Not the most spectacular find, but it's certainly proof that there are other goodies sleeping deep beneath those overhunted hotspots. They are elusive game and it takes patience and concentration to bag one, but it's always a nice feeling. This is my 39th Indian cent and the 285th "keeper" coin in my "Digger's Diary" album.
I shot this picture looking west, after I dug the Indian cent. Note the crape myrtle tree on the right with the Spanish moss in it. If you look carefully in the shadows to the left, you will see my detector on the ground. I'm not sure what the spectral blue dot in the left foreground is- maybe a friendly spirit, pointing out buried treasure!
This shot was taken facing north. Again, note the location of the crape myrtle tree and the old house. (Which I just got permission to hunt sometime soon).
This shot was taken last February, facing in the same direction, when I dug a 1903 Indian in front of the crape myrtle tree. Unbeknownst to me at the time, I was almost standing on yesterday's 1881 Indian when I shot that picture almost a year ago. Last year's 1903 was shallower- it came up from about five and a half inches. It was obviously much higher grade when lost.
That's four or five Indian cents, an old token, a button or two, and an 1877-S dime, all in the same section of the park. I'm sure more await, sleeping deep beneath the ground...
Sunny, 73 degrees, under blue skies. Aah, the perfect day to go diggin'! Last time I went out was in August, at the height of the steamy humidity. Here in this corner of the Deep South, fall and winter are good times to be outdoors and summers are uncomfortable. I live for the cool weather.
Round one: relic hunting in the boonies, Crescent Farms area, McIntosh Co, GA.
This is what the site looked like in February of 2005. Except for the vegetation now growing a bit higher along the shoulders of the road, this picture could've been taken yesterday- same blue skies, same dirt, same trees, same spot.
This is how we track down old homesites when relic hunting in Coastal Georgia. First we find "naked dirt" that's been bulldozed or cleared somehow. Then we walk the site and look for concentrations of oyster shell, in an area otherwise devoid of shell- it's usually a sign that people were there.
Sometimes those clusters of shells can lead you to prehistoric Native American sites, too. The next thing to look for is pottery sherds or old glass. Sometimes you will find both prehistoric and antebellum pottery on the same spot- here in the low country, higher ground has always been good real estate, for thousands of years, so overlapping homesites or campsites are fairly common. In fact, I did find one small piece of plain earthenware Indian pottery on the site yesterday, but old porcelain and glass is what to look for if you're going to be detecting for metal relics. The Indians here didn't use much (if any) metal, and there's not much stone to speak of in our sandy, coastal soil. So white bits of shell and pottery tend to stand out well in the dirt, particularly after it's rained.
Though it's practically impossible to date plain white pottery sherds, pieces with a pattern can usually tell you how old your homesite is. This particular site has yielded much early 19th century pottery in the past, and some pieces that could date to the late 18th century.
You can even tell when other relic hunters have been there before you. This old broad hoe was right on the surface, by the side of the road. Another detectorist had found it and left it there, since my last visit. These big old hoes are common finds on old plantation sites here- the slaves used them in the fields.
I hunted the Crescent relic site and some of the sand roads up there for an hour or two, but the homesite indicated by the shells and pottery in the pictures above has long been picked over by lots of relic hunters with big searchcoils, so the pickins' are slim indeed, unless one wishes to hack into the underbrush, which is not my idea of fun.
Some folks do, though. My pal Billy is a more adventurous, bushwhacking type. He found a sweet 1820 dime on that site some time ago, so you can see why I keep going back, despite finding little.
I did dig my first target of 2006 there- a rusty square nail that crumbled away in my hand. The roads through this area are used by modern hunters, so aluminum cans are a problem- I dug at least a dozen of them. One hot signal I thought was going to be a can proved to be a coin, though- it got my pulse rate up when I saw a big reddish-brown disc pop out of the dirt. It was only a 1967 clad quarter, though, stained brown by the soil, as they usually are.
I decided to switch modes from rural relic hunting to city park coinshooting, and to try my Shadow X2 with its bigger coil out in Halifax Square, so I drove back to Brunswick and got there in the late afternoon.
Round Two: coinshooting in the park, N side Halifax Square, Brunswick, GA.
The sun was getting lower in the sky. I dug several deep bullets and cartridge casings and pieces of buckshot- small targets. The small stuff and the deep stuff is mostly what's left after decades of detectorists working this place.
Live oak trees are evergreen. It seems like every other winter, we get a bumper crop of acorns. Sometimes they're a little uncomfortable to kneel on when you're digging. But dig I did. I'd gotten a faint, semi-crackly signal, decided it was too "iffy", gave it up and walked on. Then changed my mind and went back to dig it. Eight or nine inches down, my electronic pinpointing probe sounded off at the bottom of the hole. As I stirred the dirt, I saw a coin. Oh, yeah!
Here it is on the tip of my digging knife, seconds after it came out of the hole.
An 1881 Indian cent! (Sorry for the wretched, out-of-focus pictures).
Many of the Indian cents I've found in this spot were deep, from the 1880's, and in fairly high grade. This one was deep and from the 1880's, but it had seen some circulation and probably would grade Good. So it may have been lost around the turn of the century.
Not the most spectacular find, but it's certainly proof that there are other goodies sleeping deep beneath those overhunted hotspots. They are elusive game and it takes patience and concentration to bag one, but it's always a nice feeling. This is my 39th Indian cent and the 285th "keeper" coin in my "Digger's Diary" album.
I shot this picture looking west, after I dug the Indian cent. Note the crape myrtle tree on the right with the Spanish moss in it. If you look carefully in the shadows to the left, you will see my detector on the ground. I'm not sure what the spectral blue dot in the left foreground is- maybe a friendly spirit, pointing out buried treasure!
This shot was taken facing north. Again, note the location of the crape myrtle tree and the old house. (Which I just got permission to hunt sometime soon).
This shot was taken last February, facing in the same direction, when I dug a 1903 Indian in front of the crape myrtle tree. Unbeknownst to me at the time, I was almost standing on yesterday's 1881 Indian when I shot that picture almost a year ago. Last year's 1903 was shallower- it came up from about five and a half inches. It was obviously much higher grade when lost.
That's four or five Indian cents, an old token, a button or two, and an 1877-S dime, all in the same section of the park. I'm sure more await, sleeping deep beneath the ground...
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